Trivia About Norfolk Southern

Just some little bits of Info I found:

Norfolk Southern Corporation was the holding company with the purpose of owning both the N&W and Southern, not a railroad(Ala.Chessie System)

The Southern Railway IS the modern day Norfolk Southern. It changed it's name to Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990.

The Norfolk & Western Railway operated until 1997, when Southern/NS merged it into itself.

Because Wabash was leased by the N&W, it wasn't until 1991 that the N&W officially merged with the Wabash.

ThePointyHairedBoss wrote:Just some little bits of Info I found:

Norfolk Southern Corporation was the holding company with the purpose of owning both the N&W and Southern, not a railroad(Ala.Chessie System)

The Southern Railway IS the modern day Norfolk Southern. It changed it's name to Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990.

The Norfolk & Western Railway operated until 1997, when Southern/NS merged it into itself.

Because Wabash was leased by the N&W, it wasn't until 1991 that the N&W officially merged with the Wabash.

I think this is all true, but I believe the Norfolk Southern Corporation holding company started painting their locomotives in 1983-84 thoroughbreds similar to the present day paint schemes they use today.

My questions is, why did some holding companies like NS Corp, Chessie, & Seaboard system have locomotives painted in their own scheme, but other holding companys like DERECO did not??

The DERECO question: Yes, the real reason that DERECO had no "official" livery was more than likely because N&W didn't want them in the first place, and that it was sort of forced on them. So why go to all the trouble of painting units up, when the railroads are losers? (of course, the D&H and EL are opposites now that they lack commuter service and NE traffic)

I think this is all true, but I believe the Norfolk Southern Corporation holding company started painting their locomotives in 1983-84 thoroughbreds similar to the present day paint schemes they use today.

Yes, but like Chessie, the units were in the holding companies colors, but with sublettering denoting who REALLY owned it. Eg.SOU for Southern, NKP for Nickel Plate(!), CG for Central of Georgia, NW for Norfolk & Wetsern, WAB for Wabash Etc.



See this picture, and note the SOU sublettering, which remained in use until the 1990 SOU to NS name change. I wish they had left SOU as SOU, imagine seeing SOU or NW letters on an SD70M!