Brookville built a single demonstrator for the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT); CDOT and the Metro-North combined to order eleven more in 2008, for a total of twelve locomotives.[6] CDOT owns six of the locomotives, which it originally painted in its "McGinnis" paint scheme, named after former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad president Patrick B. McGinnis. This scheme consisted of a black nose, with a white stripe and an orange rear, with white New-Haven lettering overlapping the orange rear. The first public run of the BL20GH occurred on June 9, 2008.[1]
The BL20GH locomotives began a rebuild program by MotivePower in 2019.[8] The rebuilt units will be equipped with Cummins QSK50 prime movers, which are compliant with Tier 3 of the Environmental Protection Agency's standards for locomotive emissions.[8] Following rebuild, they will be reclassified as BL20GHM. All units owned by ConnDOT were repainted into a paint scheme similar to the ones used on its CT Rail services.[citation needed]
Variants
A nearly identical locomotive, known as the BL20G, operates on the Staten Island Railway.[3] Four were built by Brookville Corporation in December 2008.[4] Numbered 776–779, these locomotives lack the head-end power generator and the associated ventilation grates of the BL20GH, and thus they are only used in work train service unless performing a rescue of their R44 EMU's.[citation needed]