North Carolina’s passenger rail service welcomed back one of its locomotives Tuesday with a traditional christening ceremony, a new number and a paint job that honors the country’s 250th birthday.
The nearly 50-year-old engine, one of eight that move Amtrak Piedmont trains between Raleigh and Charlotte, just returned from a months-long overhaul where nearly every piece was rehabbed or replaced. The N.C. Department of Transportation, which owns the Piedmont trains, used the engine’s restoration as a chance to commemorate the nation’s semiquincentennial, said Jason Orthner, director of NCDOT’s Rail Division.
“Because this is a big celebration,” Orthner said. “And we’re not the only ones doing this. Many railroads all across the country are commemorating America’s 250th celebration with special livery on the locomotives.”
The engine, renumbered RNCX 1776, will make its public debut at a gathering of commemorative locomotives at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer the weekend of Aug. 28-30. More than 30 railroads, including the six big freight companies, will send commemorative engines from across the country to the America 250 Locomotive Celebration, said Dan Gurley, a member of the museum foundation’s board of directors…