The Rip Track

In the mid-1970s, America celebrated its bicentennial. The well known bicentennial year of 1976 saw a large number of items repainted into special commemorative red, white and blue liveries. The railroads of the time got into the act, with a great number of them participating. Trains magazine managed to get a photo of many of these bicentennial locomotives in one photograph when they were gathered in Chicago. I got to talking about them a little with a friend over the weekend, and we started wondering about the entire bicentennial roster. So, instead of guessing about it, I did a little research and came up with a mostly comprehensive list (there are probably a couple of locomotives still unlisted) for all US railroads that participated. While I would love to copy all of the images here and display them directly on this page, copyright restrictions prevent me from doing that. Instead, where an image exists and there isn't a reproduction-allowable license version, there is a link to the image in the appropriate cell below.

Locomotives
Railroad	Road number/name	Locomotive model	Engineer side image	Fireman/conductor side image	Notes
Alaska Railroad	1510	EMD FP7	(image)	(image)
Alaska Railroad	1512	EMD FP7	(image)	(image)
Aliquippa and Southern	1208	EMD SW1200
American Cast Iron Pipe Company	103	Fairbanks-Morse HH660
Apache Railroad	200	Fairbanks-Morse H10-44
Apache Railroad	201	Fairbanks-Morse H10-44
Apache Railroad	800	ALCO RS-32
Apache Railroad	900	ALCO RS-11
Apache Railroad	901	ALCO RS-11
Ashley, Drew and Northern	176	EMD SW1200
Bangor and Aroostook	1776 Jeremiah O'Brian	EMD GP7	(image)
Belt Railway of Chicago	534	EMD SW1500	(image)	(image, image)
Bessemer and Lake Erie	853	EMD SD18
Boston and Maine	200	EMD GP38-2
Buffalo Creek	46	Baldwin S2
Burlington Northern	1776	GE U30C	(image)
Burlington Northern	1876	EMD SD40-2	(image, image)	(image)
Burlington Northern	1976	EMD SDP-40			(image)
Butte, Anaconda and Pacific	778	GE E20
California Western	55	Baldwin RS-12	(image, image)
Cambria and Indiana	36	EMD SW9
Central Vermont	1776	EMD GP9
Chicago and North Western Railway	1776	EMD GP9		(image)
Chicago, West Pullman and Southern	41	EMD SW8		(image)	Kept the bicentennial livery as late as July 2003 (image)
Colorado and Wyoming	200	EMD GP7		(image)
Conrail	1776	GE U34CH		(image)
Conrail	4800	GG-1	(image)
Conrail	7776	EMD GP38
Continental Grain	1528	ALCO S4	(image)
Cotton Belt	9389	EMD SD45T-2	(image, image, image)	(image, image)
Cuyahoga Valley	1284	EMD SW1200
Delaware and Hudson	506	ALCO RS-3		(image)
Delaware and Hudson	1776	GE U23B		(image, image)
Delaware and Hudson	1976	ALCO RS-3m	(image)	(image)
Delaware and Hudson	2312	GE U23B
Detroit, Toledo and Ironton	1776	EMD GP38		(image)
Detroit and Toledo Shore Line	76	EMD GP7
Durham and Southern	2000	EMD GP38-2	(image)	(image)
Elgin, Joliet and Eastern	668	EMD SD38-2		(image)
Erie Lackawanna	3632	EMD SD45		(image)
Erie Lackawanna	3638	EMD SD45		(image)	Became Conrail 6669, remained in bicentennial paint until at least May 1979 (image).
Frisco
Grand Trunk Western	1776	EMD GP38	(image)	(image, image, image)
Hercules	77	EMD SW	(image)
Hillsdale County Railroad	1976	EMD NW2		(image)
Houston Belt and Terminal Railway	1	EMD SW9
Illinois Central Gulf	1776	EMD GP38	(image)	(image)
Indiana Harbor Belt	1976	EMD SW1200		(image, image)
Indianapolis Union Railway	200	EMD SW1500
Inland Steel	76	EMD SW1
Island Terminal Company	603	EMD SW	(image)
Kansas City Terminal	76	EMD SW9
Laurinburg and Southern	76	GE 70-ton
Long Island Rail Road	252	EMD GP38-2	(image)
Lubrizal	20	Baldwin S4
Milwaukee Road	156	EMD SD40-2	(image)	(image)
Missouri-Kansas-Texas	200	EMD GP40	(image)
Missouri Pacific	1776	EMD GP18		(image)
Missouri Pacific	1976	EMD GP18u
Norfolk and Western	1776	EMD SD45	Photo from Flickr user Mr. Beaverhousen, released under Creative Commons non-commercial share alike license. (image)	(image)	Preserved in bicentennial livery at the Virginia Transportation Museum
Patapsco and Back Rivers	147	Baldwin VO-1000	(image)
Pittsburg and Shawmut	1776 Betsy Ross	EMD SW9	(image)
Railway and Industrial Services	76	Whitcomb 35-ton	(image)
Rock Island	652	EMD E8		(image)
Santa Fe	5700	EMD SD45	(image)
Santa Fe	5701	EMD SD45		(image, image)
Santa Fe	5702	EMD SD45
Santa Fe	5703	EMD SD45	(image)
Santa Fe	5704	EMD SD45-2
Seaboard Coast Line	1776	GE U36B	(image, image)	(image)
Seaboard Coast Line	1976
Soo Line	1776	EMD GP35		(image, image, image)
South Buffalo Railway	76	ALCO S2	(image)
Southern Pacific	3197	EMD GP40P-2	(image, image, image, image, image, image)	(image)	Was used in daily commute service south of San Francisco
Southern Pacific	4449	GS-4			Was one of the original locomotives on the 1976 American Freedom Train; was repainted back to AFT colors in the 2002 (2002 image) then repainted back to its original Daylight colors.
Southern Pacific	6800	GE U25B		(image, image, image, image)
Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis	1207	EMD SW1200	(image)
Texas and Pacific	610	2-10-4		(image), later operated for a few years on Southern Railway.	One of the original steam locomotives to be restored and operated for the 1976 American Freedom Train.
Toledo, Peoria and Western	700	EMD GP30	(image, image)	(image)
Union Railroad	17	EMD MP15	(image)
Union Pacific	951 Preamble Express	EMD E9A	(image, image)
Ventura County Railway	4	GE 70-ton		(image)
Western Pacific	1776	EMD GP40		(image, image, image, image, image)
Western Pacific	1976	EMD GP40	(image)	(image)
Yankeetown Dock Corporation	1976	EMD SD38	(image)
Youngstown Sheet and Tube	805	Baldwin S8		(image)

Other rolling stock
Railroad	Road number	Builder/type	Photos/notes
Alaska Railroad	1776	center cupola caboose	(image, image)
CTA		Elevated railway electric multiple unit trains	(image)
Frisco	1776	Extended vision caboose	(image, image)
Georgia Railroad	2869	Bay window caboose	(image)
Gold Coast Railroad	0322	Center cupola caboose	(image)
Missouri-Kansas-Texas	76	Extended vision caboose	(image)
Norfolk and Western	1776	coal hopper	(image)
Norfolk and Western	NWZ 1776	40' trailer	(image)

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Sources

• American Freedom Train & Patriotic Schemes. Great Plains-West Rail Galleries. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
• Bi-Centennial Locomotives. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
• Combs, John. Bicentennial Colors. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
• The Railroad Network. Spirit of 1976 - Bicentennial Locomotives. Railroad.net. Retrieved September 30, 2008.