Regional Rail’s Carolina Coastal introduces new heritage-based paint scheme (ORIGINAL NS COMES TO LIFE!)

 

News photos: Regional Rail’s Carolina Coastal introduces new heritage-based paint scheme

By Scott A. Hartley | October 20, 2023

Design is based on scheme used by original Norfolk Southern, which was merged into Southern Railway

Email Newsletter

Get the newest photos, videos, stories, and more from Trains.com brands. Sign-up for email today!

One of two GP15-1 locomotives for Carolina Coastal Railway awaits final work after repainting at Metro East Industries in East St. Louis, Ill. Regional Rail, LLC

---

The Carolina Coastal logo on the GP15’s cab. Regional Rail LLC

WILSON, N.C. —  Carolina Coastal Railway, which operates 179 miles of tracks in eastern North Carolina once belonging to Seaboard Coast Line and the original (pre-1982) Norfolk Southern Railway, is receiving two former Union Pacific/Missouri Pacific GP15-1s wearing a red scheme inspired by that carried by Norfolk Southern Baldwin road-switchers in the 1950s and 1960s. Regional Rail, LLC, acquired Carolina Coastal in January 2020 and added the Clinton Terminal to its North Carolina network in August 2023.  The two GP15-1s will be renumbered Carolina Coastal 1501 (from UPY 600) and 1502 (from UPY 621).

Regional Rail has purchased six former Union Pacific and two Nebraska Central EMDs for use on four of its 13 railroads [see “Florida railroads adopt Seaboard Coast Line-inspired paint scheme,” Trains News Wire, Oct.16, 2023], which are being readied for service and painted by Metro East Industries of East St. Louis, Ill.