Does anyone know exactly when CofG E8A's 811 and 812 were pulled from service and retired? Both engines were painted in IC colors and operated through to Chicago on the "Seminole" and "City of Miami". Also, one source says that both engines were traded to EMD in February, 1971. Can anyone verify the disposition?

Thanks,

Cliff Downey downeycj@prodigy.net

-- Cliff Downey (downeycj@prodigy.net), September 22, 1999

Answers

Cliff, I think this would be a good question to ask on the Central of Georgia page. The address is www.cofg.org. Regards, Warren

-- Warren D. Stephens (wdstephens@prodigy.net), September 24, 1999.

Cliff, I have a slide dated January, 1971, showing both 811 & 812 in the dead line at Peagram Shop, Atlanta. The 812 still has the older IC paint scheme, although the green diamond is missing from the nose. The 811 received the simplified IC scheme years earlier with the large style lettering and the simplified nose curve. My question: If these units were REALLY CofG units, then by 1970 they belonged to Southern Railway when they were taken out of the Chicago pool service... Why weren't they repainted and absorbed into the Southern Crescent E8 pool? Southern maintained all of their E8s in Southern Crescent service (until various mishaps retired several just before Amtrak's takeover). I find it odd that they dumped these two Central units so readily.

-- Tom Alderman (Topa12283@aol.com), September 25, 1999.

CG E-8's 811 and 812 were traded to EMD for SD40's 3184 and 3185 along with the remaining E-7's that were traded for GP38AC's and SD40's. This info comes from the book Southern, A motive power pictorial (1968-1982) by Paul Withers and Tom Sink. No disposition date was given.

-- Stephen (g_cargile@msn.com), August 11, 2002.

Cliff

The book "Diesels of the southern Railway 1939-1982" by Paul Withers has the following to say about these E-8s:

811 - built 8/50, rebuilt at EMD 27 aug 53, retired 1971, traded to EMD 8 feb 71

812 - built 8/50, rebuilt at EMD 3 sep 53, retired 1971, traded to EMD 20 feb 71

The rebuild may have had something to do with why SR didn't use them in the pool. They were rebuilt with: EMD 567BC engines (SR units had 567B engines); D15B main generators (SR used D15); gear ratios were 52:25 after rebuild (SR units were 55:22). ((that last looks suspiciously like a misprint in the Withers book, and I don't know how much difference any of these things would have made))

Hope this is helpful.

-- ray brown (bbrown21@columbus.rr.com), May 02, 2003.