And it's not N&W's first SD40 as expected, but former Erie Lackawanna SD45-2 #1700 that has been repainted into her old colors.
About the only thing that they didn't do was renumber her to her original number, despite the 3669 slot being open above a group of SD40-2's (Which she and two sisters essentially now are, unlike #1703-1705 that retain their 20 cylinder 645's to this day).
Not sure of the latter picture, but credit for the former image is courtesy of Conrail Tracker on Facebook. I located both via way of Railway Preservation News. Neither one was taken by me.
Does Norfolk Southern own any rebuilt NYC GP40's that have been converted to something else like a GP38-2?
They're all over the place and that would be pretty much the only prayer for a Central fan if they're painting select units from predecessor roads. Not a single NYC unit survived to the last day of Conrail to be divided and their GP40 fleet was scattered to the winds years before (Their only group of 645 engined units minus some SW1500's owned by a subsidiary)
The closest to an exception would be yard slug MT4 #901 which was inherited by NS at merger and started its days as NYC RS-11 #7608. But even that's long gone at this point.
The second one appears to be an official NS photograph as it has their watermark.
As others have noted elsewhere the number and horn position are 'wrong' but it is simply wonderful to have the locomotive painted in its original colors. To my eye this is one of the best diesel hood unit schemes ever devised. Gorgeous, beautiful...
I agree, this design is hard to beat on a hood unit. And it should pacify nicely those that were bothered that NS didn't honor Erie Lackawanna earlier with their heritage program.
With all this, it's too bad they felt the need to repaint GP59 #4610 to clear the way just before the arrival of all their new heritage units.
Clearly, they now don't mind expanding this concept to older power. And her paintscheme from May 2004 still looked great although her lettering and cabside numbers needed the decals replaced.
Would be great if their original heritage unit was still rolling around in that classic, albeit anachronistic paintscheme. :)
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