SP GP9 page: Switcher renumbering
GRIP Program:
In late 1978, the SP began a program to renumber some GP9's into a switcher number series and recalssify them as ES418 units. This gave them a less intense maintenance cycle. In all, 32 units were renumbered as such with no other modification. Half of these units were pulled from GRIP rebuilt units, the other half were from non-rebuilt units. It is not known why these numbers were chosen. The units were actually renumbered into the SP 2868-2899 series. Apparently they started at 2899 and numbered downward. Some rosters show an expected series of 2850-2899, so the program may have been cut at some point.
I recently learned that SP 2871 (shown below) and SP 2896 were RE-renumbered back to their previous numbers (SP 3304 & SP 3640.)
| Switcher number | GRIP number | 1965 number | original number |
| SP 2868 | SP 3391 | SP 3409 | T&NO 409 |
| SP 2869 | SP 3881 | SP 3722 | SP 5886 |
| SP 2870 | SP 3386 | SP 3417 | T&NO 246 |
| SP 2871 | SP 3304 | SP 3424 | T&NO 412 |
| SP 2872 | SP 3847 | SP 3366 | SP 5836 |
| SP 2873 | SP 3798 | SP 3565 | T&NO 443 |
| SP 2874 | SP 3326 | SP 3559 | T&NO 437 |
| SP 2875 | SP 3799 | SP 3601 | SP 5760 |
| SP 2876 | none | SP 3694 | SP 5831 |
| SP 2877 | none | SP 3589 | SP 5748 |
| SP 2878 | none | SP 3697 | SP 5834 |
| SP 2879 | none | SP 3670 | SP 5807 |
| SP 2880 | none | SP 3718 | SP 5882 |
| SP 2881 | none | SP 3710 | SP 5874 |
| SP 2882 | none | SP 3680 | SP 5817 |
| SP 2883 | none | SP 3719 | SP 5883 |
| SP 2884 | SP 3306 | SP 3449 | SP 5612 |
| SP 2885 | SP 3318 | SP 3433 | T&NO 421 |
| SP 2886 | SP 3300 | SP 3434 | T&NO 422 |
| SP 2887 | SP 3315 | SP 3448 | SP 5611 |
| SP 2888 | none | SP 3676 | SP 5813 |
| SP 2889 | none | SP 3653 | T&NO 449 |
| SP 2890 | none | SP 3723 | SP 5887 |
| SP 2891 | none | SP 3717 | SP 5881 |
| SP 2892 | SP 3330 | SP 3545 | SP 5713 |
| SP 2893 | none | SP 3688 | SP 5825 |
| SP 2894 | none | SP 3683 | SP 5820 |
| SP 2895 | none | SP 3586 | SP 5745 |
| SP 2896 | none | SP 3640 | SP 5799 |
| SP 2897 | SP 3776 | SP 3587 | SP 5746 |
| SP 2898 | SP 3393 | SP 3525 | SP 5692 |
| SP 2899 | SP 3390 | SP 3497 | SP 5664 |