Western Pacific

Feather River GP40s
by Ken Rattenne

WP's GGM In 1980 WP liked to run their hottest trains with their best power, thus the eastbound Golden Gate Merchandise (GGM) of July 3rd featured a mix of GP40s and GP35s to hustle this expedited freight between Stockton and Salt Lake City. The train, seen here crossing the famous Keddie Wye bridge, deep in the Feather River Canyon, has been on the road about 15 hours and has more miles to travel then it has passed. (Ken Rattenne Photo)

Introduction

On a chilly afternoon in January of 1980 the distant throb of diesel prime movers reverberates from the east end of the Feather River Canyon. A Western Pacific freight approaches the mountain town of Portola, CA, after fighting gravity and friction for over 70 miles of mountain railroad. The freight, carded by WP as the TOF, is led by five well-weathered GP40s, a 3,000 hp diesel that made up the backbone of the company's locomotive fleet.

The GP40 was EMD's 3,000 horsepower, four-axle road unit placed in the company catalog in 1966. WP, along with bridge route partner Rio Grande, favored the fleet-footed units to pull their freights through the hostile desert and mountain territory that made up the "other" Overland Route.

Western Pacific rostered one of the largest fleets of GP40s in the West, acquiring the units from their introduction. The model became the core of WP's modern fleet, with the company eventually rostering a total of 44 standard units, and 15 successor GP40-2 units between 1966 and 1982 WP even rebuilt the first 15 units in 1980, effectively extending their usefulness for another 10 years and allowing the units to survive the merger and become part of Union Pacific's vast roster of locomotives.

Western Outcasts

Southern Pacific SD45 8876 leads 8876 East at Donner Summit on May 6, 1978. SP warmly embraced the six-axle 3,600hp SD45, eventually fielding the largest roster of the model in the world. (Ken Rattenne Photo)

Between November of 1965 and December of 1971, EMD manufactured 1,201 GP40s for sale in the U.S., 24 units for Canadian roads, and 18 for Mexico. Of that number only a mere 44 units were purchased by WP, yet the road had one of the larger fleets of the model in the west. Only interchange partner Rio Grande built a fleet larger than WP's.

The GP40 was one of EMD's most popular 4-axle road units, finding favor with roads in east and Midwest. But western roads, saddled with long, cruel (and often hot) mountain grades generally shunned the machines. By the time EMD introduced the GP40, western roads mostly held contempt for predecessor GP35, purchasing instead large quantities of six-axle road units as soon as they were available. Great Northern, Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Santa Fe never ordered a single GP40; only Southern Pacific purchased any at all, and that was through subsidiary Cotton Belt, which ordered a mere eight units for the Golden Empire.

Western operating departments fell in love with the 3,600 hp "hustle muscle" of the SD45 line, which included everything both freight and passenger locomotives, and even survived into the Dash 2 era. EMD sold over 1,000 units of the model and its variants to western roads during the 1960s and early 70s.

Standing nearly alone in this sea of six-axle metal, was the Western Pacific, which by the nature of its competitive marketplace, could not afford to subscribe to the "drag-freight" mentality of its neighbors. Though intrigued by the incredible tractive effort six-axle locomotives offered, management consistently refused the call of the big SD, discovering instead that four-axle, high-horsepower GP40s were reliable workhorses and honest pullers. For WP, the GP40 was a good fit.