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Posted by Mitch on July 29, 2011, 7:46 pm, in reply to "B&LE SD-7 #454 (HRT 454) on Great Walton Railroad's Hartwell line: Update"
67.20.241.78
That's great news Nate. 454 looks really good in those 2005 pictures. I'm sure she's looking relatively the same now. I wonder how old that paint job is?
Here is a pic from 1980 at Butler Yard
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1456501
Her paint looks really good here, but the Bessemer Herald is a bit washed. I'd bet in those time, it was promptly was restenciled at her next visit to Greenville Shops. Could that be the same paint she wears today?
From the best of my knowledge, alot of the SD-9 "survivors" that made it into the 1990's and beyond, like 827, 829, 830, 832, 833 have been photographed in 1981-1982 in EXTREMELY fresh paint. It is likely the reason (or a factor in the decision at least) that many of those units were picked to escape the scrapper's torch in 1987 unlike 823, 824, 826, 828, 834, 836, 837, 838, 839, 840, and 842. Maybe 454 did get a fresh shot later in the 1980's during the "roster cuts" and that is what helped steer her fate away from that of 451-453, and 455. It would be interesting to know the year and how old that paint job really is.
