A heritage unit or commemorative locomotive is a railroad locomotive painted in an honorary paint scheme; usually the paint scheme is that of a now-defunct railroad that merged with or was acquired by the locomotive's owner.
Among North American railroads
Heritage units are popular among North American railroads. As of 2023, most Class I railroads have official heritage units, the only exception being the BNSF Railway.[a][1][2]
The Union Pacific Railroad painted six EMD SD70ACes in stylized paint schemes of six of its predecessors between 2005 and 2006.[3] The Norfolk Southern Corporation did the same in 2012 with 20 of its locomotives for its 30th Railroad Anniversary.[4] 10 of them are EMD SD70ACes, while the others are GE ES44AC units. For its 40th anniversary in 2011, Amtrak painted four GE P42DCs, a P40DC, and an NPCU into its older paint schemes. Six more locomotives, a Siemens ALC-42 Charger and five P42DCs, were painted for its 50th anniversary in 2021.[5]
In 2019, the Canadian Pacific Railway, now Canadian Pacific Kansas City, painted ten EMD SD70ACU units CP 7010-7019 in a maroon and gray paint scheme with a different font style. In late 2020, the Canadian National Railway revealed five new heritage units in addition to two sets of yard slugs (CN 7600, CN 600, painted in CNs yellow and green scheme), and CN 7601, and 601m painted in the Illinois Central deathstar scheme, after they had been first spotted a month earlier. These included four GE ET44ACs and one EMD SD70M-2. They were painted in honor of the 25th anniversary of CN's initial public offering.[1][2] Beginning in 2023, CSX revealed its first of many heritage units, ES44AH 1827 with a Baltimore & Ohio paint scheme.[6]
List of heritage units
ES 499.0001, actual running number 350 001-4, of the Slovakian Railways (ZSSK) in its factory paint scheme. Railway companies in Europe have also taken up this practice.CC 201 83 31 of the Kereta Api Indonesia (formerly CC 201 69), the first of the national railway's main line locomotive to use honorary paint scheme, sporting the railway's 1953-1991 paint scheme since 2021[7]NS 1074 is an EMD SD70ACe owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway, painted in the Lackawanna scheme, one of the 22 railroads acquired by it
Below is a list of heritage units in active service by various railroads.
↑Although BNSF released several commemorative celebrating their 25th Anniversary, which featured logos of predecessor railroads, these are not considered as heritage units.
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