WRIX GP9 #3186 at Kalama, Washington, on April 22, 2006

On April 22, 2006, I photographed this former Southern Pacific GP9 at the Kalama Export Company grain elevator at the north end of Kalama, Washington.

This 1,750-horsepower GP9 was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors as Southern Pacific #5603 and was placed in service on June 27, 1954.

It was the last of a group of four GP9s numbered #5600-5603 that were built for secondary passenger service and featured steam generators, dual-station cab controls, plow pilots, large signal lights at each end, dynamic brakes, and fuel and water capacity of 800 gallons each. Originally equipped with 61:16 gearing, it was regeared to 60:17 between June 1960 and July 1961, and at some point the dynamic brakes were disconnected.

It was renumbered to #3003 as part of Southern Pacific’s systemwide renumbering of 1965. As Southern Pacific’s secondary passenger trains were discontinued, it was reassigned to San Francisco-San Jose commute service.

On February 26, 1975, it was upgraded at Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops to GP9E #3186, the first of Southern Pacific’s passenger GP9s to be upgraded. As part of the upgrading, the dual-station cab controls and dynamic braking were removed.

It remained in San Francisco-San Jose commute duties until Caltrain’s F40PH-2 locomotives were delivered in 1985, and then joined Southern Pacific’s many more common GP9s in freight service. It was retired on September 18, 1995, and sold to Progress Rail in Exeter, California, on January 31, 1996. It wound up as Nevada Industrial Switching Services #3186 at Apex, Nevada. In January 2000 it was sold to Joseph Transportation, Inc.

It ended up as Western Rail Incorporated (WRIX) #3186 and came to the Kalama Export Company in 2006. Still looking largely as it did in its final days with the Southern Pacific a decade earlier, it would soon be rebuilt with a chopped short hood and repainted.