Any visit to Toledo in the early 1980s always included a stop at Land Yard on the city’s north side. Formerly the main yard of the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line Railroad, it had become a Grand Trunk Western facility following the Trunk’s purchase of the DTSL in 1981. In that post-acquisition time, a variety of GTW and DTSL power could be found at Lang, and it was possible to document the disappearance of the Shore Line paint scheme as locomotives were repainted.
Here on 05 September 1982, I found these two units at the engine facility. GP38-2 #5850 was one of the 11 units purchased from the recently-defunct Rock Island Railroad. Still in Rock Island blue, #5850 (ex-CRIP 4368) was given a quick paint-out and renumbering, and put right into service. The unit remained in service in a 2023 photo.
On the right is an original DTSL GP-7, #47, still untouched in the line’s Nickel Plate Road-inspired black and yellow paint scheme. It would later become GTW #6047. This unit was later sold and became Pigeon River Railroad #47, before moving on to the Indiana Northeastern Railroad as their #47. The IN retired the until in the mid-2000s, and it was sold onward to the Indiana Boxcar Corporation. The last photo I can find of the unit is in Minerva, OH in 2009.
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