Quite the Long Pedigree

Way off in the distance you can see three GE C30-7 locomotives heading

up train number 289 on the Raleigh Division, Collier Yard, Virginia on May 26, 1979. The C30-7 was a six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by GE Transportation Systems between September 1976 and May 1986. It was developed as an updated version of the U30C and was powered by a 16-cylinder GE FDL-series diesel engine. A total of 1,137 units were built for North American railroads. The model succeeded the earlier U30C, also known popularly as the U-Boat. It was General Electric's most successful design up until that time selling 606 examples. There are three examples of the U-Boats in my collection. They are coming soon… The "C" refers to that fact that it is a six-axle (C-C) locomotive. The "30" indicates that the horsepower rating is 3,000 h.p. in the traction motors. And the "7" indicates that it was introduced in 1976. The Dash 7 model is similar to the familiar U-Boat locomotives made by General Electric with a few important changes. "7" indicated the "Dash 7" line was introduced in 1976. The train we are looking at on the front of this post card belongs to the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The Railroad (SCL) was formed from the merger of two long-time rivals, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL), in 1967. It became a major force in the southeastern U.S. before it was consolidated into the Seaboard System Railroad in 1983. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lines to create the Seaboard System in 1983. At the end of 1970, SCL operated 9,230 miles of railroad, not including A&WP-Clinchfield-CN&L-GM-Georgia-L&N-Carrollton; that year it reported 31,293 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 512 million passenger-miles. Because it is the merger of two railroads that had been around for a long time, it has quite the pedigree. You can see the list at this website, along with more history: https://appalachian-railroads.org/homepage/railroads-across-the-appalachians/seaboard-coast-line-railroad/seaboard-coast-line-railroad-historical-timeline/

The photo was taken by Curt Tullotson, Jr. The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs.