Excellent roster shot, all she needs now are marker lights !
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| Posted by on March 16, 2012 | |
NS has class. How do I know? They have great OCS units, a steam program, plans for 19 heritage units, and they upload to RP. That's class. Thanks so much, NS!
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Wow...can't wait to catch her on the road! Thanks for posting.
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She's looks beautiful! Thanks for posting on Railpictures!
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Classy! Can't wait for the rest to come out. Nice job NS!
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NICE! OK, How about an original Norfolk & Southern heritage locomotive?
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Uau! That's pretty nice one! I can't wait to see the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western units!
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| Posted by on March 16, 2012 | |
A couple of corrections to comments here: they would be called "classification lights" (or just "class" lights)--not "marker" lights. Class lights are on the front of a locomotive; marker lights are on the rear of a train. Also, it's not "Norfolk & Southern"--neither the original, nor the current day version. Just trying to clear these items up. :)
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Wow! can't wait to see the others!
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Oh man... this is the same thing as having a movie you saw in high school get remade, or watching them tear down a building you saw get built.
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Great work, NS keeping things as authentic as possible in 2012. Well done!
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Can't wait to see all the units painted in heritage paint makes up for 4610 repaint.
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A couple of comments. Conrail did, indeed, put FRA qualified red marker lights on the front and rear of the locomotives starting with the last batch of GP40-2s in 1980 right up through the SD80MACs - and called them markers. This was done so that they could display a red marker instead of a dimmed headlight when running light or pushing. The came after a wreck on SEPTA at occurred partly because they were using a dimmed headlight as a marker. Second, to nit pick the scheme, The big "can opener" is supposed to be centered on the engine compartment doors with the "Conrail" on the side more to the rear, too. The Conrail on the nose appears to be the old "small" one used on GP15-1s when they were new. The steps edges and plow grabs should be white. But, overall, it looks fabulous!
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I'll second Peter's comment, as well as Jame's summing up a classic remake with much gratitude. I don't mind Don's observations, obviously not meant in a derogatory way. Picking up where Conrail left off, I might have expected a white face and the word quality pasted all over the engine though I'm happy to see the clean wheels on track logo. Thanks NS!
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| Posted by goobnav on March 16, 2012 | |
Surprise, surprise, NS finally took my email, sent over 4 years ago and, ran with it. I am so happy that we'll see a huge part of America's railroad heritage back on the rails once again.
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Now that's what I'm talking about! Beautiful.
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| Posted by Mike on March 16, 2012 | |
Thank goodness! I lost my can opener! Can't wait to see the Illinois Terminal one. Nice to see on a brand new locomotive, but still rather boring to me.
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| Posted by John R on March 16, 2012 | |
Beautiful NS. Thanks for doing the Heritage Units and posting the photo. NS truly does have class. I volunteer at a train museum that is adjacent to their main line north of Atlanta and they have been most supportive with providing back up diesels, the Exhibit Car and helping us move equipment. A first class operation. Thank You.
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Very nicely done. I guess they could have just not painted one of Conrail's SD 80 MACs and kept it clean! Can't wait for the rest of the Heritage Fleet. Now we just need a Twitter account to post our sightings so we can keep track of these beauties....no pun inteneded.
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Beware the Ides of March, for the Can Opener is back!
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Nicely done, Norfolk Southern ... looking forward to the rest of the heritage series ... Thank You!
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Great shot Casey!
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NS is the BEST class 1 on rails. I love how the only NS reporting marks are under the road number unlike on UP. Also, glad to see the Conrail unit was painted in Altoona. And it came out first!
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I'll agree with Don - first thing I noticed was the off-center logo. White step edges would be nice, but that could be a regulation thing now that makes all new paintings yellow?? What bothers me most though is the hole in the nose where headlights should be. Either plating over it or a bigger logo would help distract from the emptiness - makes me think this loco has buck-teeth! NS doesn't use marker lights and has high number boards, but adding low number boards and marker lights just to give this unit a real Conrail feeling would have gone a long way.
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Hey CSX ! , take a hint.
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Norfolk Southern, thank you for doing this. You did not have to do it but you did to honor your history. Thank You.
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Very nice job NS!
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GREAT photo, Casey, and thanks to you and NS for sharing it with us! I'm very pleased and proud that my employer of over 30 years is producing 19 heritage units to commemorate their 30th anniversary. And oh, what a treat they will be for us fans as well! I do hope you’ll be able to share each heritage unit with us as they emerge from the paint shops. And one final thing, Casey; If you have been instrumental in any way, shape or form to bring these heritage units to fruition, please take a huge bow and accept my sincere thanks and appreciation!!
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I'm waiting most excitedly for the Penn Central loco to be unveiled!
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A very nice job, and thank you Norfolk Southern. But I think for the Conrail heritage unit, an EMD S70MACe should have been used, since Conrail had many GEs that shared this same cab design, while the EMDs have a later design that would be truly unique in this scheme.
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This makes the UP heritage units look like a joke.
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NS's attention to detail is like that of an expert modeler: They moved the headlight from the nose to cab roof just like the Dash-8's Conrail originally purchased.
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| Posted by on March 16, 2012 | |
Looks great. I'm thinking the units will be painted in the reverse order that the railroad in question was purchased?
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You see this is what UP should have done with their heritage locos!! NS gave the people what they wanted! Sharp locomotive!
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Thank heavens they aren't making up schemes as UP did. Can't wait to see the TA&G unit...
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I'm looking forward to seeing all the other schemes. I hate to nitpick, but I wish they'd fix the part on the nose where the headlight is supposed to be and cover it up or something, just to fix the profile a bit. But I must say this engine looks fantastic. Conrail's blue has always been one of my favorite paint schemes. I think BNSF needs to do a heritage program like this!
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This is a cool looking engine, and a neat railroad to represent the first one out of the shop. I'm sure those Ex-CR employees that undoubtedly helped paint it and rolled past it sitting at the shop had more of a sense of pride in their current employer's new willingness to acknowledge its history. I look forward to the next 18, NS. Now send some of them to Kansas City once in a while (like that Wabash one when it's out).
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To support what everyone else has said, "THANK YOU NS". As an NS shareholder, I fully support spending the money to do this project "properly." VERY MUCH looking forward to seeing the PENNSYLVANIA and LEHIGH VALLEY units. They should be STUNNING in dark red.
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Very classy...glad you started with the railroad that many of us miss the most !
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Hey, NS - you rock.
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| Posted by Tanner on March 17, 2012 | |
I'm in love! "Conrail Quality" would have looked better, but I can see why NS chose this scheme. Too bad they didnt make the Conrail on the nose a little bigger, slapped a set of Leslie RS-3L-R's on it and it would have been perfect!
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I find it funny how NS has went from the railfans most hated railroad to the railfan's favorite all in a matter of 20 years. It doesn't seem like that long ago that 611 and 1218 were mothballed. Kudos NS.
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After reading some of these comments it's pretty clear that the railfan community is hard to satisfy. Lets forget minor details of paint jobs and remember that NS is reaching out to us, the railfan community, so thank you all at Norfolk Southern, from all of us.
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Thank you Norfolk Southern for this exciting heritage locomotive program! A lot of folks think that corporations are always heartless, passionless entities. Well, this heritage program shows that Norfolk Southern Corporation has a lot of heart, as well as a passion for its history and its future!
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| Posted by ollie on March 18, 2012 | |
Thanks Norfolk Southern for recreating a piece of my childhood!
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Very well done NS, looks excellent!
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Finally! I think it is fantastic to see a Conrail loco on the rails again. I really hope I can catch it in a photo one day.
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Very interesting that NS would have an account and post a high-quality image at a railfan site. Certainly a way to generate a lot of buzz for cheap...Very savvy, NS!
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Hmmm. Wonder what the N&W heritage unit would look like if they did it after the J class 4-8-4 with a nice burgundy stripe staring from the nose and going the length of the side on a shiny black beauty? Just a thought.
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The Conrail looks amazing can't wait for the other Norfolk Southern Heritages
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