Built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division as Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 1281, this GP30 was renumbered by the ATSF to 3281 in 1969/1970. This locomotive is still in its original EMD paint, as evidenced by the oddly shaped lettering in the large roadname (the off-center "hole" in the "a"s, for example, and the two different stroke thicknesses in the "n" … And EMD never changed this odd lettering, keeping it into the "Superfleet" era in the 1990s). And as this blue and yellow scheme originated before this diesel was constructed, it is odd that the revised roadnumber on the cab sides is silver, which was used by the railroad in the 1950s! Which is why, even though it was backlit, I grabbed this shot of it in Hobart Yard, near downtown Los Angeles.
ATSF 3281 was later rebuilt and renumbered to ATSF 2781. Following the ATSF's merger with the Burlington Northern, this GP was then numbered BNSF 2430. BNSF disposed of it to Larry's Truck Electric, becoming LTEX 2430. It was later sold to Pennsylvania's Reading Blue Mountain & Northern, acquiring yet another identity: RBMN 2530.
