Aeromoe's
Norfolk Southern Heritage Units Adventure


Photos on this page taken by Aeromoe during July 3rd and 4th, 2012 at the Family Portrait event
in Spencer, NC and the neighboring town of Salisbury, NC.




Turntable Various Aerials Night Shoot Display Autos Trains

Official Diesel Locomotive Roster Link

Official Steam Locomotive Roster Link





Turntable



The table below shows each unit in the order they were displayed on the turntable.
The only unit I missed on the turntable was Southern but I did photograph it beforehand.




Southern
ES44AC #8099
Savannah & Atlanta
SD70ACe #1065
Central of Georgia
ES44AC #8101
Interstate
ES44AC #8105
Norfolk Southern
ES44AC #8114

Conrail
ES44AC #8098
Monon
ES44AC #8025
Lehigh Valley
ES44AC #8104
Reading
SD70ACe #1067
Jersey Central Lines
SD70ACe #1071

Lackawanna
SD70ACe #1074
Erie
SD70ACe #1068
Penn Central
SD70ACe #1073
New York Central
SD70ACe #1066
Pennsylvania
ES44AC #8102

Illinois Terminal
SD70ACe #1072
Wabash
SD70ACe #1070
Virginian
SD70ACe #1069
Nickle Plate Road
ES44AC #8100
Norfolk & Western
ES44AC #8103


Please click here to see some nose and tail shots of the heritage locomotives on the turntable.







Variety



The next table shows a variety of photographs of the Heritage units as well as the 30th Anniversary SD70ACe #1030.





The Roundhouse area early Tuesday morning

30th Anniversary Unit - SD70ACe #1030

Nose Shot #1
Nose Shot #2
Nose Shot #3
Nose Shot #4
Nose Shot #5

NS 8114 prepares to spin
Rear of NS 8114
Shooting film with a Nikon
Nice shooting platform!
30th Anniversary
number boards

Cab side of 8099
ES44AC
NS 8103 GE Decal
ES44AC
Preparing to spin NS 8103
ES44AC
Eyeballin' the process
ES44AC
Cab side of 1030
SD70ACe

NS 1065 on parade
SD70ACe
NS 8101 on parade
ES44AC
NS 8099 on display
ES44AC
NS 8105 on display
ES44AC
NS 1070 between 8099 & 1065

The crowd #1
The crowd #2
Pretty much how it was...
Looking into the sun...
 By this time my fun meter
was pretty much pegged.
Time for a break
and some lunch.





Aerials



While watching some trains at the "Wye" in Salisbury, I jumped at the offer to take a ride in a Cessna 172
and do some aerial photography of the museum grounds and local area.





Aerial view of the museum grounds
early Tuesday evening.


A couple of the guys I flew with
before boarding at
Rowan County Airport

Rowan County Airport
Takeoff on runway 2

The Wye in Salisbury, NC
A nice railfan location.

Up close and personal :-)

A view of the roundhouse


S/B Manifest
on the mainline

S/B Manifest
on the mainline

S/B Manifest
approaches the Wye

S/B Manifest
passes the Wye

Looking south at the Wye


An interesting industry

Part of Spencer Yard

Portion of the museum

A view of the roundhouse

A view of the roundhouse


Couple of Geeps
Spencer Yard

A view of the museum grounds

A view of the museum grounds

A view of the museum grounds

Looking south toward
Charlotte, NC


Diorama
N-Scale: 1/160
Diorama
N-Scale: 1/160
Diorama
N-Scale: 1/160
Diorama
N-Scale: 1/160





Night Shoot



Around 830pm it was time to head back to the museum to exercise my paid right to participate in the night photo shoot. Below are some photos from that adventure.





Southern E8A 6900 L and NS ES44AC 8099 K












Scan of my Access Pass





Museum Displays



Below are some photos of locomotives and rolling stock on display for the event and also some museum residents.




Amtrak
GE P42DC #156
40th Anniversary Train
Amtrak
EMD F40PH #406
40th Anniversary Train
Norfolk Southern
Exhibit Car
On Display

Southern
EMD GP30 #2601
Museum resident
Southern
EMD E8A #6900
Museum resident
Southern
EMD FP7 #6133
Museum resident
Norfolk Southern
Baldwin AS-416 #1616
Museum resident
Norfolk & Western
EMD GP30 #522
Museum resident
Norfolk & Western
EMD GP9 #620
Museum resident

NC DOT
Caboose #400500
Museum resident
Southern
Boxcar #262914
Museum resident




Autos



The museum also has a nice collection of non-railroad exhibits


.
.
.
.
.
.
1918 Rauch & Lang
BX-7 Brougham
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Highway Patrol
Studebaker
.

Corvair
.
Corvair 95
Drop Side
Bobby Myers
#6A
Plymouth
State Patrol
Ford
.



Narrative



In late May 2012 my buddy Phil Brooks sent me an email with a link to the Norfolk Southern Heritage Locos "Family Portrait" event to be held at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina. Being a hard-core Norfolk Southern Railroad fan, I decided then and there I'd make plans to attend this once-in-a-lifetime event. I just couldn't pass up the chance to view all twenty of the locomotives gathered together in one place.

The heritage locomotives are modern-day locomotives specially painted in the color schemes of "fallen flag" railroads connected to Norfolk Southern. By chance, I found a photo online back in March 2012 of the first locomotive to be painted: the Conrail unit. I found a link to the Heritage Locomotives on Norfolk Southern website and only then did I learn of the grandiose plans of NS to paint a LOT of locomotives for their heritage fleet.

When I learned of the Family Portrait event, quite a few of these machines were already in revenue service across the Norfolk Southern system. As June progressed, just a handful of units remained to be painted, but the shops came through with flying colors and rolled the last ones out in late June, 2012.

The original, publicized plan was to roll the units out of the turntable area and do a "power parade" south (to the right in these photos) of the turntable in an open area. I was positoned over there when the plan was changed to displaying each unit, in turn, on the turntable. Fortunately, someone spoke up to me and said the parade wasn't going to take place as planned, so I went back over to the turntable area.

Conditions for the numerous railfans were CROWDED, HOT, SWEATY, and probably frustrating for those trying to photograph the units from within a crowd line that was proabably ten deep all the way around the open portion of the turntable. Most folks behind the front line were forced to shoot between heads and shoulders or lift their cameras above the crowd and shoot that way. To get reasonably composed photos, it was an exercise in patience and practice.

I positioned myself in the shade next to the Norfolk & Western unit. It was crowded but I was quite close to the front of the masses and the lighting conditions were pretty good, considering. I'd just missed the Southern unit take its turn, but there were still 19 more to go. For the next 2 hours and 20 minutes, I stood there (in the shade thankfully!!) with throngs of other photographers trying our best to get some photos of these marvelous units as each made its appearance on the turntable.

Mainline Trains



Below is a listing of the mainline trains I saw while in the area. I heard quite a few more horns while at the motel during the night...it is a fairly busy line.
In the table below - reversed out colors (black on white) indicate a link to a photo of that individual locomotive.


Photo Date Time Compass Dir. Type Train Train Symbol Lead Loco 2nd Loco 3rd Loco 4th Loco Notes
3 Jul 12 00:16 North MoW / Rail ? NS 6758
SD60M		 NS 3447
SD40-2		 . . .
3 Jul 12 00:30 North Manifest ? NS 6622
SD60		 NS 6614
SD60		 NS 8814
D9-40C		 . .
3 Jul 12 16:02 North Local ? NS 3535
D8-32B		 NS 5145
GP38-2		 . . Wyed into yard
3 Jul 12 16:17 North MoW ? NS 8879
D9-40C		 NS 9692
D9-40CW		 . . Off Asheville Line
3 Jul 12 16:45 North Manifest 156 NS 9731
D9-40CW		 NS 9098
D9-40CW		 NS 3531
D8-32B		 . .
3 Jul 12 16:53 South Manifest ? NS 9212
D9-40CW		 NS 9556
D9-40CW		 NS 2605
SD70M		 . .
3 Jul 12 17:14 North High/Wide
Dimensional		 O52 NS 9066
D9-40CW		 . . . .
3 Jul 12 18:11 South Manifest ? NS 9285
D9-40CW		 NS 9019
D9-40CW		 . . Saw from air
3 Jul 12 18:46 North Manifest ? NS 9446
D9-40CW		 NS 8421
D8-40CW		 NS 9412
D9-40CW		 . .
3 Jul 12 20:20 South Local 348 NS 9077
D9-40CW		 NS 6626
SD60		 . . .
3 Jul 12 20:21 North Local P60 NS 3371
SD40-2		 NS 3424
SD40-2		 NS 3226
SD40-2		 . Off Asheville Line
4 Jul 12 09:25 South Amtrak 73 NC 1869
F59PH		 . . . .
4 Jul 12 10:00 North Manifest ? NS 8913
D9-40CW		 NS 9097
D9-40CW		 . . .
4 Jul 12 11:15 West Manifest ? NS 9651
D9-40CW		 NS 9060
D9-40CW		 NS 8797
D9-40C		 NS 8754
D8-40C		 Onto Asheville Line
4 Jul 12 11:39 South Intermodal ? NS 9927
D9-40CW		 NS 2693
SD70M-2		 NS 6573
SD60		 . .
4 Jul 12 12:16 North Intermodal ? NS 9813
D9-40CW		 NS 8716
D8-40C		 NS 9275
D9-40CW		 . .
4 Jul 12 12:41 North Amtrak 74 NC 1869
F59PH		 . . . .
4 Jul 12 13:09 South Intermodal 109 NS 9244
D9-40CW		 NS 2726
SD70M-2		 . . .
4 Jul 12 13:20 North Manifest 172 NS 6798
SD60M		 NS 9852
D9-40CW		 NS 2618
SD70M		 . .
4 Jul 12 13:35 South Intermodal 213 NS 2775
SD70M-2		 NS 8840
D9-40C		 NS 9971
D9-40CW		 . .
4 Jul 12 14:09 South Amtrak 75 NC 1810
F59PH		 . . . .
4 Jul 12 14:18 South Manifest ? NS 5573
SD40-2		 NS 7079
GP50		 NS 3329
SD40-2		 . Onto Asheville Line
4 Jul 12 14:48 South Manifest ? NS 9338
D9-40CW		 NS 9097
D9-40CW		 NS 8913
D9-40CW		 NS 5051
GP38-2		 .
4 Jul 12 14:52 North Rax /
Intermodal		 ? NS 8384
D8-40CW		 NS 2556
SD70		 NS 8927
D9-40CW		 . .
4 Jul 12 15:48 South Manifest ? NS 9012
D9-40CW		 NS 2509
SD70		 NS 3464
SD40-2		 NS 3262
SD40-2		 .
4 Jul 12 16:55 North Manifest ? NS 6344
SD40E		 NS 5523
GP38-2		 . . Off Asheville Line
4 Jul 12 18:00 North Amtrak 76 NC 1810
F59PH		 . . . .
4 Jul 12 18:06 North Manifest ? NS 2597
SD70M		 NS 8710
D8-40C		 . . .
4 Jul 12 18:22 South Manifest ? NS 8329
D8-40CW		 NS 9679
D9-40CW		 . . .