NS Announcement - Official Details

[NW Mailing List]

TO:   ALL NORFOLK SOUTHERN EMPLOYEES


                                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                    March 1, 2012



Norfolk Southern celebrates colorful heritage with historic paint

schemes



NORFOLK, VA. - Norfolk Southern is honoring its predecessor railroads

during 2012, its 30th anniversary year, by painting 18 new locomotives

in commemorative schemes that reflect the heritage of those

predecessors.



Since the 1820s, hundreds of railroad companies were built, merged,

reorganized, and consolidated into what eventually became Norfolk

Southern, itself created from the consolidation of Southern Railway

and Norfolk and Western Railway in 1982. In 1999, Norfolk Southern

expanded the scope of its heritage with its acquisition of a portion

of Conrail. The heritage locomotives will represent most of the

railroads that played significant roles in Norfolk Southern's

history. The first units will be delivered in March, and all units

are expected to be riding the rails by June 1, Norfolk Southern's 30th

anniversary date.



"The heritage locomotives reflect the pride we take in our long and

colorful history," said Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman. "As they

travel through our system, these state-of-the-art units in vintage

livery will serve as reminders to our customers, employees, and

communities that the modern rail network that keeps America

competitive today and into the future has deep roots in the nation's

past."



Each paint scheme will be modified to fit contemporary locomotives

while staying as true as possible to the original designs. Norfolk

Southern employees in Altoona, Pa., and Chattanooga, Tenn., will

paint GE ES44AC locomotives, while the EMD SD70ACe units will be

painted at Progress Rail Services' facility in Muncie, Ind. The

heritage locomotives will be used to haul freight across Norfolk

Southern's 20,000-mile, 22-state network.



The predecessor companies to be represented are listed below. In

parentheses are the respective roads each became part of (NW=Norfolk

& Western, SR=Southern, CR=Conrail) and the make of locomotives to be

painted. Images of the color schemes are available on Norfolk <http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Media/images/heritage_images.html>

Southern's web site<http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Media/images/heritage_images.html>.



Central of Georgia Railway (SR, GE) was formed in 1833 to connect

Macon, Ga., with Savannah, completing a rail link between Chattanooga

and the port. It was famed for two passenger trains named after

prize-winning race horses, the Nancy Hanks and the Man O' War.



*         Central Railroad of New Jersey (CR, EMD) was the first American

railroad to have its employees wear uniforms, and in 1892 one of its

locomotives set a world speed record of 105 mph.



*         Conrail (GE) was created by the U.S. government in 1976 from the

bankrupt Penn Central, Lehigh & Hudson River, Erie Lackawanna,

Central Railroad of New Jersey, Lehigh Valley, Reading and

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, becoming the largest railroad at

the time, with 34,000 route miles.



*         Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (CR, EMD) was created in 1849

to connect the rich anthracite coalfields of the Lackawanna Valley of

Pennsylvania to northern New Jersey. A hurricane in 1955 knocked the

railroad out of operation for a month, with the resulting financial

difficulties forcing it to merge with the Erie Railroad in 1960 to

form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.



*         Erie Railroad (CR, EMD) was key to economic development along

the Southern Tier, which includes Binghamton and Elmira, N.Y. In

1851, Secretary of State Daniel Webster was strapped to a rocking

chair on an open flatcar, wrapped in a blanket and clutching a bottle

of rum, so he could ride the just-completed railroad.



*         Illinois Terminal Railroad (NW, EMD) began life as the Illinois

Traction System in 1896 as an interurban electric railroad in central

and southern Illinois. Hit by the Great Depression, it was

reorganized as the Illinois Terminal in 1937 and attempted to survive

as a passenger railroad until relinquishing that business in 1956,

when it was acquired by a consortium of railroads. It was operated as

a freight railroad until acquired by NW in 1982.



*         Interstate Railroad (SR, GE) was incorporated in 1896 to serve

southwestern Virginia coalfields. Despite its name, it operated

entirely within Virginia. It was acquired by Southern in 1961.

*         Lehigh Valley Railroad (CR, GE) was built to haul coal,

replacing water transport down the Lehigh River, and was also known

as the Route of the Black Diamond.



*         New York Central Railroad (CR, EMD) was organized from 10 roads

paralleling the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo, N.Y., and

became known as the "Water Level Route." Today, the former NYC line

between Cleveland and Chicago is the busiest on the NS system, with

more than 100 freight trains daily.



*         New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (NW, GE) was commonly

referred to as the Nickel Plate Road, a moniker it acquired when the

Norwalk (Ohio) Chronicle referred to it in 1881 as "the great New

York and St. Louis double track, nickel plated railroad," supposedly

indicative of its solid financial backing.



*         Norfolk Southern Railway (SR, EMD) (not to be confused with

today's Norfolk Southern) was a line serving southeast Virginia and

northeast North Carolina, chartered in 1883 and acquired by Southern

Railway in 1974.



*         Norfolk & Western Railway (GE) originated as City Point

Railroad, a 9-mile road between Petersburg and City Point, Va., in

1836. Following numerous mergers and acquisitions, it became the

Norfolk & Western in 1881.



*         Pennsylvania Railroad (CR, GE), incorporated in 1846, billed

itself as the "Standard Railroad of the World" and was for many years

the largest American railroad by tonnage and revenues. PRR opened the

Horseshoe Curve railroad engineering marvel; carried President

Lincoln to his inauguration; implemented the "line and staff"

organizational structure used by business today; built Pennsylvania

Station in Manhattan; and electrified the route between New York and

Washington, among its many  achievements.



*         Reading Company (CR, EMD) was one of the first railroads built

in America, and built its fortune hauling coal. It featured the first

iron railroad bridge in America.



*         Savannah & Atlanta Railway (SR, EMD), began life as the Brinson

Railway in 1906, slowly expanding from Savannah toward the Northwest.

It was consolidated with other small railroads to become the Savannah

& Atlanta in 1917.  Central of Georgia bought the S&A in 1951.



*         Southern Railway (GE) originated as the South Carolina Canal and

Rail Road Company in 1827. It put into service the nation's first

regularly scheduled steam passenger service on Christmas Day, 1830,

with the locomotive "The Best Friend of Charleston." The Southern was

incorporated in 1894 from the reorganization and consolidation of

numerous predecessors and absorbed another 68 railroad companies over

the next six years.



*         Virginian Railway (NW, EMD) was the only railroad created

through the capital and credit of one man, oil magnate Henry

Huttleston Rogers. After building a short line, the Deepwater

Railway, to haul coal out of West Virginia and then being blocked by

the bigger railroads, he created another railroad, the Tidewater

Railway, to reach Norfolk, Va., then combined the two into the

Virginian in 1907. It was acquired by N&W in 1959.



*         Wabash Railroad (NW, EMD) was formed in 1877 and served the mid-

central U.S. It was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1927 and

leased to Norfolk & Western in 1960. In 1991, N&W, by then part of

Norfolk Southern, purchased the Wabash outright. Made famous by the

1904 song "Wabash Cannonball," there was in fact no such train by

that name until 1949.



Norfolk Southern Corporation<http://phx.corporate-ir.net/Tearsheet.ashx?c=69040> is one of the nation's premier

transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary

operates approximately 20,000 route miles<http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/map.html> in 22 states and the

District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the

eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other

rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive

intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and

industrial products.



Ed Painter; Narrows, VA living in Russellville, AR (for 12 more months at which time I'll move to Dahlonega, GA)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20120301/b5ef284a/attachment-0001.htm>