91 General Electric

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GE 91 with marine logo (ca. 1954-56)

I found this rare image of GE 91 with a round logo. This round logo shows the WP&YR merchant flag that they also used on their first container ship, the Clifford J. Rogers. The engine still had its original large additional tanks and no black separation stripe yet between the green and yellow colors. Furthermore, the coupler lift bar is missing. According to my friend Carl Mulvihill (WP&YR historian) both engines, 91 as well as 90, had this logo for only a short period of time.

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General Electric Engine No. 91 with new MU

Whitehorse, Yukon in June 1972. James Herold took this nice image of the two GE's. The engine already received they green diamond number plate. All Thunderbirds were gone. Boerries Burkhardt Collection.

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GE with flying WHITE PASS (1973)

Rough daily use becomes obvious in this image from Boerries Burkhardt's collection. In 1973 engine 91 was operating as a tail unit between engines or running backward behind a lead unit with a snow plow. In 1973 the engine had the standard green diamond logo with the number on it. Already, the engine had received a large step on the front side for switching support at Skagway yards. This was the main operation assigned to engine 91 after the old USATC GE 81 had left Skagway.

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GE 91 with new lettering (ca. 1977)

Sometime between 1976 and 1980, the WP&YR experimented with different colors and lettering styles on their engines. Some received the Federal Industries colors blue/white/orange and 91 received the black lettering style of the Federal Industries, but without the flying meatball (the nickname for the logo with an orange ball and two black arrows). A small black "91" was added on the front.

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GE 91 at Skagway Junction (1980)

In May 1980 Steve Hauff spotted GE 91 with its special black WHITE PASS lettering at Skagway Junction. GE 91 was the only engine which had this black lettering on the green and yellow livery. This style remained until the engine was repainted full blue. An interesting detail is the round test exhaust stack of this engine. Later all engines received identical rectangular exhaust stacks.

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GE 91 (1990)

It is not clear when exactly the front steps were moved to the back. But when Stan F. Styles took this picture of GE 91 in August 1990, the WP&YR had fitted all units with snow plows for security reasons. Since the railroad now operates only as a summer excursion railroad, tail units with a snow plow are not a problem anymore. When they operated all year round, the snow sometimes caused tail units with plows to derail, because the snow that fell back on the track behind a plow fitted lead unit built up below the tail unit's plow and lifted it.

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GE 91 back (2005)

The two GE's 90 and 91 have different back details than their sister engines 92 to 100. These two first units have no marker lights on the back and also their headlights differ from the other engines. The steps are shorter, too. Boerries Burkhardt took the image of GE 91 waiting at Skagway for the Fraser turn on May 26, 2005.

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GE 91 at Skagway (2006)

91 arrives at Skagway yard with the summit run. The small lighted number boards on the side of the engines are not used anymore by the WP&YR. Some engines already have them removed. Also different filters were added.

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