The EMD GP8 is a model of four-axle

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

rebuilt by Illinois Central's

Paducah Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...

shops using a

General Motors Electro-Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its su ...

(EMD)

GP7 The EMD GP7 is a four-axle ( B-B) diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October 1949 and May 1954.Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973) pp. 53 Power was provided by an EMD 567B 1 ...

, GMD GP7 or GP9 as a start. It is similar to the

GP10 The EMD GP10 is a diesel-electric locomotive that is the result of rebuilding a GP7, GP9 or GP18. The Illinois Central Railroad had three separate rebuild programs to upgrade their old EMD GPs and GPs that they had purchased from equipment de ...

and GP11. A total of 111 units were rebuilt to "GP8" for the Illinois Central and Illinois Central Gulf. Core units used in the construction of these units were Illinois Central GP7, GP9, a GP8, C&O GP9, D&RGW GP9,

DT&I The Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad operated from 1905 to 1983 between its namesake cities of Detroit, Michigan, and Ironton, Ohio, via Toledo. At the end of 1970, it operated 478 miles of road on 762 miles of track; that year it carried ...

GP7, N&W GP7, P&LE GP7, QNS&L GP7, RDG GP7, St.J&LC GP9, SLSF GP7, and SP GP9. The Paducah Shops also rebuilt 16

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do bus ...

GP7s to GP8s. Nine were rebuilt in 1976 and another seven in 1978. Rock Island's Silvis Shops rebuilt 20 Conrail GP7s into GP8s in 1978. Morrison-Knudsen's Boise Shops rebuilt 13 Conrail GP7s into GP8s in 1978. The 1976 Conrail units rebuilt at Paducah were the equivalent of the Illinois Central rebuilds. The 1978 rebuilds were engine and electrical gear only rebuilds with no carbody modifications.

References

* * B-B locomotives GP08 Illinois Central locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Conrail locomotives Rebuilt locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States {{Diesel-loco-stub