Norfolk Southern Heritage Units.

[MEC407]

Are the model manufacturers even paying royalties for existing paint schemes? I thought they just needed to get permission from the railroads to use the artwork, but no actual money was transferring hands. I would think it would cost more for the railroads to collect royalties.

UP was doing it for a while, but apparently they stopped due to the bad publicity it was creating:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... ?1,1279654


I assume this means that it's not something NS would pursue either.

[ns3010]

Both 8098 and 8099 reported as in their respective paint booths.

8100 has arrived in Altoona to become the Norfolk & Western unit.

8101 has arrived in Chattanooga to become the Central of Georgia unit.

Chris reported on the NSDash9.com Facebook page that he has heard that four SD70ACe's will arrive in April, with the remaining six arriving in May.

[waldwickrailfan]

Chattanooga: NW 1775 is in the paint booth
8099, 9239, 5286, 8101 waiting.

[poppyl]

Pardon my thickheadness here, but could someone identify (or post a link) the unit numbers going in and road names/numbers coming out at least for those already delivered? From what's been posted here so far it looks like the heritage units will be displaying road numbers consistent with their fallen flags rather than the NS system.

Thanks.

Poppyl

[waldwickrailfan]

Actually NW 1775 is just an engine not owned by NS. The NS heritage units will be with the ES44AC numbers (8098-8115) and SD70ACe (1065-1074). No new numbers.

[MEC407]

Wouldn't that be 1776?

[Earle Baldwin]

Lionel and MTH certainly didn't waste any time in announcing O gauge versions of the NS heritage units.

From the O Gauge Railroading Forum....

MTH's announcement:

http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayFor ... 0063011991

Lionel's announcement:

http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayFor ... 0061891709

[Matt Langworthy]

Are the model manufacturers even paying royalties for existing paint schemes? I thought they just needed to get permission from the railroads to use the artwork, but no actual money was transferring hands. I would think it would cost more for the railroads to collect royalties. How much could they make off any specific model? A couple of dollars each at most, and imagine the paperwork to track that money?

This is a great point. Even if Lionel and MTH made 10,000 copies each of heritage units, that would result in 360,000 total copies. (18 schemes x 10,000 copies x 2 manufacturers.) If Lionel and MTH paid $20 bucks per copy in royalties... which would be kinda high IMO... they would pay $72,000 in royalties to NS. American Premium Undwriters (or whooever owns it now), Reading etc. There would be alot of paperwork for a very small amount of money. I agree that Lionel and MTH probably just got permiaaion to use the logos, with no money changing hands.

[MEC407]

Union Pacific must have thought it was worth the time and paperwork.

[ns3010]

Pardon my thickheadness here, but could someone identify (or post a link) the unit numbers going in and road names/numbers coming out at least for those already delivered? From what's been posted here so far it looks like the heritage units will be displaying road numbers consistent with their fallen flags rather than the NS system.

Thanks.

Poppyl

As Waldwick said, the heritage units will compose the entire 10 unit SD70ACe order and will be numbered 1065-1074, right behind the 65 existing ACe's. These will be factory painted.

However, his info on the GEVO's is a little off.

There will be eight heritage ES44AC's, part of the 25 unit order. The heritage units will be numbered 8098-8105, in the middle of the current order (for which all 25 units will be numbered 8091-8115), and the numbers are also picking up from where previous orders left off. Here's info on the units that have been delivered
8091 not yet delivered, to be painted in standard NS horsehead
8092-8097 delivered in primer, to be painted in standard NS horsehead

8098 currently being painted in Altoona as Conrail heritage unit
8099 currently being painted in Chattanooga as Southern heritage unit
8100 at Altoona awaiting Norfolk & Western heritage paint
8101 at Chattanooga awaiting Central of Georgia heritage paint
8102-8105 not yet delivered, to become heritage units

8106-8116 not yet delivered, to be painted in standard NS horsehead

[poppyl]

Thanks, Joe. You've cleared up my confusion.

Poppyl

[TrainWatcher]

Welcome to NS/Conrail 8098... the First Conrail GEVO.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictur ... onrail.jpg

[MEC407]

Sneak peak of the Conrail ES44AC, photographed by Dustin Faust: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2945994

[poppyl]

Thanks to Dustin for getting the shot of the "beast" emerging from its lair.

Poppyl

[ns3010]

Sick! Hoping they send it out the Lehigh Line sometime!

Also, a 19th heritage unit has been added! An additional GEVO will be painted as a Penn Central unit:
http://www.nscorp.com/nscorphtml/images ... cos/PC.jpg