Marlboro Unlimited Train
#0001
Locomotive

Built new in November 1995 at EMD in London, Ontario, Canada as serial number 946543-1 and outfitted at EMD in La Grange, IL for the Marlboro Unlimited.

The locomotive was leased from GM and was sent west to Livingston, ID to await its call to Denver to pick up its cars -- a call that would never come.

It offered 3200 horsepower and a secondary electrical generator for head end power.

This locomotive and sister locomotive #0002 are unique among all F59PHI locomotives in having the ability to sync their combined electrical power output before sending it to their passenger cars -- a necessary modification since they were meant to work in concert with the train's power car, car #3.

Image: Photographed at Ontario, Canada shortly after leaving the factory floor in 1995.

An early GM promotional piece for their Chevy Corvette, featuring art of their new F59PHI locomotive - and with a fair amont of humor in it.

Note that the locomotive is described as a Hard Top, versus the Convertible 'Vette.

The locomotive specs call for an optional lavatory. Under the Corvette specs, the lavatory is listed as "Not Available".

The locomotive was eventually repainted at Livingston and sold to Metrolink for commuter service in Los Angeles in 1998. It ran in service as Metrolink SCAX 882.

Retired in April 2020, #882 was Metrolink's last remaining 'Tier 0' locomotive. Tier 0 refers to its level of emissions. It was replaced with a much more modern, cleaner Tier IV locomotive. When retired, 882 had put in over one million miles of Metrolink service.

A scale model of the locomotive used in the promotional VHS video has the locomotive numbered MUL 1 (presumably short for Marlboro UnLimited #1).

Athearn modeled #882 in HO and N scales.

Image: Todd Schannuth 2017 at Irvine, CA.

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