On a rather mild day in late December of 1971 while waiting in Avondale, Louisiana for my next assignment to begin, I ambled over to the locomotive shop where my assigned locomotive was waiting. Sitting there and receiving service work was a pair of T&P GP35 locomotives, numbers 647 and 645, along with an unidentified F7. Having my Polaroid camera with me that day, I quickly snapped this photograph before hustling over to my locomotive (a well-worn GP7).

The GP35s, usually just referred to as the 600s, were the most powerful locomotives running out of south Louisiana on the T&P at this time. Usually running in trios, I always relished the call for the freights running between New Orleans and Alexandria as they typically had these on the front end. What a change from the usual GP7 or GP9, or even the “powerful” GP18 engines! They rode well, were relatively quiet yet sounded good with their turbo whine, and just felt powerful. Always a treat!