George Andrews Wrote:
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> Per Strapac's 'Southern Pacific Historic Diesels
> Volume 4': " From an appearance standpoint, there
> was little ( other than paint style ) to
> distinguish the first SD - 9's from the last SD -
> 7's. EMD responded to customer complaints about
> rainwater leaking through the classification light
> doors high up on hood ends by redesigning them for
> inside access. "
> I would agree it is cheaper to weld on mounts
> than cut & finish access doors, but it appears (
> at least officially ) that EMD was improving the
> product. Strange thing then; when looking through
> the SPHD book I noticed that all but the 1st order
> of SD - 9's have a triangular access door under
> each numberboard on both ends. Was this an Espee
> option to retain outside access to the numberboard
> for train number indicators ??? These doors were
> retained after rebuilding; maybe for bulb access
> ???

Correct about the doors being for access to the indicators, but you could still do it from inside (although it was harder to reach the rear ones from the inside). The GP9s followed the same practice - early ones dodn't have the doors but later ones did. Units that had the doors kept them after rebuilding. It was hard to reach the light bulbs, however; I can't remember anyone ever changing them except from inside.

I'm still not convinced about the rainwater conspiracy theory.