| Union Pacific Railroad RS27 677 at Council Bluffs, Iowa on an unknown day in September 1962, I'm pretty sure the photographer was Lou Schmitz (Kodachrome slide unmarked except for location and date), Chuck Zeiler collection. Number 677 was completeed in January 1960 as Alco Demonstrator 640-4, one of five RS27 (DL-640) demonstrators built and numbered 640-1 through 640-5. Including the five demonstrators, only 27 RS27's were built, directly competing with GE's U25B and EMD's GP30. The UP acquired four RS27 demonstrators in September 1961, and acquired four production U25B demonstrators at the same time. The railroad followed up with an order for 12 more U25B's, but did not order additional RS27's. This unit was wrecked November 23, 1968 at Aikens, Nebraska, and scrapped by the UP at Omaha. |