Nostalgia & History > Brand New N&W and SOU SD40-2s, 6/10/1978

My notes say these photos were taken in La Grange, IL on June 10, 1978, thus the SD40-2s must be on the IHB (Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad). The units are N&W 6173 and SOU 3296. I must have taken the third shot while the IHB was picking them up at EMD in McCook.

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/14 13:10 by MartyBernard.

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MartyBernard Wrote:
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> My notes say these photos were taken in La Grange,
> IL on June 10, 1987, thus the SD40-2s must be on
> the IHB (Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad). The units
> are N&W 6173 and SOU 3296. I must have taken the
> third shot while the IHB was picking them up at
> EMD in McCook.


Clean, but not new. NW6173 has neither Q-fans nor and exhaust silencer, which put's it's construction no later than 1979. I don't have a SD40-2 roster, but I think Soo 6617, a wreck rebuild delivered in 1984 may have been the "last" SD40-2.

Elizabeth

Betsy Wrote:
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>NW6173 has neither Q-fans nor
> and exhaust silencer, which put's it's
> construction no later than 1979;

I had a typo in the date and fixed it, but Betsy was too fast and caught me. The correct date is 1978.

Marty



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/14 13:17 by MartyBernard.

That NW scheme was the worst in the history of planet earth!

raytc1944 Wrote:
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> That NW scheme was the worst in the history of
> planet earth!


Well, that is your opinion. Others may disagree. I like the look and seemed appropriate for a major coal hauler.

That consist in photos 1 & 2 foreshadowed things to come in just 5 short years!

Nice photos Marty. Thanks for posting.

Jay

raytc1944 Wrote:
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> That NW scheme was the worst in the history of
> planet earth!

No, L&N dip job with pizza pan.

garr Wrote:
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> That consist in photos 1 & 2 foreshadowed things
> to come in just 5 short years!
>
I was about to say the same thing. Earl is out...

raytc1944 Wrote:
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> That NW scheme was the worst in the history of
> planet earth!


For sure--and the railroad paid some graphic outfit a half million dollars for it. I remarked at the time that I'd have been happy to get a sheet of Presstype (how we lettered things in those days), and smash an helvetica "N" up against a "W" and charge the N&W just $499,999.00 for the effort.

Art House

raytc1944 Wrote:
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> That NW scheme was the worst in the history of
> planet earth!

I liked it. I did like Norfolk and Western spelled out better but during the mid to late 1970's the N & W was trying to eliminate the 'And' in their name and rebrand their name and image as Norfolk Western.

Jim