Norfolk Southern to debut heritage fleetPublished: February 16, 2012
NORFOLK, Va. — To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Norfolk & Western/Southern merger in 1982, Norfolk Southern plans to honor many of the railroads that make up the present day NS system. As Union Pacific did a half-decade ago, NS plans to create a fleet of heritage locomotives, though NS’s plans are bigger: 18 units honoring a wide variety of predecessor roads.
The locomotives will be 10 SD70ACes on order from EMD that are being constructed at its Muncie, Ind., plant, and eight ES44ACs from an upcoming order for 25 units from GE. While EMD will paint all 10 heritage units in-house, NS forces will paint the eight GEs. The railroad’s Altoona, Pa., shop will paint five, while the Chattanooga, Tenn., shop will handle three heritage units.
The 18 predecessor railroads selected for heritage paint are:
• Central of Georgia • Conrail • Erie • Erie Lackawanna • Lehigh Valley (red) • New Haven (not definite yet) • New York Central • Nickel Plate Road • Norfolk & Western (blue) • Penn Central • Pennsylvania (Tuscan Red) • Pittsburgh & West Virginia • Reading • Savannah & Atlanta • Southern • Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia • Virginian • Wabash
NS plans to recreate the paint schemes as accurately as possible. By contrast, UP used the old railroads’ logos and colors, b
I really hope that they use a predecessors paint scheme as well. At 18 units I’m happy that they have one-uped Union Pacific at something. Just glad to see Norfolk Southern showing an intrest in their past again.
(For those who are wondering about early April Fool’s jokes)
This was posted on the Trains News Wire (and copied from there to other internet forums), but otherwise unconfirmed elsewhere. NS does not have it listed on their website yet.
The W&LE already has a P&WV painted ‘heritage’ locomotive. The next step, that is if this whole thing comes to pass, will be a photo shoot of them together.
Lyon, like it or not (most folks will say “not”) P.C. played a really big part in American railroad history…for the worse unfortunately, but a big part nonetheless.
I am surprised and happy to see NS making this move. The stodgy black and white face they present to the public is, well, stodgy and this should be a great public relations move for them. Colorful, too. I see they are doing an Erie two tone greenwit yellow pinstripes and an Erie Lackawanna gray, maroon,and yellow pinstripes, but not Delaware, Lackawanna and Western gray, maroon, and yellow pinstripes. Hopefully they will do either both EL and DL&W or just DL&W. But maybe it is because they actually don’t own or operate on that much DL&W trackage. They provide service on former DL&W lines now under NJT from Hackettstown east and own the track from Philipsburg, NJ to Port Morris or Dover, I’m not sure at this moment; they also use part of the DL&W ROW in the Big Flats to Corning NY area. Maybe that’s not enough for DL&W to quaify. But so what…paint it DL&W anyway!
The Illinois Terminal (ITC) is also a NS predecessor railroad since it was acquired by N&W in 1981, though it doesn’t appear the IT is on NS’s list of proposed heritage locos.
Even though a local shortline recently painted a GP10 in ITC-inspired colors.
That’s not cold. This is COLD: They should do a PRR/NYC mother-slug set. The PRR would be the mother and NYC the slug. That would be historically accurate: the NYC slug cannot move without sapping power from the PRR.
(Sorry, NYC folks. Although my favorite road was the EL my DNA is PRR. Go Red Team!)
True for most of New Jersey but Norfolk Southern does own CNJ trackage that is not part of Conrail Shared Assets.
NS Lehigh Line uses the old CNJ bridge over the Delaware River instead of the Lehigh Valley bridge.
CNJ in Pennsylvania between Bethlehem and Lehighton which includes the use of CNJ’s old Allentown Yard
Short segment of the old CNJ mainline in western NJ.
NS does own some ex-Lehigh and New England trackage north of Allentown and Bethlehem that whose operations were taken over by the CNJ after L&NE was abandoned in 1961.