NS gets an 'attaboy from me for this program. they look classy
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
The heritage units will gather at Spencer, NC on the 4th of July.
Mike
oltmannd I'd have to imagine that they'll try to gather them all up for the 30th birthday "party" and have some sort of photo shoot. Wonder where and what it'll look like?
I'd have to imagine that they'll try to gather them all up for the 30th birthday "party" and have some sort of photo shoot. Wonder where and what it'll look like?
Plans are afoot, I understand, and there will be public access to the event. Early July?
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I can just envision some dipstick grafitti "artist" ruining these new paint jobs- especially that N&W unit with all that blue "canvas".
Update on current location of the heritage units as of 4/5.
NS 8100 last scanned heading north at Ashtabula, OH on train 61M.
NS 8099 last scanned heading west at Cleveland, VA on train 784.
NS 8098 last scanned heading west at Wheeler, IN on train 866.
Leo_Ames Look at the date that was posted. ;) Guess he fooled at least one person.
Look at the date that was posted. ;)
Guess he fooled at least one person.
"Mess with the best, die like the rest" -U.S. Marine Corp
MINRail (Minessota Rail Transportaion Corp.) - "If they got rid of the weeds what would hold the rails down?"
And yes I am 17.
Look at what UP is doing because of NS's heritage fleet
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/204584.aspx
EMD#1 Trust me, I've begged and pleaded with the company to treat these units differently than the others. Also, as an engineer I love to run these AC units compared to their DC counterparts so I long for the day when their numbers overtake the DC engines. Maybe in the next 20 years that will be true. As for seeing the heritage units outside of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania I would encourage everyone to become friends to NS on facebook and post your request for the units to handle trains in your area. Maybe the sheer demand will get Mr. Moorman's attention and he will issue specific instructions for the units. For the Anniversary I can see the company spreading the units across the system at major terminals for the employees. Most likely the home terminal of that specific railroad.
Trust me, I've begged and pleaded with the company to treat these units differently than the others. Also, as an engineer I love to run these AC units compared to their DC counterparts so I long for the day when their numbers overtake the DC engines. Maybe in the next 20 years that will be true.
As for seeing the heritage units outside of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania I would encourage everyone to become friends to NS on facebook and post your request for the units to handle trains in your area. Maybe the sheer demand will get Mr. Moorman's attention and he will issue specific instructions for the units.
For the Anniversary I can see the company spreading the units across the system at major terminals for the employees. Most likely the home terminal of that specific railroad.
That would be cool. Would love to see the CofGa and SOU units parked in front of the yard tower for us to enjoy as well. I wont hold my breath though.
EMD#1Both the Conrail unit and the Southern unit are now hauling coal. Just like I said.
And which I and nobody else ever disagreed with.
I simply pointed out the obvious, give it time and let the AC fleet grow in size and I'm sure we'll start to see these things venture outside of coal service fairly regularly. Just need a bit of patience. Other than the SD80MAC's, their oldest AC's are still almost new and their current fleet is small. But they have quite a few more on order with further orders to come over the next few years.
In otherwords, expect the exact same thing that happened with the Dash 9 fleet and then the ES40DC fleet to occur again. Both were almost exclusively coal power early on, but as Norfolk Southern started to amass hundreds of Dash 9's (And then over 200 ES40DC's), each model began to be regular sights throughout the system, serving as run through power on other systems, etc.
You'll see the same things again with their AC fleet no doubt.
oltmanndI'd have to imagine that they'll try to gather them all up for the 30th birthday "party" and have some sort of photo shoot. Wonder where and what it'll look like?
Hopefully, but with 19 locomotives, I kind of doubt it. We're talking about over 40 million dollars in assets here and what will be a pretty decent size slice of their AC fleet when the last of them is delivered in the next few months. Taking them away from hauling freight for several days just to get them all together for one photo shoot would be an awfully expensive photo shoot. Not sure I see them approving such a plan but hopefully I'm wrong.
Union Pacific by comparison has in the neighborhood of 3,000 modern high horsepower AC locomotives and their heritage fleet was a grand total of 5 locomotives. So it was more easily justified. But keep your fingers crossed and maybe they will decide there is enough value in such a thing to justify it. Just don't hold your breath.
Well there really isn't much happening here. Plus that's what standardization does. Eliminates variety. I really don't have that issue in my neck of the woods since anything could come down these tracks like yesterday where a GP40 with a local.
This has been the "only" topic on here in a month........ Almost as boring as watching all the "BNSF Dash 9s, out here in AZ. @ Garland Prarie Rd. MP353.6................. Every "Freaken train" ......... OH to see a "SD70", or a SD60 !
NS 8099 (Southern unit) last reported showing on train U53 (a coal train) in Appalachia, VA and NS 8098 (Conrail unit) last reported on train U86 (another coal train) in Herndon, WV.
@EMD #1. Is the Ft. Wayne line considered to be coal country despite the number of NS intermodal trains?
YoHo1975 Well, I've only seen pictures of them hauling Intermodal and manifest trains. Like I said, NS now only buys AC power. The management can say they only want to run AC on Coal, but at some point those DC units are gonna become the minority and AC will be on everything.
Well, I've only seen pictures of them hauling Intermodal and manifest trains.
Like I said, NS now only buys AC power. The management can say they only want to run AC on Coal, but at some point those DC units are gonna become the minority and AC will be on everything.
This is Norfolk Southern we are talking about, not BNSF. We are the frugal railroad. NS is buying a few AC locomotives but they are also buying used SD60s. Management's philosophy is that the cost of rebuilding an SD60 compared to purchasing new power makes more economic sense at this time. I do believe we will see more new locomotives purchased before the new 2015 tier 4 mandate kicks in but it will be a very long time before AC units outnumber DC units on NS. Don is right, you might see the engines on merchandise trains from time to time but that will be the exception and not the norm. I also agree with him in that when they do escape coal country, be prepared.
EMD#1 Leo_Ames: I think you missed his point. NS, other than those inherited SD80MAC's, has been a AC user for just a short time. Their AC locomotives have only been coming online over the past two years or so and I believe the total is still well under 200 at the moment (Although with GE and EMD orders arriving right now boosting that total every few days). You could've been on a line hauling a lot of coal until very recently and still have barely ever seen their AC power since the oldest locomotives they've ordered are still almost brand new. Since they appear to have switched to buying AC locomotives exclusively and have many more due to come online over the next several years, you should see these things start to venture over wider areas as time goes by. They're not going to just put their new locomotives from here on out on coal and ignore the rest of their business with older DC units. As their AC fleet grows, I would expect to see them start to be more common on the same assignments currently the domain of their Dash 9's and their DC GEVO's. Both the Conrail unit and the Southern unit are now hauling coal. Just like I said. See an article in Trains by our new Vice President of Mechanical Don Graab. NS wants DC units assigned to intermodal and general freight and AC units assigned to unit coal trains. NS is trying to run two AC units where three DC units once ran freeing up the DC units for General Merchandise service. I have worked for this company in multiple roles so I know how it is run. Unless Wick Moorman steps in and says he wants these special units treated differently the control center folks in Atlanta will handle them like any other AC unit NS owns. That's too bad unless you live in places like Enola, PA or Roanoke, VA.
Leo_Ames: I think you missed his point. NS, other than those inherited SD80MAC's, has been a AC user for just a short time. Their AC locomotives have only been coming online over the past two years or so and I believe the total is still well under 200 at the moment (Although with GE and EMD orders arriving right now boosting that total every few days). You could've been on a line hauling a lot of coal until very recently and still have barely ever seen their AC power since the oldest locomotives they've ordered are still almost brand new. Since they appear to have switched to buying AC locomotives exclusively and have many more due to come online over the next several years, you should see these things start to venture over wider areas as time goes by. They're not going to just put their new locomotives from here on out on coal and ignore the rest of their business with older DC units. As their AC fleet grows, I would expect to see them start to be more common on the same assignments currently the domain of their Dash 9's and their DC GEVO's.
I think you missed his point. NS, other than those inherited SD80MAC's, has been a AC user for just a short time. Their AC locomotives have only been coming online over the past two years or so and I believe the total is still well under 200 at the moment (Although with GE and EMD orders arriving right now boosting that total every few days). You could've been on a line hauling a lot of coal until very recently and still have barely ever seen their AC power since the oldest locomotives they've ordered are still almost brand new.
Since they appear to have switched to buying AC locomotives exclusively and have many more due to come online over the next several years, you should see these things start to venture over wider areas as time goes by. They're not going to just put their new locomotives from here on out on coal and ignore the rest of their business with older DC units. As their AC fleet grows, I would expect to see them start to be more common on the same assignments currently the domain of their Dash 9's and their DC GEVO's.
Both the Conrail unit and the Southern unit are now hauling coal. Just like I said. See an article in Trains by our new Vice President of Mechanical Don Graab. NS wants DC units assigned to intermodal and general freight and AC units assigned to unit coal trains. NS is trying to run two AC units where three DC units once ran freeing up the DC units for General Merchandise service. I have worked for this company in multiple roles so I know how it is run. Unless Wick Moorman steps in and says he wants these special units treated differently the control center folks in Atlanta will handle them like any other AC unit NS owns. That's too bad unless you live in places like Enola, PA or Roanoke, VA.
The best way to stop a particular locomotive from being in captive service is to issue a mandate that is is to be held in captive service!
I'd have to agree that these heritage units will spend the bulk of their time in coal service, but they'll "leak out" from time to time. You just have to be ready....
Leo_Ames I think you missed his point. NS, other than those inherited SD80MAC's, has been a AC user for just a short time. Their AC locomotives have only been coming online over the past two years or so and I believe the total is still well under 200 at the moment (Although with GE and EMD orders arriving right now boosting that total every few days). You could've been on a line hauling a lot of coal until very recently and still have barely ever seen their AC power since the oldest locomotives they've ordered are still almost brand new. Since they appear to have switched to buying AC locomotives exclusively and have many more due to come online over the next several years, you should see these things start to venture over wider areas as time goes by. They're not going to just put their new locomotives from here on out on coal and ignore the rest of their business with older DC units. As their AC fleet grows, I would expect to see them start to be more common on the same assignments currently the domain of their Dash 9's and their DC GEVO's.
Thanks for the welcome Lion! And yes, I would much appreciate the SOU and the Central of Georgia units down here.
Studios4RelientK - Welcome to trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
I have no way of knowing of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if NS runs the "Heritage" locomotives in the areas where the original roads operated, at least as much as possible. A "Southern" locomotive would be appreciated a lot more in the South than say, an "Erie" or "Jersey Central" engine would be.
And I'm surprised that the cab unit paint scheme works so well on a modern diesel unit, it just looks fantastic. I guess the designers of the paint scheme so many years ago really knew their business.
Actually, some SD70ACes and ES44ACs make it to the Cedartown Division on the coal trains to south of Carrolton.
[quote user="YoHo1975"]
NS stopped buying DC traction though, so if they're going to put new units on non-coal service, they will have to be AC units.
[/quote
I wish that were true. NS treats AC units different than DC units. I had two AC units on 203 today but they were UP engines. Since NS doesn't own that many AC units compared to BNSF and UP the few we do have end up specifically assigned to the coal department. We will see if they treat these special units different but my guess is that since they are in the same number series as the other NS AC units the folks on the power desk will not know or perhaps really care. I've been an engineer since 1999 and I've only ran two of our SD70ACe's once on a unit ethanol train and I've never ran or even had one of our ES44AC units in my consists. In fact, NS AC units rarely make an appearance in Atlanta on any train. They tend to spend their lives on the Pittsburgh and Pocohantas divisions pulling coal in NS coal hoppers and gondolas.
That Southern unit sure is a great looking locomotive. A lot better than the Conrail in my opinion!
I have a bad feeling that our control center is going to treat these heritage units like any other AC traction locomotive and only assign them to handling unit coal trains out of Pennsylvania and the Virginia's. If they do, they will only run in limited lanes and accumulate a lot of black coal dust on those beautiful paint jobs really quickly. The smartest move would be to assign them to intermodal service. I know this goes against the grain of thinking as NS prefers AC units on slow heavy tonnage trains, however this way they would run the entire system and into major metropolitan areas where they would have a chance to be viewed a lot more by the public.
I'm glad they are painting these new AC engines but a better choice may have been to apply these heritage schemes to the newly rebuilt SD60E units since they could end up on any assignment anywhere on the system.
TBG
NS Locomotive Engineer
The 8099 is gorgeous!
Saw somewhere the next one is to be the N&W. Going in reverse chronological order?
Lyon_Wonder Southern heritage ES44AC #8099 has been painted. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=392712
Southern heritage ES44AC #8099 has been painted.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=392712
That's classic!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.