While there are many locomotives in C&NW, Southern Pacific, and St. Louis Southwestern paint with Union Pacific reporting marks and road numbers, only two units remain untouched, C&NW Nos. 8646 and 8701. Built in 1994 by General Electric, the locomotives have lead a privileged life, operating largely in former C&NW territory, staying together for the most part and being stored at the Illinois Railway Museum when not needed. When the last SP and SSW locomotives were relettered and renumbered in 2016 with temporary patches, these two became the last locomotives on the UP roster to remain in their original paint and road numbers.
The two locomotives were pulled from the Illinois Railway Museum in early December and departed from Chicago’s Proviso Yard for North Little Rock, Ark., on Dec. 16 as part of the locomotive consist of train MPRPB 16. After their release from the paint booth in North Little Rock, No. 8646 is scheduled to assume the identity of UP No. 9750 and No. 8701 will become No. 9805 and will blend in with the thousands of other units wearing the same colors.
When the final unit is repainted in UP colors, it will spell the end of decades of true heritage locomotives on one of the greatest railroads in North America.
The end of an era for sure, but it was inevitable that eventually all the predecessor paint jobs would be gone. It’s good to see that these two lasted as long as they did in reasonably good paint. 20 plus years is a long time to be running around in the prior road’s paint scheme. Keeping diesels away from the paint booth is not without precedent. EL had a couple of units(an Alco S 2 and, I think, a Baldwin) in Akron that were still in full Erie paint til the CR start up. The shop folks there would actually hide them when high officials showed up.
Well that’s kind of a bummer….
Reading this with my 7 and 4 yr olds at my side. Many memories of these two at IRM. I was also lucky enough to catch them in action on one of their periodic journeys away from IRM. I hope one day UP donates them to the museum and gives them a C&NW paint job send off.
now everyone’s feeling like how I felt since 2006. That’s when we lost 8575. Feels bad, doesn’t it?
I wish I still had the reply I received from BN in 1980 to the letter I wrote suggesting what are now called “heritage units” of the BN predecessor roads for the 10-year anniversary of the merger. They basically laughed at the idea–said they just gotten everything repainted to green and wanted to enjoy an all-green fleet for a while–and suggested that I try again for the 25-year anniversary in 1995.
I wonder if this initiative by UP explains why UP 1900 was sent to Little Rock recently. UP 1900 is the last rostered ex Rio Grande unit that hasn’t been painted yellow and gray yet. Sure hope they didn’t paint it.
These two units dodged the paint booth for 22 years, thanks to the efforts of several ex-C&NW managers at UP that were their benefactors.
To be quite honest, their original paint is starting to get a bit ratty. The good folks at IRM tried to touch up a couple of the very worst spots while they were in storage as a goodwill gesture, but that only goes so far.
Whether or not these two ever do wind up in preservation remains to be seen, but if they do, they’ll need a fresh coat of C&NW green and yellow either way, so what’s the difference?
Better they get a fresh coat of yellow-and-gray that will protect the carbody from further rust and decay that let them turn to rustbuckets still wearing what’s left of a 30+year-old paint job.
Don’t be sad it’s over, be glad it happened in the first place!
If you really think about it, it’s the first time the UP roster has worn one basic paint scheme since the Mo-Pac/Western Pacific Merger in 1982. The last Katy engine was repainted in ’93 I believe, the last MP unit in 1994, and I’m sure they had at least one revenue freight engine on the roster in somebody else’s paint scheme from mid-94 through the merger with the CNW. They were buying secondhand units like crazy back then.
Too bad. They look a lot nicer now than with the generic looking UP paint job.
@John Rice
These aren’t heritage units, these are original CNW GE’s that have never been patched or painted…the heritage units are still out there running around the system.
Sad to hear
Glad I got some good photos of them in action and at Union. Too bad though that this means more armour yellow (a color that I’m just not partial to for some reason).
Was really hoping that they would leave these as C&NW, and at some point donate them to IRM.
They will bring heritage stuff back when they think they need fans again. This stuff goes in cycles.
well it’s nice while they lasted
End of an era.