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• LSRX 250
  August 28, 2026

  It has been an exciting summer at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. One of our locomotives, LSRX 245, was painted in red, white, and blue to commemorate and honor the semiquincentennial of our nation. Its grand debut was in June 2026 and this weekend it will be featured, along with many other commemorative locomotives, at the North Carolina Transportation Museum’s “America 250 Locomotive Celebration” in Spencer, NC. This extraordinary display of red, white, and blue locomotives from Class I, short line, and passenger railroads is expected to be a once in a generation event especially for railroad photographers.  Here is a brief history of the LSRX 245. This diesel locomotive was built in 1956 for Northern Pacific Railway as a passenger GP9 that operated across the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. It was assigned passenger service in Duluth in the late 1950s. As time passed and passenger counts dropped, the 245 was used to haul freight across the mountainous transcontinental line of the NP.  Eventually, with mergers and acquisitions, the locomotive found itself working for the likes of the Burlington Northern and Independent Locomotive Services. In 2019, a trade was initiated that would bring the 245 back to Duluth, to be added to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum’s collection. It arrived in 2020, and being in good operating condition, saw use on the North Shore Scenic Railroad for several years. In the spring of 2026, Operations Department Staff, Scott Parker and Liam Hoffmann, designed and presented an idea to paint the 245 in patriotic colors to the LSRM Board of Directors. Evoking the legacy of painting locomotives to celebrate America’s Bicentennial, the Board enthusiastically agreed to the patriotic paint job and to the renumbering of the 245 to 250, in honor of America’s 250th birthday.  A team of dedicated volunteers spent over 400 hours repainting the LSRX 250. The locomotive was unveiled on June 18, 2026 to much fanfare. The primary painters of the locomotive, Kevin Behm and John George, were able to take the locomotive on its first trip.     In early August, the LSRX 250 made its way to Spencer, NC with help from Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Norfolk Southern. We are thrilled to celebrate the semiquincentennial in North Carolina by showcasing the LSRX 250 with fellow historic locomotives.