Message of the day - June 29, 2000:

Hi everyone,

Here are three GP38's and two GP38-2's. In the process of making these roster pages, I came to realize that the Santa Fe really did not have many GP38-2's which I found to be a bit of a surprise. They do have a decent number of GP38's which are very similar but not identical. The differences between Santa Fe GP38's and GP38-2's are fairly obvious. The GP38-2's are all later production, so they have the angled air filter box, but a more obvious spotting feature (though not a unique GP38-2 feature) is the lack of dynamic brakes.

If you have a hard time telling a GP38 from a GP38-2, I can relate. I had that problem back on December 26, 1997 when trying to determine whether to call BNSF 2217 a GP38 or a GP38-2. My conclusion of GP38-2 was wrong, so I have corrected that error in my BNSF roster pages.

The Santa Fe never actually purchased any GP38-2's, but got seven when they acquired the TP&W on March 1, 1981. A good, brief history of the TP&W with further info on these units is in Kevin Eudaly's Santa Fe 1992 Annual.

Enjoy!
Charles
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Last updated: 6/29/2000