Can anyone tell me if WP's U23B's were delivered in the orange and silver scheme or if they were always dark green and orange letters?
thanks in advance
Burl
I know that the U30Bs were delivered in the Orange & Silver but as to the U23Bs I can't say. Good chance that they were. You can check with the WP Historical Soc. at www.wprrhs.org/index.html
or you can contact the Feather River Railroad Museum at Portola CA www.oz.net/~samh/frrs
Thanks Dan......from what I've been able to find (one website can be found with 'wplives' on google- very good, lots of images) the 30's were delivered in orange n silver and the 23b's were in the perlman green and orange from day one.
I won't say this is absolute fact but it seems pretty good. I've not found any images of 23b's in orange.
Burl Engton :0)
The WP U23B's were all delivered in the green and orange stripe scheme. They all had EMD trucks from traded in F units. The U30B's were delivered in the silver and orange, except the last two which were GE demo units rebuilt to U30B standards and retrucked with EMD trucks. The U30B's were all delivered in the 750 number series. This shot is of a faded U23B, in the as delivered paint scheme. Later they were repainted with WP on the nose and one stripe. And the last paint scheme had an all orange nose. If you would like to see some more shots, let me know.
Sort of an addendum to this subject, WP did receive two U30Bs in Pearlman green, 770 and 771. GE made 'em a good deal on two demonstrators. When the renumbering took place, the silver and orange units kept their paint for a while and were just renumbered into the new class. The renumbering resulted in the loss of their cab heralds for the new numbers, in black.