Genesee Valley Transportation’s Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad unveiled a specially painted M-630 locomotive Wednesday to honor the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Locomotive 1776 wears a variation of the Delaware & Hudson’s bicentennial livery first released in the mid-1970s. The engine will look right at home on the DL, as part of its 88-mile system in northeastern Pennsylvania is former D&H trackage. Officials said the locomotive will be used in regular freight service on DL’s former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Pocono Main. The engine will also be on display at Steamtown National Historic Site during Union Pacific “Big Boy” 4014’s upcoming visit. 

The locomotive was built by Montreal Locomotive Works and once worked for British Columbia Railway before being sold to General Electric and used as a test bed for its “Super 7” product. Prior to being renumbered 1776, the engine was numbered 3007.

—Photo by Otto Vondrak

The locomotive has two stars under the cab to signify Pennsylvania being the second state to ratify the Constitution. In addition, painstaking care was taken in painting the locomotive bell to replicate the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

The DL isn’t the only Northeastern railroad to take inspiration from the D&H’s two bicentennial units. Earlier this year, Connecticut’s Naugatuck Railroad painted a U23B in a D&H-like livery.

—Justin Franz