| CRI&P GP7R 4500, Blue Island, Illinois, October 1979, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Built in September 1951 as RI GP7 1214 (c/n 15173) on EMD Order 5111, it was sold sometime in 1974-75 to Precision National Corporation, rebuilt by either ther Rock Island at Silvis (under contract to PNC), or by Morrison-Knudsen in Boise, Idaho, or by the ICG at their Paducah, Kentucky shops. The rebuilt locomotive was numbered 4500 and leased by PNC to the Rock Island, which named it, "Rock Island's Locomotive Engineers". When the Rock folded in 1980, this locomotive was returned to PNC, and later sold to the C&NW, becoming 4154. |