I had been told that, since the N & W dieselized relatively late, they did not buy any E or F diesels. They had all GP’s and SD’s and FM Trainmasters. But I was watching a video last night called “Steam Giants Across America” . They had a scene in it where a class A mallet is pushing a train up a hill and I thought I saw an E unit leading a passenger train on an adjacent track. I couldn’t see the passenger train very well because it is partially hidden by the freight being pushed. Could those of you who are more informed about this matter than I am clear this up? Thanks in advance.
N&W dieselized with GP9s, GP18s, RS-3s, and RS-11s. They leased the E units from the RF&P for a time, but I believe they settled on steam-generator Geeps for their passenger trains eventually.
The Fairbanks-Morse units came from the Virginian Railway when they merged.
After 1964, when the Nickel Plate, Wabash, and P&WV were merged into N&W, a lot of theretofore-exotic locomotive models showed up…diesel switchers, F units, E8s, Alco PAs (very briefly), and U25Bs.
And from January 1, 1958, Southern E’s ran over the N&W from Lynchburg to Bristol, pulling the through passenger trains. These engines, of course, were not N&W.
Does anyone know what financial arrangement was made to pay for the use of these foreign engines? Obviously, the Southern was not going to use any of the N&W steam engines.
Starting in July 1958, N&W leased E units from RF&P and ACL to completely dieselize their passenger trains. There was a backlog at EMD delaying delivery of the GP9’s that N&W ordered, thus the “need” to lease the cab units. The J’s were assigned to freght trains, and occasionally were used as back-ups on passenger trains. By 1959, there were enough passenger Geeps and the cab units were returned and the J’s (except 611) were scrapped. N&SW acquired its own E and F units when it took control of the Wabash in October 1964. Most were retired within the next 4 years, but a few lasted into the 70’s and were repainted into N&W colors.
By the way, the leased E units retained their owners’ paint schemes, but were relettered “Norfolk and Western”.