Faux Geep 20

Last week I wrote about the very popular Geep 7 locomotive by EMD. These locomotives were so popular that some railroad companies went to extreme lengths to stretch their useful lives. The locomotive on the front of

this post card is an example of this happening - not to a Geep 7, but to a Geep 9. The EMD GP9 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between 1954 and 1963. The GP9 succeeded the GP7 as the second model of EMD's General Purpose (GP) line, incorporating a new sixteen-cylinder engine which generated 1,750 horsepower, as opposed to the 1500 horsepower in the Geep 7. During the 1970s, to extend lives of aging fleets of GP7s and GP9s, many railroads rebuilt and upgraded them, changing their appearance in the process. Milwarukee Road converted 54 GP9s like this one, their #950, calling them "GP20s". But, a GP20 plaque does not a GP 20 make. EMD did make a GP20C-ECO, but that is not what this is. See this for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_GP20C-ECO I include the scan of the back of this post card, just out of habit. I know nothing of the publisher: www.railcards.com

Setting a New Trend

The two locomotives you see on the front of this post card are Geep 7s.

The first diesel powered locomotives appeared on the American railroad scene in the middle of the 1920s. These locomotives were used mostly for rail yard switching because the locomotives themselves were small and did not have a lot of horsepower. In 1934 Burlington Railroad introduced the Zephyr streamlined passenger train. It was diesel powered and could achieve speeds over 100 miles per hour. The railroad industry took notice. However, the transition from steam to diesel was slowed by World War II when locomotive factories were more focused on war production than on modernization. After the war, railroads started to replace their steam with diesels en masse. Still recovering from their focus on the war effort, most railroads were not interested in spending their hard-earned cash for diesels locomotives that would probably spend most of their lives in services in yards and on secondary route. To satisfy this need General Motor’s Electro Motive Division (EMD) designed the GP7 as cheaply as possible. The locomotive was also given the name “General Purpose”. This was shortened to “Geep”; so, the locomotives you see on the front of this post card are called Geep 7s. To keep costs down, EMD incorporated as many redundancies into the model as possible, enabling the GP7 to perform practically any task from switching and branch line assignments to general road service. The GP7 utilized EMD's standard prime mover at the time - also found in the popular F7 - the 16-cylinder, model 567B. Internal components were also similar; a model D12B main generator, D27C traction motors, and Blomberg trucks. The GP7 was offered in six different gear ratios, depending on a railroad's needs. The low cost encouraged railroads to replace their steam locomotives. By about 1960, the conversion was basically finished. The “Geep 7” was so effective and cost-efficient and useful that the total built was 2,729 between October of 1949 and May of 1954. For a great history of the "Geep 7" (and following models) go to https://www.american-rails.com/9227.html

The picture on the front of the post card was taken by Robert R. Harmen. Robert has published at least twelve articles in Railfan, Trains, CTC Board, Short Line, and probably something else. The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs. Established in 1964 by Carl H. Sturner of Earlton, NY, Audio-Visual Designs originally focused on providing railroad post cards and reel to reel audio tapes of trains in action. I have 333 of their post cards in my collection; that is 10% of my collection!! Here is a link to their website: https://www.audiovisualdesigns.com/

Preserving History

These two post cards show what the diesel engine number 9000 looks like today.

The photo here is by Laaysell Studios and the post card was made by Dexter Colour out of Cornwall, Ontario.

This post card came from STEAMSCENES in West Vancouver, Canada. They used a photo by Nils Huxtable.


Number 9000 is worthy of preservation because it was the first production road freight locomotive built for a Canadian railway. The Canadian National Railway (CNR) had used diesels for about 20 years before they ordered this one; but, these other diesels were always used in yards for shunting around cars. This locomotive was intended to be used for regular road freight service. During World War II it was loaned to the Canadian government. It was clad in armour and used along the West Coast of Canada. Once the war was over it was returned to the CNR which reconditioned the locomotive so that it could be used in regular passenger service. Several of these post cards are pictures of the locomotive pulling "The Super Continental" passenger train through the Rockies, no doubt.

The locomotive has had a bit of an identity crisis over its years. It was built in May of 1948 as an F3A class, V-1-a by EMD.
It was later reclassified as a V-1-A-a in January of 1950 and once again reclassified in September of 1954 as a GFA-15a. This post card, showing the 9000 as in freight service, was published by JBC Visuals out of Toronto, Ontario.


After seeing 33 years of service on the CN mainlines, it was retired on October 8, 1971 after traveling over 4.1 million kilometers (2.6 million miles). It was donated by CNR to the Alberta Pioneer Railway Association in November of 1971.

It is currently being kept and used at the Alberta Pioneer Railway Museum in the northeast of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. The association of volunteers restored the locomotive (there were some major challenges). It was ready for service, after being painted in the CNR freight colours, in 1996, just in time to "star" in the move "In Cold Blood". No one has taken credit for the photo or printing of this post card above or the one just below, but they both do say,"Made in Canada".

This post card was prduced from Natural Color transparency. Published and copyrighted by Smith Lithograph Co. Limited, Vancouver, Canada. It was distributed by Harry Rowed, O'Neill and Associates Ltd, out of Jasper, Alberta in Canada. The printed date on it is 1958.