Soo Line No. 2500-A

The No. 2500-A is an FP-7, an “F-unit.” F-units were built from 1939 until 1957, and are credited with contributing to the demise of the steam locomotive. The No. 2500 was built by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division in November, 1949, as a demonstrator unit. It was then taken on a sales promotion tour. Soo Line was so impressed that it purchased the demonstrator unit. The No. 2500-A pulled “The Laker” passenger train for the Soo Line (now CP Rail) from Duluth to southern Wisconsin and Chicago. It was donated to the LSRM in 1986 by Soo Line Railway. The exterior was restored and repainted, and mechanical restoration was completed in the spring of 1995.