Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The Illinois Central’s Paducah Shops became one of the most important locomotive rebuilding shops in North America during the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than purchasing large numbers of new locomotives, the railroad rebuilt older units into upgraded models, like the SD20. These rebuild programs modernized aging locomotives with improved electrical systems, rebuilt engines, upgraded cabs, all while costing far less than buying new power. This strategy extended the service lives of reliable first-generation diesel locomotives, reduced capital expenses during a financially challenging era, and maintained a versatile fleet for both road and switching service. The success of the Paducah rebuilds became so well known that locomotives rebuilt there continued operating on railroads across North America for decades after their original construction.

Facebook photo by Steve Forrest.

The SD20 remanufacturing program sourced SD7, SD24, SD24B and SD35 locomotives. 42 of them were completed between 1979 and 1982. ICG 2002 was the third SD20, released on October 24th, 1979, and was originally a Union Pacific SD24B, numbered 427B. Some of the features on the SD20 included upgraded 16-567CE roots blown engines, clean air inertial blower cabinets, and cabs similar to EMD’s second generation spartan cab design.

Facebook photo by Steve Forrest.

As mentioned above, ICG 2002 was built as UP 427B, a SD24B (cabless booster) built in 1959 and retired in 1977 and sold to Precision National. Illinois Central Gulf’s Paducah Shops acquired and remanufactured many SD24B’s, including 2002, into the SD20. 2002 survived on the ICG over a decade and was sold to NRE. After NRE, it went to Twin Cities & Western as number 600. In 1997 it was sold to Commonwealth Edison and later became Will County Coal Handling 1802. It and another SD20, numbered 1801, serviced the NRG Will County Generating Station in Romeoville, Illinois unloading coal trains for nearly 25 years.

Photo: Will County Coal Handling 1802

Mid 2022, I was contacted by the Plant Manager at Will County Station asking if IRM was interested in the two machines they used for moving the coal trains. It just happened to be the same guy that arranged the donation of ComEd 15, an EMD SW1, from the Bryon Nuclear Plant back in 2000. We arranged a visit to inspect the locomotives and started working on the agreements over the next couple months. The Romeoville Fire Academy had requested donation of one locomotive prior to both of them being offered to IRM. They did not have funding or a location to store the locomotive at the time, which is why they were both offered to IRM. During the process, NRG also needed to keep one locomotive to load out unused coal and send cars out. The Fire Academy eventually worked out a deal with the quarry to store the 1801. The donation of 1802 was completed in October of 2022.

Photo: Cutting the first wheel.

Photo: Setting up for the next cut.

Photo: One of the finished wheels.

Both locomotives were stored at the plant for another year. 1801 was moved to the quarry late in 2023. 1802 had a number of defects that needed repairs, including multiple FRA wheels. During 2024, a few companies came to quote turning the wheels on 1802. Ultimately, PLS, who had been maintaining the locomotives for NRG, was hired to reprofile all 12 wheels. The wheel truing, along with the other defects were completed and repaired in the spring of 2025.

Photo: 1802 and 1801 stored at the power plant.

In March 2026 we began working with CN again for a special rate for transportation and to inspect the locomotive. CN’s mechanical department inspected and passed the locomotive on May 5th. Arrangements were made to move 1802 from the power plant to CN’s interchange point on the 15th and it was picked up and moved to Joliet on the 24th. Over the next few days IRMX 1802 made its way from Joliet to Kirk yard in Indiana, then to Homewood, and finally to UP Yard Center. Over the next week, 1802 made its way from Yard Center to Global 3 in Rochelle, then to West Chicago, then to Belvidere where it waits to be delivered to IRM.

Photo: This may be the last rail move over Material Bridge.

Photo: Two IC locos picking up the ex-ICG loco from Flats Yard.

The museum’s short term plans are to make a few additional repairs to 1802, remove the remote control equipment from it, and run it on the mainline. Long term plans are to restore the remanufactured look of ICG 2002 in gray and orange. Funding is needed to accomplish these plans, and donations can be made to the Diesel Department Equipment Restoration fund.

Here's a brief history of Burlington Northern 9976. 9976 was built by EMD in 1953 as an E8 locomotive for the Chicago Burlington & Quincy railroad, wearing smooth stainless side panels and silver paint on the cab, nose, and roof. After the merger in 1970 that created Burlington Northern, 9976 retained its stainless sides and silver paint, all the way until the MK rebuild in 1977/78 when it was rebuilt to an E9Am. 9976 did receive the BN logo and name on the sides and new number boards with a new font sometime in 1970/71. For the MK rebuild, it was painted to cascade green and black, with the white hockey stick on the sides, and numbered 9908. The BN commuter E units were retired in 1992. 9908 was one of several that went to Maryland to operate on MARC as 92 and finally donated to IRM in 2005 along with MARC 91.

Photo: How MARC 92 looked in 2008.

MARC 92 sat dormant for a number of years and was started for the first time at IRM in 2009, running in the Diesel Days parade that year, back when we had the Parade of Power. More in depth mainline testing didn't happen for another year in September 2010. It wore a few different numbers during that time, filling in the blanks with whatever numbers we had, until the 9908 inserts were made. In late 2011, 9908 was brought into the shop for a lot of steel work around the nose. That is when the white epoxy primer was sprayed on, and lasted all the way to this year.

Photo: The nose after steel work back in 2011.

Around that 2011 timeframe is when we had decided to make 9908 into CB&Q 9976, a stainless sided E unit again. There would be a number of items that would need to be backdated cosmetically. The loco didn't have its standalone HEP generator when donated to the museum, so the HEP cooling hatch will eventually come off, along with the associated pipes and other accessories. The nose door was traded for one with a headlight with our friends at URHS in Boonton, NJ. We actually did the trade at the Streamliners at Spencer event in 2014 since we were both attending with locos in each of our collections. E8 locomotives had port holes with frames on each one where E9's were gasketed for the port holes that didn't open. We acquired a number of frames over the years to be able to cover that. A lot of the work was started, but later was put on the backburner for other projects that became a higher priority.

Photo: Accepting the nose door from URHS in Spencer, NC in 2014.

Earlier this year, Lee wanted to run 9976 since it had been quite a while since it last ran. The only issue was that it wasn't really presentable to be on the lead or trail as it was missing some side panels, still had some areas of the cab sides that were open and no nose door. The only way to make it presentable in the timeframe we had, which was pretty much less than two weeks, but we're all volunteers with real jobs as well, so really only a few days, was to make it something it never was. I dug up some photos of some other BN units, 9977 as one example, with the white stripes on the nose and decided to make it that. The rest of the loco was still green and it wouldn't take much to put some temporary skin over the missing areas, a couple pieces of plywood for the two missing panels in the rear, and some paint. Mark did some quick welding work with the nose door and cab sides after several others did some prep. I had some paint matched and went to town on the green. Lee and I masked the nose stripes in about an hour, just guessing by photos of 9977, a quick spray with white and the that part was now presentable. The remainder of the old green and white was cleaned with lacquer thinner, and shined with a light layer of compressor oil to give it the gloss of the new paint. The end result was way better than any of us had ever anticipated.

Photo: BN 9976 with fresh green paint on the nose.

This was simply a temporary paint job to make the unit presentable for the next year or few before really getting the project going once again to return the unit to Chicago Burlington and Quincy paint. BN 9976 is schedule to operate on Saturday, August 30th on the Nebraska Zephyr, Sunday, August 31st on the Heavyweight train, Saturday, September 20th with BN 3 on a six car bilevel train, and on Sunday, September 21st again with BN 3 on a heavyweight train. Other times it will be on display on track 91 inside Barn 9 through next year.

Photo: BN 9976 on the mainline during Diesel Days 2025.

If you would like to support the future restoration back to CB&Q 9976, donations would be graciously accepted here, scroll down to Diesel Locomotive Equipment Restoration.