So one part of the Espee's fleet that is still missing from Train Simulator that could be easily added would be their Geep fleet, primary the GP38-2's, the GP40-2's, and the GP60's. (All which currently exist in game with other road names) GP38-2 Southern Pacific acquired their GP38-2's in 1980. These were numbered 4800 to 4844. An additional 28 were leased from Helm Leasing and numbered 151 to 170, until the then new AC4400s were delivered, in which they were numbered between 4846 to 4873, but not using all numbers (Some weren't even in SP paint). 6 GP38-2's were equipped with Snow fighting equipment for Donner Pass, these were 4809,4817,4839,4840,4841 and 4843. these units would make a great DLC for Donner Pass with a SP Flanger added in as well. All 6 units still serve the Union Pacific in the same role. GP40-2 Southern Pacific ordered 124 GP40-2s, with 68 in SP lettering, and the other 56 in Cotton Belt Lettering numbered 7608-7677, 7940-7959, and 7240-7273. These units were delivered in 5 orders across 6 years. SP also rostered a few other variations of GP40's, such as standard GP40s for the SSW, 3 GP40P's for the Peninsula Commute, 4 GP40X's and a handful of GP40M's from Morrison-Knudsen. A pack of these units in Southern Pacific, Cotton Belt, and Speed Lettering with SP specific details would make a decent standalone pack. GP60 Southern Pacific ended up with 195 GP60s on their roster with 100 for the SP and 95 for Cotton Belt, numbered 9600 to 9794. Oddly enough 3 GP60s were also delivered in Rio Grande paint in 1990 as replacements for wrecked units. The SP and SSW units could be a good DLC pack for the Granger Heartland Route paired with some SP intermodal equipment, as the Southern Pacific had trackage rights on the UP's Maryville Sub between Kansas City and Topeka. The intermodal equipment that could be included would be 48' Well Cars based on either the 5-unit MAXI III car or the single unit Husky Stack Car, 48' SP Container. And Southern Pacific's 45' Golden Pig Service Trailers.
Yeah there is definitely a lack of Southern Pacific content beyond their six-axle EMD's. Also, would it make more sense for some of these locomotives to be sold as marketplace liveries, and have one sold as a separate engine that came with the intermodal equipment as included rolling stock?
Those are the Gunderson Stack cars with the bulkheads on the ends, they can carry 20ft, 40ft and 45ft containers, which are common in international intermodal service. The car im requesting is a larger 48ft car and 48ft containers which were common for domestic intermodal service in the 90s, before the widespread use of the 53ft car and containers.
I'd love all three of these engines. The GP60 should also be made in UP, ATSF, BNSF, Rio Grande, and CSX liveries.
It depends on how accurate you want the details on each locomotive to be. The SP GP38-2s compared to the UP one that comes with the Peninsula Corridor route are different as they originally came with both the L-Shape Engineer window, SP's light package among other small details. The lease units are more similar, with the only major exception being the Front headlight being on the nose rather than above the Cab. The Snow Fighting GP38-2's would need a new or remade model. The GP40-2 has the same problem with the light package, though not all orders had the L-Shaped window. Some later models also had the loco's number painted on the anticlimber. Oddly enough, the GP40M-2s would be the closest to the locos included with the GP40-2 pack, with just the horn placement and height of the ditchlights being the major differences. (Though maybe DTG can make a 2nd GP40 pack with railroads like the Alaska RR or Amtrak's GP40s.) SP's GP60s are pretty close to the NS GP60, with the only major difference is the lack of a beacon light, the horn placement, and the numbers on the anticlimber. EDIT: I do know that Eye12 did make an Gp60 and there's a reskin for JCornells GP38-2 but they don't look 100% correct on the livery's.
My reasoning behind having some of these locos be sold as marketplace liveries is that they can change small details to make the locomotive more accurate. A good example would be the UP GP30, which had an SP livery addon that added the SP light package and changed the controls to add gyralight functionality. some variants like the Snow Fighting GP38-2's would probably need to be sold as a separate engine due to the new modeling that would have to be done.
As a visual, here are some pictures of the GP30's, notice how the headlights are different and the bell is relocated. I think that if they can do this to the GP30, they can make similar changes to the GP38-2, GP40-2, and GP60 to make them more prototypical.
Never actually took a closer look of the GP30 reskins but if they can do that for the GP30s then I don't see why the same cant be done either 3 of the geeps.
SP did have U-Boats, like the U25B, U28C, U30C, U33C, and U50. The GP30s are a great idea, too, as well as a new GP20.
I did make a suggestion for U25B's in October of last year. https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/general-electrics-u25b.19007/
Lukrail America was working on one but stopped after something happened on a forum somewhere, there's already a suggestion for it here... https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/sp-d-rgw-krauss-maffei-ml4000-diesel-hydraulic.20902/
The Krauss-Maffei ML4000 sounds amazing. There is one operational unit at the Niles Canyon Railway. The ML4000s are a unique design with two diesel hydraulic prime movers. The engines were built in Germany.