The P&WV Hi-Line

[Rich_S]

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.

[jayrod]

Rich... You beat me to it.

Although the unit will be an ES44AC, it will be in authentic P&WV colors (see next post). It kinda answers that "what if" question if P&WV was still around today.

Now, if we could get it on a run-through over P&WV rails, that would be somethin'

jayrod

[Rich_S]

Hi Jayrod,
I hadn't heard it was going to be an EVO. Do you know who's painting the engine, JBS or Chattanooga?

It would be great to see the Wabash and the P&WV units make a run over the High and Dry, we can only dream.

Regards,
Rich S.

[jayrod]

I don't know if that info is public yet so I gotta keep it on the DL. I'll post what I can when I can if I can. Keep in mind that I'm far outside the direct lines of communication so I could actually be the last to know anything.

It's kind of an odd circular story for me, I'll go into detail when I can later.

jayrod

[jayrod]

Correction...

It'll be an EMD. Painting will be at Muncie.

[Rich_S]

Interesting... I didn't even know EMD had a plant in Indiana. The only ones I know about was La Grange IL and London ON. The funny part is we have not received any corporate emails on this yet, so the rail fan press has more info than we do.

The EMD's were being built in London ON and being commissioned at Bellevue. If they now are building them in Muncie, not sure if Bellevue will still be commissioning them or not?

Regards,
Rich S.

[jayrod]

As I understand it (I could be wrong), London is no longer doing assembly. Final assembly will occur in Muncie. I'm sure if I have things goofy, someone will set the record straight.

[jayrod]

Ok. I was confused. had to go look it up. I think they'll be assembled in LaGrange. Paint will be done by Progress Rail in Muncie.

[PWVJer]

Yes Sir Boys!
All we can say is a big Hi-Line WOW!!

JR/JZ.

[Rich_S]

Yes I agree, this is the best news in a long time. I just hope the P&WV units stays local. Some of the early AC's went to the Pokey, I just hope our P&WV does not end on the Pokey but instead works the coal trains out of Brownsville.

Regards,
Rich S.

[jayrod]

I'd love to get some photos of that bad boy. I already warned my Dad that if we hear that unit is going thru Conway, he's to jump in the car and run down there there to catch a video. He laughed. Little does he know how serious I am...

[PLEzero]

SD70ACe:

Savannah & Atlanta, Pittsburgh & West Virginia, Penn Central, Reading, Erie, Erie Lackawanna, Virginian, New Haven or 1960's NS, New York Central, Wabash. 

ES44AC:

Conrail, N&W, Pennsy, Lehigh Valley, Nickel Plate Road, Southern green: E8 style, Tennessee Alabama & Gerogia, Central Georgia. 

[MACADO]

I visited the Norfolk & Southern website, and they had pictures of the locos they were going to do. Unfortunetly no P&WV. I hope I'm wrong.

[jayrod]

The P&WV unit was definitely dropped. Don't know why yet. We'll post a message if we hear anything official. Bummer.

[Rich_S]

We got the official email at work today and Jayrod is correct. They dropped the P&WV, not sure why? Just quickly going through the list They also dropped Penn Central, Erie Lackawanna and the New Haven. It looks like in the place of the P&WV they added the Illinois Terminal, Interstate Railroad and the Central of New Jersey? Well at least they kept the Nickel Plate and the Wabash.

Regards,
Rich S.

[Rich_S]

[quote="MACADO"]I visited the Norfolk & Southern website, and they had pictures of the locos they were going to do. Unfortunetly no P&WV. I hope I'm wrong.[/quote]

On a side note, there is not a ampersand "&" in the railroads name, it's

Norfolk Southern

Just a FYI :-)

Regards,
Rich S.

[Rich_S]

Here is the update from the company web site:

Central of Georgia Railway (GE)
Central Railroad of New Jersey (EMD)
Conrail (GE)
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (EMD)
Erie Railroad (EMD)
Illinois Terminal Railroad (EMD)
Interstate Railroad (GE)
Lehigh Valley Railroad (GE)
New York Central Railroad (EMD)
New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (GE)
Norfolk Southern Railway (EMD) not to be confused with today’s NS
Norfolk & Western Railway (GE)
Pennsylvania Railroad (GE)
Reading Company (EMD)
Savannah & Atlanta Railway (EMD)
Southern Railway (GE)
Virginian Railway (EMD)
Wabash Railroad (EMD)

I'm not sure why NS is doing a New York Central unit, since most of the old Central went to CSX. For me high hopes have turned into, that's nice, next......

Regards,
Rich S.

[Rich_S]

Hi Group,
The 8100 Nickel Plate Unit finally made it to Conway and I was able to get a shot of it. Altoona did an outstanding job on this unit.




I know some of the NKP geeps made it east as far as Rook. So I guess we could image if the P&WV and NKP were still around today and if you squint your eyes just right, this could be a NKP unit riding the table at Rook. I know...., but at least we can dream.

Regards,
Rich S.

[jayrod]

If you haven't seen them, here's the official NS photos. It's as close as we're gonna get...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=393493&nseq=0
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=393441&nseq=1

jayrod

[Rich_S]

Hi Jayrod,
I've actually been a little closer, I've was on this unit Sunday loading some software. Here is another unofficial shot :lol:

Those are not lights below the ditch lights, that is just the reflective tape picking up the flash from the camera.


Regards,
Rich S.

[jayrod]

Cool beans, Rich. I hope they let you take it for a jaunt around the yard to test the software...

[Rich_S]

HI Group,
As a follow up NS has released a few more of the Heritage units. Here is another one that would be nice to see riding the rails of the P&WV along with the Nickel Plate unit.



I was on both this one and the P-Company unit, but I figured since the P-Company was the competition I won't post that photo here :)

Regards,
Rich S.

[jayrod]

Hey Rich -

If not too much bother, can you contact me off-board via email? I'm working on another 1:1 scale project (Pennsy) and I'm looking for contacts on the Pennsy unit paint. PPG didn't supply it and I hit a dead end at DuPont.

Thanks,
jayrod