The ACL removed the skirting above the fuel tanks of all of its GP7s. I have only seen this on black & yellow GP7s, but never on purple & aluminum GP7s. (1) Did any ACL GP7s have the skirts removed while remaining in purple paint? (2) Did any ACL GP7s get painted black before the skirting was removed? In other words, were there ACL GP7s in purple without skirts and were there any ACL GP7s in black with skirts?

Jim Six

-- Jim Six (jimsix@ncweb.com), February 15, 1998

Answers

After a check of my slides and Warren's ACL book, the following information surfaced: Most of the purple GP7s maintained their skirting, and most of the black GP7s had them removed with the following exceptions:

154 - Purple (May, 1960) No skirt 199 - Purple (April, 1959) " " 228 - Purple (May, 1960) " " 254 - Purple (July, 1960) " " 271 - Purple (June, 1960) " " 272 - Purple (Aug., 1960) " " CN&L 102 & 104 Purple - no skirt

Also found the following: GP7 #249 shot by Howard Robins in Atlanta in 1957 shows the skirting intact. The slide is handwritten, "1957- First black ACL unit in Atlanta."

For what it's worth...

Tom Alderman (Marietta, GA.)

-- Tom Alderman (Topa12283@aol.com), June 13, 1999.