Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS heritage fleet to be 18 units

Trains News Wire states NS will do 18 heritage units in their original schemes. Units will be 10 'ACe's and 8 ES44AC's Imagine, an Erie AC unit?

OK. It's not April 1st. This still must be some kind of cruel joke!!
Really, way to go NS, can't wait to see them!

John Regan

Interesting that they're doing Pittsburgh & West Virginia, which is entirely on the W&LE now, but not Akron, Canton & Youngstown or W&LE itself -- of course, doing a W&LE "heritage" unit would create a conflict with the "new" W&LE. Also, New Haven, which while a part of Conrail by way of Penn Central, does not have any heritage in the NS portion of CR (but some ex-NH lines are part of Pan Am Southern, in which NS has a stake). Including both Erie and Erie Lackawanna (but not Lackawanna) is also curious, while Central of New Jersey is absent.

The P&WV would be the second "heritage" unit for that road, given that the existing W&LE already has one. W&LE also has its AC&Y unit, so they haven't been forgotten.

The "H" key must be sticky at Trains.com. Their list of paint schemes has missing h's in the names of Lehigh Valley, Pittsburgh & West Virginia, and Savannah & Atlanta.

My choice for the New Haven scheme: the 1960s black with red NH and white pinstripes. Alternatively, the early green with yellow trim. The McGinnis variants are already well represented elsewhere.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/12 09:44 by toledopatch.

gouldj Wrote:
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> Trains News Wire states NS will do 18 heritage
> units in their original schemes. Units will be 10
> 'ACe's and 8 ES44AC's Imagine, an Erie AC unit?

You have to be kidding!

Anyone still upset about the NS 4610 losing its Southern Railway green scheme?

It's interesting that Trains has this on their website, but there is no official press release on Norfolk Southern's website.

Jeff Hawkins

Now waiting for the NYC / PC / Conrail combo on a hot van train through Toledo... ;)

But wow, I might actually get to see a few of these unlike the elusive UP ones. Love the irony that they've just about finished repainting the former Conrail units and now they're going to put fresh Conrail on a new one! Still feels like some kind of April Fools joke but this is all kinds of awesome.

I like this
"NS plans to recreate the paint schemes as accurately as possible. By contrast, UP used the old railroads’ logos and colors, but created new interpretations on the old liveries. "

If this holds true, pretty darn cool. For myself I would hope the EL unit is an 70ace.

MDH Wrote:
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> Now waiting for the NYC / PC / Conrail combo on a
> hot van train through Toledo... ;)
>
> But wow, I might actually get to see a few of
> these unlike the elusive UP ones. Love the irony
> that they've just about finished repainting the
> former Conrail units and now they're going to put
> fresh Conrail on a new one! Still feels like some
> kind of April Fools joke but this is all kinds of
> awesome.


Well put. All kinds of awesome indeed. I look forward to images of these new units being splashed all over the internet.

Cheers,
Harry

If true, that sure would be nice.

Cool, but disappointed there doing Erie and EL but not DLW, or L&HR.

How about that? NS still has Conrail locos in Conrail blue right? Why not re-paint one of the original Conrail units? In Conrail blue of course.

pal77 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I like this
> "NS plans to recreate the paint schemes as
> accurately as possible. By contrast, UP used the
> old railroads’ logos and colors, but created new
> interpretations on the old liveries. "
>
> If this holds true, pretty darn cool. For myself
> I would hope the EL unit is an 70ace.

If you look real hard at a SD70Ace with the flared radiators and and the carbody extension behind them, it's not all that hard to imagine a SDP45!

junctiontower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you look real hard at a SD70Ace with the flared
> radiators and and the carbody extension behind
> them, it's not all that hard to imagine a SDP45!

On the other hand, a six-axle New York Central unit will look odd, no matter who makes it!

toledopatch Wrote:
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> The P&WV would be the second "heritage" unit for
> that road, given that the existing W&LE already
> has one.

And the first engine in full P&WV paint (not counting the aforementioned Wheeling unit which is in Wheeling colors) since a FM H20-44 wore the colors of the "High & Dry"! One guess which one I'd go out of my way looking for based on what I model:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdharding/6007199418/in/set-72157627351435456

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting that they're doing Pittsburgh & West
> Virginia, which is entirely on the W&LE now, but
> not Akron, Canton & Youngstown or W&LE itself --
> of course, doing a W&LE "heritage" unit would
> create a conflict with the "new" W&LE. Also, New
> Haven, which while a part of Conrail by way of
> Penn Central, does not have any heritage in the NS
> portion of CR (but some ex-NH lines are part of
> Pan Am Southern, in which NS has a stake).
> Including both Erie and Erie Lackawanna (but not
> Lackawanna) is also curious, while Central of New
> Jersey is absent.
>
> The P&WV would be the second "heritage" unit for
> that road, given that the existing W&LE already
> has one. W&LE also has its AC&Y unit, so they
> haven't been forgotten.
>
> The "H" key must be sticky at Trains.com. Their
> list of paint schemes has missing h's in the names
> of Lehigh Valley, Pittsburgh & West Virginia, and
> Savannah & Atlanta.
>
> My choice for the New Haven scheme: the 1960s
> black with red NH and white pinstripes.
> Alternatively, the early green with yellow trim.
> The McGinnis variants are already well represented
> elsewhere.

NS comes close to former New Haven lines with its service at Campbell Hall NY. Maybrook is just a short hop up NY 208. But, no cigar...

pal77 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I like this
> "NS plans to recreate the paint schemes as
> accurately as possible. By contrast, UP used the
> old railroads’ logos and colors, but created new
> interpretations on the old liveries. "
>
> If this holds true, pretty darn cool. For myself
> I would hope the EL unit is an 70ace.

Too late to save Kodak!

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> junctiontower Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If you look real hard at a SD70Ace with the
> flared
> > radiators and and the carbody extension behind
> > them, it's not all that hard to imagine a
> SDP45!
>
> On the other hand, a six-axle New York Central
> unit will look odd, no matter who makes it!

Just think Cigar Band E8........

I hate to say this but........if NS tried to think up a way to have MORE railfans around their property this is a good one!

Norfolk Southern to debut heritage fleet
Published: 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, but created new interpretations on the old liveries.

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting that they're doing Pittsburgh & West
> Virginia.....but not Akron, Canton & Youngstown or W&LE itself --
> of course, doing a W&LE "heritage" unit would
> create a conflict with the "new" W&LE.


NKP absorbed W&LE in 1949. Pre-merger W&LE never owned a road diesel, just four solid-black NW2s.