GE B36-7 - Standard DC -- Conrail 5031 (blue, white, No Ditch Lights)

The Rapido Trains B36-7 is based on General Electric-built diesel locomotives used by several lines to haul freight on expedited schedules. The four-axle units were high-horsepower racers built to appeal to railroads in the early 1980s looking to turbocharge their growing intermodal business. They could be found in multiples at the head of piggyback and auto rack and then-new double-stack container trains. There were few drag freights or slow-moving manifests for these thoroughbreds in their early years. Replacing the |Universal Series} U36B in the GE catalogue, the first prototypes were built at Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1980 for SP subsidiary Cotton Belt (St Louis Southwestern). By the last year of production in 1985 some 222 locomotives had been constructed for US railroads with a further eight for export. The design found customers in several of the larger Class 1s of the period: Santa Fe, Conrail, Seaboard System, Southern and Southern Pacific. With the mergers of