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VL80 MILW S

Vl80 with a customizable number board in a special Milwaukee Road livery.

1997, The Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul, and Pacific Railroad Co celebrates 150 years since it's foundation in 1847. To commemorate the occasion, in addition to the road's survival over a tumultuous and hard half century since the Centennial, the company repaints some of its locomotives and rolling stock.

The specially designated EP-5 VL80s were created in the Milwaukee's Tacoma Shops when the existing EF6s were fitted with head-end power inverters for passenger service. The units would be rented to Amtrak and pull its revived Olympian Hiawatha on the Pacific Extension from Tacoma to Spokane via Seattle and Ellensburg. Formally Amtrak used other EF6s along with an HEP Generator Car, but this got too expensive for Amtak and the exhaust caused issues in tunnels. When the Sesquicentennial came around, the Tacoma Shops repainted a few of the EP5s with the maroon stripes used on Hiawatha Locomotives to recognize the past Olympian Hiawatha. Later, when OCS consists would transit the electrified district the sesquicentennial units would be again employed for motive power.