MTA Metro-North Railroad has added a seventh GE P32AC-DM (dual-mode) locomotive to its Heritage Series fleet, all of which are “a celebration of Metro-North’s rich history,” according to President Justin Vonashek. No. 203, “like everything we do at Metro-North, is a testament to the hard work of our employees and the progress we’ve made over the past 40 years.”
No. 203 sports a paint scheme replicating one the MTA applied in 1979 on seven Conrail dual-mode EMD FL9 diesel-electric locomotives. They were the first to sport the “MTA Central” scheme, with a silver aluminum-painted carbody with a blue stripe, since the locomotives were intended to operate on the former New York Central Hudson and Harlem Lines, both of which became part of Penn Central and then Conrail. The FL9s were transferred from Conrail to Metro-North upon that railroad’s formation on Jan. 1, 1983, and continued in service for another 20 years before being succeeded in the early 2000s by the P32AC-DMs. Unlike the previous six Heritage Series units, whose carbodies sport vinyl wraps, Metro-North employees in the North White Plains Paint Shop painted No. 203.
Multimedia designer and photographer Emily Moser (left), now Manager Interactive Development, Operations Training at Metro-North; and railroad artist, designer and advocate Andy Fletcher, had important roles creating the Heritage Series schemes applied to industrial designer Cesar Vergara’s now-iconic Genesis (P42 and P32) carbody. Moser’s primary contributions have been No. 214, an employee-tribute scheme, and designing the Heritage Fleet logo that replaced the 40th Anniversary logo. Two more Heritage Fleet units are in the works.
No 203 is expected to make its inaugural passenger service run on June 20. All seven P32AC-DMs are in service on Metro-North’s Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Lines, and can be spotted on any train that normally operates with the railroad’s dual-mode power—which now includes 49 Siemens SC42-DM Chargers.
The sixth commemorative locomotive, No. 222, debuted in February 2025 and was wrapped in an olive green and a dandelion yellow vinyl, the paint scheme employed on New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad locomotives until 1954.
The fifth commemorative locomotive expanded upon the originally envisioned Heritage Series, wrapping No. 214 to pay tribute to the Metro-North workforce. Instead of a scheme adapted from one of the railroad’s predecessors, the wrap pays tribute to the Metro-North workforce, featuring 2,000 pictures of past and present Metro-North workers.
The fourth commemorative locomotive debuted in March 2024, and paid tribute to Penn Central, the 1968 merger of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads, which absorbed the New Haven Railroad in 1969.
The third commemorative locomotive paid tribute to New York Central, the predecessor railroad that built and operated the Hudson and Harlem lines. No. 211 made its debut run in NYC’s famous lightning-stripe paint scheme on the Hudson Line on Nov. 14, 2023.
The second commemorative locomotive paid tribute to Conrail, Metro-North’s immediate predecessor. The locomotive made its debut on the Hudson Line on Aug. 14, 2023. The design of the wrap emulates the paint scheme applied to the FL9 dual-mode locomotives that Conrail operated for the MTA over the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Lines from 1976 to 1982.
The first commemorative locomotive paid tribute to Metro-North’s original scheme. No. 208, which made its debut in May 2023, was wrapped in silver, blue and red vinyl. The design was created upon the railroad’s founding in 1983 for the railroad’s historic FL9 locomotives and worn by them until the last was retired in April 2007.
