N&W Tuscan Units

[NW Mailing List]

Carl

Please remember to change the subject lines to the correct subject, rather than the "[EXTERNAL] RE: NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 247, Issue 45”. It is mainly to help keep the subjects searchable, and for folks to track and follow questions.

Your question actually has two parts, first mentioning the NW Maroon becomes a question of the late 1970s units painted in the Tuscan, but the mention of GP9 units sets it for the late steam era.

First, the tuscan painted GP9s, 500-521 were delivered in two groups, the first six 500-505, delivered in February 1957, and numbered 762-767, were delivered in the initial freight scheme with black with gold lettering, but were equipped with steam boilers for passenger service. These units were initially used to dieselize the Shenandoah Division and Cincinnati District passenger trains.

In late 1958, the second group Nos. 506-521 were delivered in tuscan red with gold scotchlite lettering and were set up to use for passenger service, as they were equipped with water tanks and boilers for providing steam heat for passenger trains. 

By early 1959, the decision was made to renumber the first passenger GP9s to fit the same series, 500-505, and repaint them as they were shopped to the tuscan red scheme. 

Now, with the continued discontinuance of passenger service, the number of units needed often was lower than actual use. Passenger trains required what was called “Protection power”, which is steam heat equipped locomotives, either steam or diesel, stationed at various terminals to cover situations such as a break-down of power, operation of a passenger extra. This was less critical during summer months, except for passenger cars equipped with steam ejector air conditioning, which was generally older cars, so having passenger units available was still important. 

That said, you would occasionally see passenger units in use on local freights or even yard jobs, simply because they had spare power and the N&W, not wanting to waste money by having units sitting idle. The other occasion was after a shopping, to make sure everything was working properly, the passenger units were used on break-in runs, which might have been local freight. They could also be deadheading to another terminal after a shopping, or extra passenger run.

The tuscan red GP9s gradually began to get repainted to the current N&W No. 23 blue scheme, also called the “Pevler Blue” beginning in 1966 to meet then current President Herman Pevler’s love of blue paint. With the end of passenger service in May 1971, all the units began being repainted to the current black with white NW scheme and were assigned to freight service.

In 1978, the N&W acquired several units painted in the then-current Tuscan red, with the big yellow NW. These were SD-40-2 No. 6175 and General Electric C-30-7 No. 8010. A year later, 8076-8080 also joined the roster. By then, all mainline passenger service had been eliminated since May 1, 1971. These units were used in freight service, and also on the occasional business car train service. These units gradually began to be repainted to black with the white NW scheme, but some continued in service into about 1990.

Best
Ken Miller