Bicentennial diesel locomotives photo gallery

There were more than 200 red-white-and-blue Bicentennial diesel locomotives. Many “Bicens” were specially renumbered, but some (the 76s, 200s, 1776s, 1976s, etc.) were not. Bicentennials roamed the rails in every state (beyond the “lower 48” were two Alaska Railroad FP7s and a rail historical group’s tiny GE in Hawaii); in Panama (a 5-foot-gauge Alco RSC3); and even in England (former U.S. Army Vulcan 0-6-0T 72 of the Keithley & Worth Valley Light Railway at West Yorkshire). Beyond the 108 or so common carriers, more than 100 industrial, museum, and tourist railroads joined the repainting binge. Predictably, participation was heavy among firms in the patriotic bastion industries of cement, construction, and steel (15 units in the Pittsburgh area alone).

Burlington Northern U36B No. 1776 rests at Denver in July 1975. Hol Wagner photo, Brian M. Schmidt collection

Detroit, Toledo & Ironton GP38-2 No. 1776 is resplendent in clean red-white-and-blue. Jim Hediger photo, Brian M. Schmidt collection

Western Pacific GP40 No. 1976 rests at Salt Lake City in May 1976. Keith Ardinger photo, Brian M. Schmidt collection

Typical of Class I “Bicens” were MoPac’s GP18 1976 (unrenumbered) and GP7 1776, on the St. Louis riverfront with the Freedom Train. Gary Dolzall, J. David Ingles collection

In 1975, Trains magazine arranged a photo shoot of eight Bicentennial diesel locomotives on the Belt Railway of Chicago. This uncommon view of “Bicentennial back ends” also shows staffer Harold Edmonson in the bucket. J. David Ingles photo

Norfolk & Western SD45 No. 1776 displays its Bicentennial colors at Melvindale, just west of Detroit, in June 1974. Ken Borg, Brian M. Schmidt collection

Erie Lackawanna SD45-2 No. 3632 holds court with Penn Central-painted power at West Detroit in August 1976. By this time all the power pictured was a part of Conrail. L. N. Herbert, Brian M. Schmidt collection

An Alco end-cab switcher, Becker No. 4, displays red-white-and-blue at Wolf Trap Plant at Blenheim, S.C., in October 1972. Brian M. Schmidt collection

Could a Bicentennial diesel locomotive be any more appropriately lettered? American Cast Iron Pipe’s 1937 900-hp “high-hood” Alco posed in Birmingham, Ala. Lon Coone, J. David Ingles collection

Kansas City Southern SD40 No. 616 wears anything but red, white, and blue at Shreveport, La., in January 1977. The locomotive’s appearance was the result of a railroad contest held among schoolchildren. James B. Holder, Brian M. Schmidt collection

Bringing up the rear of the photo gallery is International Car Co. caboose No. 3500 rests at Kenton, Ohio, in March 1975. Dan Dover, Brian M. Schmidt collection

Seaboard Coast Line started it all with its GE U36B 1776, delivered in June 1971. Meantime, Ross Rowland and friends, in planning the American Freedom Train, organized a nationwide promotional tour train they called the “Preamble Express,” whose mission was to facilitate local arrangements to host the AFT. The Preamble train, comprised of four ex-Reading commuter cars owned by South Carolina short line Lancaster & Chester, was initially pulled by Delaware & Hudson GE U23B 2312 (subsequently tweaked as 1776), later replaced by Union Pacific E9 951 (one of four Es UP still owned). That E unit would be UP’s only Bicentennial locomotive.

Bicentennial diesel locomotives ranged from a 5-ton Plymouth at a Hercules Powder installation in New Jersey to a half dozen SD45-2s (five on Santa Fe and one on Erie Lackawanna). Sparked by the Preamble Express and by the railroads represented in the Trains 1975 Chicago photo shoot (plus Bangor & Aroostook and Boston & Maine), other Class I railroads, and then dozens of short lines and industrials, took up the cause. Some of the Class I railroads with more than one Bicentennial unit (e.g., Santa Fe, BN, Delaware & Hudson, MP, SP, Western Pacific) would bring them together for special events. Many Bicentennial units powered public excursion trains. Civic or corporate functions, beyond the two BRC Chicago shoots, brought together Bicentennial diesel locomotives from several roads. Examples included San Francisco’s July 4, 1976, celebration with Santa Fe 5700, SP GP40P 3197, and WP’s two GP40-2s, and the opening of the Central Pacific station portion of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, with WP 1776, SSW 9389, and a Santa Fe SD45-2.

SCL 1776 and BRC 534 were not the only diesels delivered new in red-white-and-blue garb. Others from EMD included Detroit, Toledo & Ironton GP38-2 1776 (the future 228), in July 1975; Elgin, Joliet & Eastern SD38-2 668, in December 1975 (in white — EJ&E added the red and blue); and New Haven Trap Rock’s Branford Steam Railroad SW1001 7357. Long Island GP38-2 252 was delivered in February 1976 in a scheme patterned after Milwaukee Road’s Bicentennial SD40-2 156, which had been repainted in 1974. Delaware & Hudson 1976, a Morrison-Knudsen “TE56-4A” (or “RS3M”) rebuild of Alco RS3 4112, was outshopped in early 1976 at Boise, Idaho (it would become 506).

Arizona’s Apache Railway wound up repainting its entire roster in red, white, and blue (six Alco RSs and two Fairbanks-Morse H10-44s), but not every road went with those colors. Maine Central called its 10 new GE U18Bs of May 1975, painted in MEC’s normal orange and green, the “Independence Class” and named each unit for a New England patriot. Southern affixed a red-white-and-blue decal — each with a photo and signature of a Southern signer of the Declaration of Independence — to its 17 green Southern Crescent E8s and 2 green excursion FP7s. Little Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri applied decals to its four EMD switchers, and other pikes just added a color stripe or two to existing liveries (B&M to several Geeps; Budd Co. to an SW9; Kansas City Terminal to its SW1200 76; and Kentucky & Indiana Terminal to its SW1500 76).

Volunteer groups got involved, as well. In addition to the Hawaiian diesel and Orange Empire Museum electric, the Mad River museum in Ohio repainted a local industrial switcher; Illinois’ Monticello museum group redid a newly acquired Davenport 44-tonner; and the Charleston (S.C.) National Railway Historical Society chapter repainted an ex-Navy 45-ton Porter center-cab. The Central Indiana Railroad Club and Chicago’s 20th Century Railroad Club held contests for repainting Indianapolis Union SW1500 23 and Rock Island E8 652, respectively. Kansas City Southern conducted a contest among schoolchildren, and the resulting scheme on SD40 616 was unforgettable. It had no flags, just a few stars, and three shades of red and blue, but the big EMD mainly looked like a demonstration palette of Crayola crayon colors, including white, green, tan, orange, pink, aqua, yellow, lavender, and black!

Of the 46 Class I railroads of the time, 31 decorated at least one Bicentennial diesel locomotive. Several freight cars were repainted for the Bicentennial, and a dozen or so other cabooses, on roads from Southern Pacific to Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific, from Georgia Railroad to Cambria & Indiana to St. Louis’ Terminal Railroad Association … plus caboose builder International in Kenton, Ohio.