CALGARY, Alberta— CPKC took delivery of five new Wabtec ET44AC locomotives over the weekend, the first batch of a 100-unit order.
All of the Tier 4 locomotives, which are being built at Wabtec’s assembly plant in Fort Worth, Texas, are scheduled for delivery by the end of the year.
CPKC released a video yesterday showing the units being built, painted, and tested at the Wabtec plant.
The new locomotives — CPKC ET44ACs No. 7453, 7454, 7460, 7455, and 7452 — were spotted Tuesday as trailing units in the consist of an eastbound freight rolling along CPKC’s Greenville Subdivision in Texas.
Any of the real customers of CPKC know where they go and what they can do. These real customers certainly will not make decisions on the color of the locomotives or a catchy road name. There is no reason at all to appeal to the average consumer, since they are not customers of the railroad.
100 new “GE” Tier 4s. Not too many new orders in these days of rebuilds. Does Progress even list a Tier 4 loco in its catalog these days? Now there was a failed loco design due to corporate insistence on making a 645 2-cycle engine Tier 4 compliant. Didn’t work, and took too long to get a rushed 4-cycle engine fully debugged.
I actually like the new livery. I always liked CP’s new brighter red color. The larger part in red reflects CP as the majority merger partner. The reporting marks are a reflection of modern corporate mergers aka BNSF, CSXT. UP never had a near equal merger, same with CN. NS pretty much the same.
Magnificent contemporary rail giants with 4400 hp… Let them roll proudly while blowing their wonderful Nathan Airchime K5HL horns!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
And what about “de Mexico”?
IMHO. A dreadful color scheme that doesn’t respect the lines of the locomotive. And the name “CPKC” tells customers nothing about the one competitive advantage the railway has: single line service in all N. American countries.
JACK — Perhaps you overstate the case with words like “dreadful” —- but I have to appreciate you saying what needed to be said.
“Canadian Pacific” would have been a fine name. According to a report in TRAINS MAG at the time, “CPKC” is a name (or whatever it is) cobbled together to get KCS egos on board with the deal. We are stuck with it.
As to the livery. IMHO the black color at the back is too much, too heavy and does interrupt the flow of, as you say, the lines of the loco. I was a great fan of the 1960’s Canadian Pacific livery (at the time, on boxcars, now extinct, as well as locos). Much more attractive.
As a 1960’s student in U-Michigan, Ann Arbor, I saw a lot of CPR livery on freight cars, as Penn Central’s Michigan Central line connected to CPR at Windsor. I liked it.
That cool 60s CPR livery on the company’s freight cars and cabooses was really something…
Dr. Güntürk Üstün