Eastern Railroad Discussion > Norfolk Southern Leasing Locomotives

I asked this question on another person's post but maybe no one was paying attention. Is it me or what is it with Norfolk Southern? They have been purchasing second hand locomotives, rushing them into service with hand painted letters and numbers on them and yet when looking at many other photos I am seeing all kinds of ex-Norfolk Southern engines lettered FURX on other railroads? Does this make sense as I have read many times that Norfolk Southern is short on power, yet they have been selling off engines at the same time???

The FURX (former-NS) units you speak of were owned by First Union Rail the entire duration of time they spent on the NS. They were under long-term lease from First Union Rail to NS and thus were repainted into the standard black/white. Their lease finally expired last year and the engines went back to FURX ownership.

A similar case used to exist with many of Wheeling & Lake Erie's SD40-3 rebuilds. They were actually owned by the CIT Group but were under long-term lease and thus wore the Wheeling's paint scheme. However, unlike the NS, Wheeling went on to purchase these units when the contract expired rather than give them back to the leasing company.

Posted from Android

IIRC, weren't most or all of those FURX leases GP38-2's or other units that would not normally be used for road power? It seems like most if not all of the used power that they are buying up are 6-axle units. Don't know if that has anything to do with the price of tea in China or not - just a thought.

Its all about the Benjamins

Yes, NS is power short. The 5500's that were leased by NS from FURX went off lease a couple of years back. NS is currently buying every piece of used equipment that is can for a couple of reasons, one, they have an excellent rebuild program, two they need power now and the amount of power needed can't get churned out by both EMD and GE quick enough at this time, so used power is going into service patched or painted once it is inspected. Three, the used power that they have bought, is rebuild fodder, as it is not going to be required to meet the current and near future (1 Jan., 2015) Tier IV EPA requirements.

Russ

I wonder if they'll snap up the FEC SD70's once those get sidelined by the new GEVOs....

Michael

MDH Wrote:
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> I wonder if they'll snap up the FEC SD70's once
> those get sidelined by the new GEVOs....
>
> Michael


There probably have been conversations

if the new FEC order will be completed in December-January, NS could have some wild and whacky color schemes for a while. The red-white-blue Rail America look, the Alaska Railroad look, etc. Do the FEC units have heaters?

MDH Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if they'll snap up the FEC SD70's once
> those get sidelined by the new GEVOs....
>
> Michael

The fact that the ex-BNSF SD75M's were originally to be numbered 2779-2785...right behind NS's own SD70M-2's and then changed to 2800-2806. Then the 3 NYSW SD70M's were numbered 2797-2799...both of those things are hinting at something...

Posted from Android

Pretty sure bet I would say.....
RWJ


MDH Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if they'll snap up the FEC SD70's once
> those get sidelined by the new GEVOs....
>
> Michael