Back in the early 1970s Missouri Pacific acquired 35 3000-hp U30C’s for service in the southern Illinois coal fields and worked them hard, giving them little attention and less maintenance. On January 2, 1978, when most have found their way into general freight service, the 3329 still looks pretty good, still wearing its original buzz saw emblem and flying eagle logo as it crosses the Trinity River Bridge westbound at Dallas. Trailing is 2134, one of 326 GP38-2’s, MP’s most numerous diesel class. Both will survive, though renumbered, to become UP engines, but the U30C will be almost instantly traded to back to GE and scrapped. Longer-lived 2134 will end up in switching service before being reassigned to the Fort Worth hump operation.
