The D&RGW's very first GP30 gleams in the bright afternoon sunlight working the Roper based Provo Local on July 28, 1989. The EMD GP30 model is a personal favorite of mine, with the 3001 capturing my attention and my heart when it was assigned to the Utah Division out of Roper in mid '89. The Rio Grande acquired 28 GP30s from EMD between April 1962 and Feb. 1963. Four of them received the large 'Billboard Grande' livery during their tenure on the D&RGW. The new loud and proud 'rock star' look was applied to the 3001 back in 1975 when it received a full repaint with Imron Enamel at Burnham Shops in Denver. The D&RGW 3001 worked faithfully for both the Rio Grande and also the Southern Pacific for more than 32 years until its retirement from service on July 15, 1994. It would be sold to OmniTRAX who sold it to the Kansas Southwestern in Wichita. It would finish its service life working on the Hudson Bay Railway in Manitoba, Canada by the late 1990s.
