CALGARY – Canadian Pacific will be painting 10 of its newly rebuilt SD70ACU locomotives into its historic tuscan red, gray, and gold paint scheme.
On Monday morning, CP shared an image on social media of the two freshly painted locomotives, Nos. 7010 and 7015, with the message, “We take pride in our past and look to the future with the same boldness, ambition and innovation that drove the creation of the railway."
In an exclusive interview with Trains News Wire, Baden Tidd, assistant vice president of mechanical, says the railroad plans on painting a total of 10 heritage units. Locomotives Nos. 7010 to 7014 will wear CP’s original tuscan red, gray, and gold paint scheme with tuscan red script lettering along the long hood. Locomotives Nos. 7015 to 7019 will feature block lettering along the long hood.
The locomotives are part of an order for 60 SD70ACUs using the railroad’s stored SD9043MACs. The locomotives are being rebuilt by Progress Rail in Kentucky. The first four SD70ACUs, Nos. 7000-7003, were recently put in service in British Columbia.
Locomotives Nos. 7010 and 7015 are in Kentucky and Tidd expects them to be shipped to Canada within a week.
Tidd says the idea to paint heritage units was hatched earlier this year. The mechanical department worked with CP’s heritage department, which maintains the railroad’s historic fleet of passenger cars and locomotives, to come up with a number of options to present to CEO Keith Creel. In a nod to the railroad’s historic beaver logo that came back in 2017, Creel selected the tuscan red schemes.
The heritage units are expected to be assigned to service primarily in western Canada. Tidd says they will be put into regular service just like any other locomotive.
“These are wonderful looking locomotives but they’re meant for revenue service,” he says.
The other eight heritage locomotives will painted before the end of the year.
This is not the first time CP has painted a freight locomotive into its historic tuscan red scheme. In the early 2000s, it painted GP38-2 No. 3084 into the classic tuscan scheme. The railroad’s FP9s used for its business train and other excursions also wear the classic livery.