EMD Displays – Visible GP35 Locomotive 1964/1965

General Motors Corporation participated in the 1964-1965 New York Worlds Fair, and Electro-Motive developed a new “visible” locomotive for the event. This was to be the first visible locomotive display using a General Purpose locomotive. The 1960s GP-type carbody was considerably easier to convert for display use than the F-units that had been used for visible locomotive projects in the 1940s and 1950s.

The 1964-1965 Worlds Fair display locomotive was former EMD GP35 demonstrator 5661, which was numbered 1964 (and later 1965 as that year arrived) for display use. It was fitted with visible glass panels, including in the side of the cab, and the main generator compartment. Hood doors were cleanly removed to display the 16-567D3A diesel engine, the accessory rack, and the air compressor.

After the fair it was fitted with a large SOLD sign and removed from the Fair site by crane. Restored to operable configuration, it went to the New York Central Railroad as their road number 6155, the highest numbered GP35 in their fleet. It became road number 2399 under Penn Central and retained the number into Conrail.

The concept for this display is easily adaptable to almost any hood-type locomotive of any builder.

Overland Models marketed a custom painted HO-scale model of this locomotive correctly detailed with engine room equipment.

PC

Does it still exist?

Doesn't appear to have. It survived long enough to be painted in Conrail blue, but the last photos I can seem to find of it are around 1983. The Conrail Cyclopedia does not list a retirement date for it. It was interestingly the only GP35 that New York Central owned with dynamic brakes, due to it's history as an EMD demonstrator.

I haven't covered it yet in the Reading paint thread but the primary General Motors bright red at that time was Chevrolet Truck Cardinal Red, 93-58209H...

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedi ... =93-58209h

The caption of this Flickr photo says it was "scrapped by CR at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania in mid-1987."
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckzeiler/24876341055