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North Carolina’s passenger rail service welcomed back one of its locomotives Tuesday with a traditional christening ceremony, a new number and a paint job that honors the country’s 250th birthday.
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The nearly 50-year-old engine, one of eight that move Amtrak Piedmont trains between Raleigh and Charlotte, just returned from a months-long overhaul where nearly every piece was rehabbed or replaced. The N.C. Department of Transportation, which owns the Piedmont trains, used the engine’s restoration as a chance to commemorate the nation’s semiquincentennial, said Jason Orthner, director of NCDOT’s Rail Division.
“Because this is a big celebration,” Orthner said. “And we’re not the only ones doing this. Many railroads all across the country are commemorating America’s 250th celebration with special livery on the locomotives.”
The engine, renumbered RNCX 1776, will make its public debut at a gathering of commemorative locomotives at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer the weekend of Aug. 28-30. More than 30 railroads, including the six big freight companies, will send commemorative engines from across the country to the America 250 Locomotive Celebration, said Dan Gurley, a member of the museum foundation’s board of directors.
Gurley said there’s a long tradition of painting locomotives for special events; railroads across the country marked the nation’s bicentennial in 1976 that way, he said, and three of those engines will appear in Spencer.
“It’s a rolling billboard,” he said. “And it helps the railroads connect with the communities they serve and with the nation in a broader sense.”
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NCDOT’s commemorative engine is a diesel-electric, meaning it burns fuel to run electric motors that turn the wheels. It was built in the late 1970s in Ontario, Canada, by a subsidiary of General Motors for the GO Transit system in Toronto. NCDOT, which assembled the Piedmont fleet by buying and rehabbing used engines and passenger cars, acquired this one sometime in the 2010s, Orthner said.
Everything on RNCX 1776 looked shiny and new Tuesday, just before state Board of Transportation member Lisa Mathis of Sanford smashed a bottle of sparkling cider over its front coupling — and then did it again with a second bottle for good measure.
There’s nostalgia around trains and their role in the state’s history, Mathis said. But Piedmont ridership has increased 59% since 2019 and set records each of the last four years, she said.
“That growth alone tells us that rail is not simply a part of history,” she said. “It is an increasingly important part of how North Carolinians travel today and how our growing state will move in the years ahead.”
Fresh from its overhaul, RNCX 1776 should last another seven years, Orthner said. By that time, NCDOT hopes to be using new locomotives and passenger cars on the Piedmont through a contract Amtrak has with Siemens Mobility.
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This story was originally published August 18, 2026 at 3:29 PM.