General Purpose
It’s just a geep, as they were called—short for general purpose. I didn’t take many roster shots, but this is a decent one, with good light on the distinctive, and durable, Blomberg B truck.
This particular model, an EMD GP9, was built in January of 1956, sans dynamic brakes, as was common for the Illinois Central. Later, it would have it’s nose chopped, rebuilt into a GP11, and renumbered to 8736. As such, it would continue to serve wearing the so-called Death Star logo of the later iteration of the Illinois Central (post-ICG). Beyond that it worked for the Columbus and Greenville Railroad, and perhaps lastly for the Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway.
In the above image, taken during the ICG era, the locomotive is sitting on a side track on the west side of Bloomington, Indiana. This is on the Illinois Central line to Indianapolis, known as the Hi-Dry.
One image by Richard Koenig; taken February 5th 1977.
