Illinois Railway Museum Blog

It is hard to believe USA 8537, a General Electric 45 ton diesel-electric locomotive, has been in the museum's collection for nearly 30 years now. It has been our mainstay switcher for the majority of those three decades. Living outside during that time has not been kind to the paint it arrived in. The last couple years we have wanted to repaint the locomotive and that time has finally come with the completion of the rotary snowplow tender this past February. On February 22, 2020, 8537 was moved into the diesel shop to begin the prep work for repainting. Below are some photos to show what the unit looked like before beginning the project.

Photo: The front 3/4 view of 8537 in the shop. This shows just how faded the paint has gotten over the years.

Photo: The rear view of 8537 in the shop.

The main body color is black. The handrails were all yellow, along with the stripes around the sill. The lettering, numbers and logo was all white. We will also make some safety improvements by adding ground and step well lights around the unit. It does not have any ground lights now.

Photo: The transportation corps logo on the #1 hood.

Photo: Large lettering for United States Army was on both sides of the #2 hood.

Photo: The numbers on the side also showing very faded paint.

Photo: Some of the lettering on the #2 truck.

We'll show the progress over the past month in future blog posts. If you would like to support this restoration project, or any other restoration project, you can donate to the Diesel Department Equipment Restoration Fund and follow up with an email to support a specific piece of equipment.