After the 1964 merger of Nickel Plate and Wabash with Norfolk & Western, did any of the three ever combine motive power in their respective road liveries on their intercity passenger trains?
It seems plausible that this could have been done, especially since all shared blue color schemes after N&W repainted from tuscan to blue for passenger service.
Thanks,
Plausable, yes. Probably did, given the need for motive power at various times. Still, N&W was generally pretty particular about the appearance of their passenger trains, and I expect that the strong preferance would have been for N&W power, whether that be “original” or repainted from NKP and/or Wabash acquisition.
I looked through William E. Warden’s Norfolk & Western Passenger Service 1946-1971 (TLC Publishing, 1990). The photos are black & white, and I can’t detect any NKP or WAB diesel paints. There is a photo of N&W GP9 #790 leading a pair of Southern E-units on the Pelican in 1966, and another photo of GP9 #903 leading what appears to be a Southern F3B and F3 on the Birmingham Special through Waynesboro in 1969.
I recall when I rode The Pocahontas in the summer of 1969. I really enjoyed the former-Wabash dome car for my first view ever of mountains on my way to Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Solid blue N&W GP9s were the power.
Bill
I suspect the N&W quickly repainted their aquired fleet, among these were E units of Wabash and NKP heritage and former NKP Alco RS32’s that were equipped for passenger service, I have 8mm movies taken 2 months after D-Day, all are in fresh N&W colors, GP-9’s are the dominate presence in these films with a few freight GP-30’s assisting with passenger duties as well! All appear to retain the tradmarks of their various owners-such as signal lights and roof mounted air tanks for example, the NKP PA’s were gone and N&W didn’t have much use for former Wabash F units, those survivors for the most part were banished to freight service between Detroit and Windsor Ont.
Dave