Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS and the CRN mystery

OK. While out railfanning with a friend on the NS around Wabash, IN today. Just outside of Wabash,proper, We ran into NS Wabash District Local L97. Nothing too unsusal, YET. We set up at Wabash Alloy\'s private crossing for a shot, when we noticed that their single unit, a GP38, had absolutely NO NS markings. The White stripes on the sides, along with the horse on the noses was all painted out. The only discrenable markings on the unit was the engine number and reporting marks, all below the cab window. It turned out to be CRN #2878. I looked up the reporting mark to discover that it is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corp. My questions are thus:
1)Exactly who or what is "CRN"?
2)What on earth is this unit doing on a local in north-central Indiana?
3)Is this some kind of Internal Leasing or shortline thing? Like when Conrail had the CRL reporting marks on some leaser junk?

DRLOCO--just trying to solve a little mystery, without the use of scooby snacks.

That subsidiary was created by Southern Railway System after they merged the original Norfolk Southern Railway System in 1974.
It means Carolina & Northwestern.

CRN is Carolina & Northwestern. It has a past history (sorry, I am not from the area) but was recently turned into a "business unit", a.k.a. internal shortline. Basically anything NS in the eastern third of North Carolina is part of it.

Maybe the Geep wandered away?

FM