The EMD GP11 is a four-axle

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

rebuilt by the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

Paducah Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in the Upland South, and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. The most populous city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located in the Southeastern United States at the confluence ...

shops. It is very similar in appearance to the GP8 and

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 dea ...

. The Illinois Central Railroad began its GP11 rebuilding program in 1978. All units were rebuilt from recycled

EMD GP7 The EMD GP7 is a four-axle (AAR wheel arrangement#B-B, 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 The GP7 was ...

, GP9 or GP18 parts. Spotting features are an angled cab, exterior paper air filter, new air intake for the

traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...

s and four exhaust stacks. Internally they had Dash 2 solid state electrical equipment.

Original buyers

A total of 54 of these remanufactured locomotives were built from April 1978 to 1981. The first prototype unit of this model was numbered 8301. To avoid confusion the 8700-series was created to separate the GP11s from the

s. It was intended that 8301 would be renumbered 8700 but that never happened. IC units 8701 through 8726 were built in 1979 while units 8727 through 8750 were built in 1980; the remaining three from 8751 to 8753 were built in early 1981. Core units for the rebuilds came from IC GP9, a lone IC GP18, MBTA GP9, RDG GP7 and UP GP7, GP9 and GP9B. In Spring 1979, the Clinchfield Railroad sent six GP7s to Paducah to be rebuilt to GP11s. These units were called

GP16 The EMD GP16 is a series of rebuilt diesel locomotive, diesel-electric locomotives, a result of a remanufacturing program initiated by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) in an effort to spare the cost of purchasing new motive power in the la ...

s by Clinchfield.

Disposition

The majority of Illinois Central's GP11 roster was retired prior to

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

's purchase of the railroad, though many of these engines can still be seen in service on other short-line railroads and/or preserved in various locations. * Illinois Central #8701, the second production GP11 rebuild from the Paducah shops in 1979, is now preserved & sitting on static display outside the passenger station in downtown

Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 25,083, making it the most po ...

. * Illinois Central #8733, a former GP9 rebuilt in 1980, was donated to the

Monticello Railway Museum The Monticello Railway Museum (initialism, initialized MRYM, reporting mark MRMZ) is a non-profit railway museum, railroad museum located in Monticello, Illinois, about 18 miles west of Champaign, Illinois. It is home to over 100 pieces of railro ...

Monticello, Illinois Monticello ( ) is a city and county seat of Piatt County, Illinois, Piatt County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,941 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the 2010 census, Monticello has a total area of , of which (or 99.2 ...

, by Canadian National in 2001 where it has since been restored and remains in operational condition. * Illinois Central #8749, a former EMD GP9 rebuilt in 1980, later went on to other railroads, first SLR 8749, then NREX 8749, SWP 8749, and currently is SWP 2006. Originally built as IC 9314 GP9 in December 1957. * Illinois Central #8702 and 8712 were both built in Paducah shops, and are still active locomotives for Genesee and Wyoming's Youngstown Belt Railroad which was formally a part of Ohio Central Railroad System. * Illinois Central #8706 and #8730, built in 1979 and 1980 respectively, are still active locomotives for Tradepoint Rail (Formerly Patapsco and Back Rivers Railroad) in Sparrows Point, Maryland.

References

External links

GP11 Photographs
''Rail Pictures.net''
GP11 Photographs
''RR Picture Archives.net'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gp11 Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives Illinois Central locomotives B-B locomotives EMD GP11 Railway locomotives introduced in 1978 Rebuilt locomotives EMD GP11 Rebuilt diesel locomotives

Original buyers

Disposition

See also

References

External links