Splashes of Color Riding Rails Again

GREENSBORO —- Norfolk Southern calls it “foreign power,” but it’s unrelated to U.S. influence abroad.

It’s locomotive power —- and color.

Why the heck is a yellow Union Pacific locomotive, mixed with one or two Norfolk Southern engines and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe, pulling freight through Greensboro?

Purple and gold CSX engines have been seen, too. So have red and silver Sante Fe engines. They haven’t been repainted since the Sante Fe and Burlington Northern railroads merged.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said locomotives straying from home railroads is as old as railroading. It’s what Norfolk Southern means by “foreign power” —- engines from other railroads.

But longtime train watchers in Greensboro —- Jim Patton of the local chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society and Buck Lineberry of the Carolina Model Railroaders —- insisted the visiting locomotives are a more recent happening.

For sure, boxcars, gondola cars and tank cars from other railroads, even some extinct lines, have forever appeared on trains of different railroads. If this wasn’t done, cargo would have to be transferred when one rail line gives way to another.

Chapman said it makes sense for railroads to do likewise with locomotives.

“You keep the same locomotive on the train. It will come back to the originating railroad at some point,” he said.

When a foreign engine reaches here, it might stay long enough to make local runs. A Union Pacific engine was spotted passing through Greensboro en route to Raleigh the other day.

The engine likely arrived in Norfolk Southern territory after pulling a train from California to Kansas City, where a Norfolk Southern line begins and where its crew took over the train.

The reverse works, as well. When a westbound Norfolk Southern train reaches Kansas City, a Union Pacific crew climbs in and continues west.

Chapman said crews easily adjust to the equipment change. Two companies make most American locomotives, and they’re operated virtually the same way.

In the future, rail watchers are likely to see more Burlington Northern Santa Fe engines in the area. Norfolk Southern has announced expansion of its Blue Streak service to Greensboro,

Blue Streak, started by the two railroads in 2001, offers customers guaranteed arrival time. The freight rate is higher, but if the train arrives late, the rate is reduced. Blue Streaks carry containers that trucks pick up at rail freight yards, such as Pomona in Greensboro.

Charlotte already has Blue Streak service. A train leaves at 8 a.m. Monday and reaches Los Angeles the next Monday.

Chapman said the Greensboro service should take about the same time. The train will go to Atlanta, Birmingham and Dallas, where a Burlington Northern Santa Fe crew would take over the engines.

Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific also have an East Coast–West Coast arrangement, but not with guaranteed arrival times.

All this interrailroad activity thrills train watchers. Locomotives from different railroads mean a variety of color, good for photographs and video. Their colors dazzle compared with Norfolk Southern’s black and white.

Also often seen here are light blue engines with the Conrail name. Norfolk and Southern and CSX bought and split up Conrail in 1998. By now, all Conrail engines seemingly would have been repainted, but light blue likely will be seen for years to come.

Lineberry, president of the Carolina Model Railroaders and an avid train watcher, said railroads need power during these busy times. They can’t afford to take an engine out of service for a week or two to be repainted.

Lineberry, who is also a News & Record employee, said he sees solid gray locomotives without a railroad name. These are new locomotives Norfolk Southern has pressed into service without a paint job.

Train hobbyists soon will be treated to several restored 1940s and 1950s era F–model diesel engines, Lineberry said. They will haul Norfolk Southern rail executives who work in Tuscan–red business cars.

The cars, occasionally seen here behind a modern engine, are reminders of pre–Amtrak —- when private railroads ran passenger trains. Trains looked spiffy. Norfolk & Western, which merged with Southern Railway in 1982 to become Norfolk Southern, used Tuscan– red engines and coaches; Southern’s locomotives were green on certain trains.

Those days are gone. But thanks to changing ways of railroading – — such as engines from other railroads in these parts —- a splash of color missing for decades has returned.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 373–7081 or jschlosser@news– record.com

(c) 2007 Greensboro News Record. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.