Norfolk & Western paint schemes

[GP18m]

Hi all!

I haven't been able to find info from the web on Norfolk and Western's paint schemes. Particularily, when was a certain scheme in use.

I assume that the order is following: Gothic letters, Hamburger, NW Block lettering. Am I right? Could someone give me years for their use, please. I am modeling ca. 1965-1969, would a GP30 with NW block scheme be out of place?

Another issue is color, which schemes are based on blue, which on black? From old photos it can be hard to tell.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[jfallon]

  Hello, fellow N&W fan!   Let me reccomend the book "Norfolk and Western: Second Generation Diesels" by Paul K. Withers and Robert G. Bowers. There is also one for First Generation Diesels and both contain guides to N&W's paint schemes. I will give a brief rundown of the major ones.

    Scheme F1, all black body with same lettering as steam engines, used until 1958.

    F2, black with gothic letter herald, 1958-1963, passenger engines were Tuscan Red

    F3, same as F2 but with "hamburger" herald, 1964-1966

    F4, freight and passenger engines blue with "hamburger" herald, 1966-1971

    F6, black with white NW, 1971-1982

 N&W also had a few experimental paint schemes that only a few locomotives had, plus units acquired through mergers and lease agreements that merely had an "NW" slapped on the previous owner's paint job.

  The dates are when locomotives started appearing in each paint scheme. They would often run for many years in the older schemes before being re-painted. 1969 is a little too early for the NW lettering, but you could shift era's to the early 70's and still have plenty of the blue locomotives running.

    The books are out of print as far as I know, but you can find them sometimes at train shows or the booksellers who advertise in RMC.

                   John 

[GP18m]

Thanks John!

 

The book on N&W second generation diesels is already on its way here. For some reason the one about first generation diesels is a bit too pricey at Amazon, talking about hundreds here... Think I'll rather buy the GP30