Prototype News

The Midwest Overland Rail Preservation Society has restored Milwaukee Road SD40-2 156 to its Bicentennial appearance. The locomotive was completed this week and is slated to make its public debut at Kansas City Union Station on July 5. 

Built as Milwaukee Road 3026 in 1972, the locomotive was one of 90 SD40-2s on the MILW roster, outnumbering all other diesel models. Later renumbered as MILW 156, it was painted red, white and blue in 1975. It wore that paint job for just a few years before being covered again in MILW orange and black. In the 2010s, the engine ended up on Pan Am Railways. 

California-based Dieselmotive saved the locomotive from being scrapped in 2019, and it was later stored at the Oklahoma Railway Museum. The engine was later traded to the Midwest Overland Rail Preservation Society in 2025. 

Milwaukee 156 was painted by Railway Service Contractors in Fairfax, Kan. The engine is expected to return there after the display at Union Station for additional work. For more information, visit the Midwest Overland Rail Preservation Society Facebook page or mopxrr.org.

—Railfan & Railroad Staff

The post Milwaukee Road Bicentennial Unit Restored appeared first on Railfan & Railroad Magazine.