"Little Clipper"?

[Ponce de Leon]

I was going through some of my old photos yesterday, and I found this shot I had taken at John Sevier Yard in Knoxville in June 1964. As far as I can recall, this was the first time I had seen a Southern SD24. Man, I loved those units! They finally started making it up to the Appalachia Division in late 1965.

This train is inbound off the K&O from Oakdale. I can't recall the schedules from that era, but would this be the "Little Clipper"--the Knoxville train that originated at Cincinnati? I think this shot was taken in the morning. Since it's now been 48 years ago, I'm a little fuzzy on the details (except to recall I scaled a tall chain link fence to get in position for the shot---because I was pumped up when I saw these things easing through the receiving yard!).

But while we're on the SD24 subject...also attached is a shot of the first run of SD24s into Appalachia, in November or December 1965 I think. This shot is taken "downtown," and the three older SDs and SD35 were returning with a westbound Yuma Turn (cab lite). Notice the butcher in Lester's Market is looking out the back door to see what's going by. He must have been a closet railfan.

[lwjabo]

My guess is the SD24 numbered 2500 is and older picture than the ones numbered 6300. From Memory when I hired we often had SD24 engines and they were numbered 6300 and might have been some 6200, The ones numbered 2500 were GP30 and some where in the 2600 they changed to GP35. That is the way they were in the fall of 71. There were almost no SD40s and a few SD45 but the power had been reduced when I hired. They must have started buying the SD40-2 and the GP38-2 about this time. I do remember the first set of GP38-2 we got out of the shop at DeButts. The engineer asked the shop forman to step up and explain the double throttle. One was for power and the other dynamic brake. The engines did fine but the engineer cussed then all the way to Atlanta as he was not use to the new Double Throttle. The old GP also had a fast load switch on them. That was for local and switching.

[Ponce de Leon]

My guess is the SD24 numbered 2500 is and older picture than the ones numbered 6300.

Correct! The shot of the 2500-series unit was taken in 1964, and the 6300-series unit the following year. All the SD24s were renumbered in the 6300-series in the fall of 1972.

The SD24s were the last units delivered with the "6" prefix so common for the Queen & Crescent corporate components--the CNO&TP, AGS and NO&NE. The identification of the legal corporate owner continued, of course, with small initials under the road number on the side of the cab---but the distinct numbering series for such units was dropped (at least for new units; many older units carried their 6000-series numbers to the scrap yard).