Norfolk Southern Releases First of 19 Heritage Locomotives
CASEY THOMASON / NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP.
SOON AFTER NORFOLK SOUTHERN an- nounced on March 1, 2012, that it would paint 18 new locomotives in the historic paint schemes of its predecessors to help commemo- rate the railroad’s 30th anniversary on June 1, specially painted ES44AC’s began to appear. General Electric delivered NS 8098-8105 in primer to the DeButts Yard diesel shop in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the Juniata Locomo- tive Shop in Altoona, Penn., where NS forces would paint the units into heritage colors. (The remainder of the 25-unit order for Nos. 8091- 8115 was delivered in primer to Mid-America Car in Kansas City, Mo., which would paint them in the standard NS black scheme.) First out was NS 8098 in Conrail colors,
which rolled out of Juniata on March 15 and was sent to Conway Yard to be set up for ser- vice. 8098 made its first run leading several new sisters on unit coal train 578 out of Con- way on March 20 (opposite top) running via Columbus and Portsmouth, Ohio, to Lamberts Point, Va. Next out was NS 8099 in Southern Railway’s passenger scheme of Sylvan green and imita- tion aluminum (top, at Dixiana, Va., on April 1), which was released from Chattanooga on March 20 and made its first run leading 38Q on March 23 between Knoxville, Tenn., and Roanoke, Va. The third unit to hit the road was NS 8100
in Nickel Plate Road colors (right, at Leets- dale, Penn., on April 4), which came out of Ju- niata on March 28 and after setup at Conway made its first run as the trailing unit on train 61M, stone empties from Leetsdale, Penn., to Ashtabula, Ohio. Then on the night of April 5, NS 8101 rolled
out of the Chattanooga shop wearing Central of Georgia’s attractive blue and gray colors,
20 JUNE 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
originally adapted by EMD from the Baltimore & Ohio cab unit scheme with orange rather than B&O’s gold striping (above at Chat- tanooga on April 6). Next out was NS 8103 (opposite bottom at
Juniata on April 9) in a rendition of the Nor- folk & Western “Pevler blue” scheme, which was applied to N&W power during the presi-
dency of Herman Pevler, a former Wabash man who brought his home road colors to the “basic black” N&W after it absorbed the Wabash and Nickel Plate in 1964. At press time, NS 8105 in Interstate Rail-
road orange, gray, and white with silver trucks was to have been released from Chattanooga by April 15 or so. After that, NS 8114 was set
RON FLANARY
PHOTO CREDIT
DAVID BAER
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