Heritage unit

A heritage unit is a railroad locomotive painted in an honorary paint scheme; usually the paint scheme of a now-defunct railroad that merged with or was acquired by the locomotive's owner. The Union Pacific Railroad painted six EMD SD70ACes in stylized paint schemes of six of its predecessors between 2005 and 2006.[1] The Norfolk Southern Railway did the same in 2012 with 20 of its locomotives.[2] 10 of them being EMD SD70ACes, while the others being GE ES44AC units. For its 40th anniversary in 2011, Amtrak painted 4 GE P42DCs, a P40DC, and an EMD F40PH converted to an NPCU into its older paint schemes.[3] In late 2020, the Canadian National Railway revealed five new heritage units after they had been first spotted a month earlier. These included four GE ET44ACs and one EMD SD70M-2.[4][5]

UP 1995 is an EMD SD70ACe owned by the Union Pacific Railroad painted in the Chicago and North Western Railway scheme (one of the many railroads acquired by UP)

Amtrak has six heritage units, each painted in one of Amtrak's former paint schemes. GE P42DC locomotive #145 is painted in Amtrak's Phase III scheme.

Norfolk Southern has 20 heritage units: 10 ES44AC and 10 SD70ACe locomotives painted in predecessor railroads. One of Norfolk Southern's units, ES44AC #8099, is painted in the Southern Railway livery.