GP-20 Operating Manual- is this rare?

Not too unusual... I have purchased such manuals for the EMD F7 and the GP9, but yours might be more rare since fewer GP20's were rostered.  

Thanks GN, I just searched the auction site for "EMD operating manual" and found 19. You may be right about the GP-20. None were listed.  I have a lionchief plus GP-20 and thought it would be neat to have with it.  don't you love the pictures inside these things?  

Please note that the model is correctly named "GP20", and NOT "GP-20". EMC/EMD did not use a dash between the model type and the model number series, as in FT, F3, F7, GP7, GP9, GP30, SD35, SD40, SD45, etc., etc., etc..

Also, I used to see EMD Operator Manuals at various railroad memorabilia shows/swaps, and most all of them seemed to priced around $15 each. The very early FT manuals, which had the specific railroad road numbers and photograph on the cover, or the first page, could sometimes bring up to $50 each.

Thanks, I should have paid more attention to the cover! 

funny these had been a blind spot for me at the various shows, this is the first one I noticed.  BTW, I paid $15 for it.  That would be quite neat to find one for a specific loco we had in our roster.  Any idea how many of these were produced with each loco?  Seems 100 would not be out of the ball park?

hokie71 posted:

Thanks, I should have paid more attention to the cover! 

funny these had been a blind spot for me at the various shows, this is the first one I noticed.  BTW, I paid $15 for it.  That would be quite neat to find one for a specific loco we had in our roster.  Any idea how many of these were produced with each loco?  Seems 100 would not be out of the ball park?

For each order of a specific locomotive for a specific customer, THAT customer would receive a minimum of 100 operator manuals, and many times much more. Since many railroads ordered and received GP20 units (UP, CB&Q, NYC, SP, WP, AT&SF, just off the top of my head), there should be literally thousands of those manuals produced. Finding them at railroad memorabilia show/swaps should NOT be difficult.

hokie71 posted:

..... I have a lionchief plus GP-20 and thought it would be neat to have with it.  don't you love the pictures inside these things?  

I think it's neat, too. I had a Weaver RS-3 and I found the old ALCO manual for it. People got a kick out of running the engine and having the manual. Took me a long time to find the book.

Yup, the pictures are cool. And, they get even better with older manuals. I had an after school job in a place that sold parts and service for forklifts. They had parts/operating/maintenance manuals that went back to before WWII. Kinda fun to read.

Jim 

I've seen EMD manuals at the memorabilia shows here in Chicago for years, and they are cool and affordable. I bought an F3 manual years ago, merely because my original Lionels were F3s. I don't specifically remember seeing too many GP20 manuals, but, then, I wasn't focused on them. Perhaps I should...I have several MPC GP20s. In any event, its a nice find on your part.

While not an operating manual, I picked up an Fairbanks-Morse C-Liner renewal parts catalog for 10 bucks about 2 decades ago (more or less.)

Everything need to renew a C-Liner or stun an ox.

Rusty

Wow, that is quite the FM picture - that would stun an ox! . thinking on the comments John and Jim made, don't you wonder if there are similar manuals for the current generation of locos.  

I have a Conrail SD80MAC Operators Manual for my MTH SD80MAC, I thought that was kinda cool! Picked it up off the bay, when I saw it I just had to have it, just because. . .

conrailfan, I know the feeling, you motivated me to do some searching and here is a very  interesting list of loco manuals.  

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/manual/manual.html  

HOKIE71- Thanks!!! That is just too cool!!

jay jay posted:

I've seen EMD manuals at the memorabilia shows here in Chicago for years, and they are cool and affordable. I bought an F3 manual years ago, merely because my original Lionels were F3s. I don't specifically remember seeing too many GP20 manuals, but, then, I wasn't focused on them. Perhaps I should...I have several MPC GP20s. In any event, its a nice find on your part.

The Lionel MPC GP20 was actually closer to a GP7 with a chopped nose.  It was a way to get a low nose EMD hood model in the line by using plugs in the Postwar molding.  But to most Lionel fans of the time, anything "new" was great.

I have a couple of these manuals if only for the placement of cab interior parts and their details. So far I have collected:

AAR Manual - Generic for Both GE and EMD

F40

B40-8

PRR GG1 operator manuals fetch big bucks when they occasionally surface on Ebay. 

Some years back, someone had purchased or was negotiating to purchase one of the two GG1s at Cooperstown, NY.

He had a couple of web pages on his spouse's business website (hairdresser, if I recall correctly). 

Among the information and photos he had pertaining to the acquisition of the motor and the preparations being made for moving it (rust stabilization and air brake work), he had posted quite a few interesting excerpts from a copy of the operating manual.

I wish I'd have had the foresight to make pdf copies of the manual's pages. Unfortunately, all I did was bookmark the site. When I tried to look at it some time later the site was gone. The domain name was listed as available for sale.

Update: The fellow who intended to relocate the 4817 to Miami, FL had incorporated in Florida as "GG1 Historic Locomotive Preservation Society Inc." in 2009. This was the url which is dead now:  http://gg1hlps.org 

Would love to see what is packed inside a GG1 and can imagine that is a collector's item. 

BTW, Several of us appear to have manuals that are not on that fallen flags site,  I plan to scan the GP20 (which is not there now) and send to the person who maintains that site.  Here is the link on what to do: 

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/submit.html   

HOKIE, Nice catch!