CP SD70ACU No. 7003 departs Muskego Yard in Milwaukee after making a set out on Nov. 25.
Chris Guss
MILWAUKEE – Canadian Pacific’s SD70ACU fleet have been primarily assigned to Canadian service since the first locomotive was released for revenue service in August. That changed this week when two locomotives worked south of the border on different trains. CPs armed forces painted locomotive No. 7023 lead train No. 252 from Montreal to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., while No. 7003 lead train No. 298 into the U.S. via Portal, N.D., to St. Paul, Minn., then lead train 286 towards Chicago.
The locomotives are part of an initial 30-unit order for SD70ACUs, utilizing Canadian Pacific’s long stored fleet of SD9043MACs as cores for the project. A follow-up order was placed for 30 more SD70ACUs for delivery in 2020.
Forty-five locomotives will be delivered in the standard red paint scheme. CP Nos. 7010-7019 will be painted in variations of CP’s historic original Tuscan red, gray, and gold paint scheme. CP No. 7010-7014 will have Tuscan red script lettering along the long hood, while Nos. 7015-7019 will have block lettering along the long hood. CP Nos. 7020-7023 and No. 6644 are painted in special colors honoring Canadian and U.S. armed forces.
Ummm…this is news?
Was hoping to see one of their heritage locomotives pulling their Christmas train on the Delaware & Hudson last night, but no such luck. Had a GP20ECO like it typically has had in recent years.
7011 ran to Pocatello, ID on a manifest and is now back enroute to Eastport on another manifest. Seen it in Nampa this afternoon as part of a six unit all CP consist.
Thanks for he correction.
A third also went south of the border out west on Nov 22nd, at the Kingsgate/Eastport connection with the UP. I assume it’s heading for one of the west coast ports on a bulk train. It is the 7011, one of the heritage paints.
Curtis,
Thanks for the information about the 6th Street bridge in the image. The view is indeed looking west with the train on what’s called the wash track that goes through Muskego yard. He had finished a 21 car set out and was pulling down to the KK Bridge interlocking to get onto the mainline toward Chicago when I made this photo. Since I live in Illinois, I was able to catch him several more times south of Milwaukee on the way home.
Since this location may be confusing to you, if you go to the far south end of the 6th Street overpass in Google Maps on the street level view, you can see the Iron Horse hotel is the brick building on the far left of my image to the east of the overpass, while I-94 is to the west in the background along with the old buildings including the dark smoke stack on the right of my image.
Much has changed along the wash track in the 20 years I’ve been photographing trains in Milwaukee. The modernization of the old buildings and construction of new ones has been amazing to watch.
Pictured over the consist is the Sergio Calatrava designed 6th Street bridge, which replaced the original Samuel Insull financed Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Rwy bridge from the 1920’s. That bridge allowed the North Shore access to a downtown Milwaukee stub end terminal a couple of blocks from both the Milw. Rd. and TMER&L depots. Since the bridge also carried vehicular traffic, it was fascinating to watch trains, including Electroliners, thread their way.
Here, the view is toward the East, with the current depot out of view and the caption referring to a set out at Muskego yard potentially misleading.