The First GP30

Reading Company GP30 No. 5513 shown here in the yard of the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society at Temple Station, Pennsylvania was the first of 946 GP30's built by EMD in LaGrange, IL. The Reading ordered 20 GP30's including 5513 and used them widely in all types of service. Number 5513 is currently out of service due to turbocharger problems and is in need of donations in order to bring it back into service for the RCT&HS.

GP30's are very popular with modelers because of the distinctive hump faired into the cab roof. Railroaders I have talked to who ran GP30's tell of numerous electrical glitches as well as high oil consumption related to this first use of the turbocharger by EMD on the 567 prime mover. At Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, the GP30 painted as Conrail 2233 is one of the most popular artifacts with visitors. GP30's are still in service with Class I's BNSF and CSX Transportation (whose GP30's are road slugs with no prime mover). GP30's are also found on branch line roads like Cimarron Valley out of Satanta, Kansas and Indiana Northeastern whose number 2185 was built in 1962 as Reading 5517

For 20 years I worked a few blocks from The Reading Company's vast shops along 6th street in Reading. I took many lunchtime walks next to the shops and thought I had absorbed some knowledge. As a rookie RR Museum volunteer in 2004 I learned quickly from my peers that there was never a "Reading Railroad" and I am now used to referring to it as "The Reading" or "The Reading Company" or "The Philadelphia & Reading" or "The Reading Lines". My favorite train watching spots in the country are all on Norfolk Southern's Reading Line between Bethlehem and Harrisburg in Pennsylvania.