KCS locomotive sports patriotic paint scheme to honor vets

Kansas City Southern officials yesterday unveiled a locomotive with a patriotic paint scheme.

The scheme demonstrates the company's pride in past and present U.S. military activity duty and veteran employees, said KCS Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Songer in a press release.

The 2005 EMD SD70ACE locomotive is maintained at KCS’ shop in Shreveport, Louisiana.

KCS Assistant VP of Locomotive Operations Chris Mitchell came up with the scheme and worked with contractor Jerry Barton to paint the locomotive. In recent years, Mitchell and Barton have been involved in converting the KCS locomotive fleet from its previous grey paint design to the current red, yellow and black heritage paint scheme, KCS officials said.

The Class I also held events yesterday at its Kansas City, Missouri, headquarters to honor active-duty and veteran employees.

“The values and work ethic of military active duty and veteran workers align very well with KCS and the railroad industry in general,” said KCS Senior Vice President of Human Resources Lora Cheatum.