| Illinois Central Gulf GP26 2601, Chicago, Illinois, January, 1982, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Built as Gulf Mobile & Ohio GP30 502 (c/n 27906) December 1962 on EMD Order 7635, it became one of only two GP26's. Note that the locomotive retained the AAR Type B trucks from Alco FA1 trade-in's. Here is the explanation from Dan Kohlberg: ICG's two GP26's were built in March and April of 1981. Gulf Mobile & Ohio GP30's 502 and 514 were rebuilt as ICG 2601 and 2602. Among the laundry list of changes (internal and external), they received the standard Paducah spartan cab along with a Paducah 88 inch nose. ICG left the turbocharger and the 2250 hp rating. The Paducah/ICG sales literature, however, listed the GP26 model as 2600 hp. Why? Well, consider what the original 'donor' locomotive to become a GP26 was supposed to be. ICG was trying to sell this to railroads with aging GP35 fleets. Paducah had intended to use a 2500 hp GP35 as the starting point, and upping the horsepower another 100... hence the 26 designation (and the carbody changes, in my opinion). ICG sorta 'faked' it with the GP30's. Since the GP26 program never made it beyond two locomotives, it is hard to speculate how the GP30 vs. GP35 rebuilds might have been classified, had the ICG continued to rebuild the ex-GM&O (or anyone else's) 30/35 fleet. Basically, the GP26 was ICG/Paducah's answer to a railroad buying a GP39-2 or GP39X new from EMD. (Remember, the 2600hp GP39Xs showed up on the SOU in late 1980) Bad timing for the ICG by about seven years. VMV/MK/EMD implemented a similar GP30/35 rebuild program for the BN starting in 1988. |