The U28C was built in two distinct Phases, Phase I utilized the U25C carbody, the significant spotting feature being the step-up in the running board at the location of the radiators at the rear of the unit, and drop equalizer trucks. The Phase II introduced a General Steel Castings truck similar in design to EMD's Flexicoil truck, and a truck of similar design referred to as the Adirondack truck. The radiators of the Phase II had a bulge on the side just above the intakes, and a walkway over the center on the roof. When Penn-Central came into existence February 1, 1968, the U28C's retained their PRR road numbers. On April 1, 1976, Conrail took over the failed PC and several other eastern railroads. To make room for SD40-2's, CR re-numbered the U28C's into the 6820-6834 series, and they lasted until retired in 1983.

Number 7301 was built in April 1954 as Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT/NYC) 5701 (c/n 19522) on EMD Order 5340. It later became PC/CR 7301, then VTR 751, then SLR 1751, then SLR 58. It is seen in charge of Train Number 456, The Valpo.

The Valpo first ran for the PRR on August 30, 1869, then called the Chicago–Valparaiso Accommodation. It was also referred to as The Valpo Local or The Dummy. It passed into the hands of the PC and then the CR. Sometime in 1979 it passed into Amtrak, renamed The Calumet, and continued until 1991.

I was driving south on I-65 and happened to see headlights approaching from the west. I jumped off the Interstate, but by then this train had already passed me. I had to take some liberties with the local speed zones to get this photo, and even then the best I could do was get ahead a short distance, pull over and stick the camera out the window. The hogger was working his engines. A visit to Google Earth today shows that these rails have since been removed. * NOTE * Mark E left a Comment asking if I was sure this was shot in 1984. I went back and looked at the slide mounts (there are three slides in this sequence), and they are all stamped June 1982 and sequentially numbered. According to crcyc.railfan.net the E8's were all retired in January 1978, so I'll admit there is some question about the validity of the date. I do have a couple of slides of a CR E8 in Chicago commuter service dated July 1978. I was on a business trip and these are slides from my employer's camera, so they are not as carefully marked as they should be. The slide date stamp is all I can go by at this point.

The unit was downgraded from 2,500hp to the standard GP38 2,000hp. A paper air filter box was added behind the central air intake ahead, and the dynamic brakes were removed as evidenced by the blanking out of the blister (which was also cut short to accommodate the paper air filter). The original GP35 class lights were replaced with the FRA-approved 'bug-eyes' typically found on newer EMD locomotives. The GP35 turbocharger was removed and two more exhaust stacks were added. The experiment was determined to be not economically viable and the unit became the only such rebuilt locomotive on the system. CR GP38 7635 was finally retired on June 11, 1997.