Hi guys,

I am looking for info from members on the SSW Cotton Belt and the areas they ran in. Rolling stock info and where they would have been in the perion 1990 to 1995?

I have a thread here on a shelf layout I am about to buil and want to run 2 SSW GP40-2PhII's as locoa swithchers. I am wondering if they would have been found in industrial centres or more likely in the smaller towns switching the local industries? I am hoping to model a fairly heavy area but these might be more at home in smaller surroundings... Let me know what you think... thanks

Callum

When I used to watch SP trains around Phoenix and Tucson in the mid-1990s, it would seem they would throw any kind of locomotive they had available onto any kind of mainline train. Mainline trains were frequently a mix of SD40-2, SD45, SD40T-2, with frequent appearances of other SDs or even 4-axle GP units. From what I remember, they weren't running any 1st generation diesels (ex. GP7-18) by then, and were 95% EMD diesels in my area. I do remember some newer GP60s with wide cabs. GP35, GP38-2, GP40-2 or 50 would have been extremely common for local switching (and still are).

Thanks Kevin

As far as I know in the time frame you are interested in, the SSW locomotives would be found anywhere on the S.P. system. I think they might have been found in power pols on other railroads as well, but am not sure of that.