Slightly over a year after the creation of the railroad, and more than 10 months after announcing its new paint scheme, Canadian Pacific Kansas City appears to be ready to actually unveil a locomotive wearing the livery.
CPKC today (May 8) released a brief teaser video showing ES44AC No. 9375 entering a paint booth and undergoing masking, priming, and painting, with no real hint of the final product:
For those of you who have forgotten, the railroad held an employee vote on five potential designs last year; the winner, unveiled in late June, was favored by 40% of the more than 5,000 employees who participated. It was also the choice of more than 40% of shareholders in a separate vote [see “CPKC unveils new locomotive livery,” Trains News Wire, June 28, 2023].
The 33-second video comes just ahead of an extended stay in Kansas City for Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 No. 2816 as part of the “Final Spike Steam Tour” — the locomotive and its executive train are scheduled to arrive in Kansas City on May 11 and depart May 21, with display set for May 18. Might the newly painted diesel debut with the steam engine in town? Stay tuned.
Side numbers are too small.
Also looks like a backwards version of the new CSX heritage units…the yellow/black rear end is supposed to honor the KCS Southern Belle colors?
As nice as this may be and with attendant expense, going forward, how crappy will this look out on the road after 6 months? Its a shame that they can’t put the other heritage units thru a wash rack especially after spending time/expense to create them in the first place. Yeah, dirty engines work as good as clean ones, but isn’t the point of these activities to promote the CP brand as well as the messages these units are supposed to show?
That the Canadians took over a Midwest railroad?