Wordless Wednesday #61

W&LE SD40-2 6384 shining at the Brewster Shops on 3-23-2013. This engine would later get a large sticker applied on its sides for the 2014 Cleveland NMRA Convention. Chris Ellis photo

N&W Green Machines: Update

Over on the Atlas Rescue Forums a member says he spoke with Athearn representatives while attending the Milwaukee Train Show.  He reports that Athearn does plan on doing the N&W green patched units in a future production run.

So if this is true, it just becomes a question for N&W modelers of "how bad do you want them?".  Wait for October/November" 2016 buy the IT units and patch them yourself (not too difficult of a project), or wait until 2017 and beyond for when Athearn feels like doing a 2nd run of the SD-39 (probably also for the Santa Fe modelers dying for the "Blue Bonnet" paint scheme) and not lift a finger for a true RTR model of these green units.

I personally think turning a couple of the IT units into the faded and patched version would make for an interesting project.  We'll see where my interests or needs lie a year from now, I am modeling the 1950's after all and that "should" be my first priority.

N&W SD-39 2962 switching the Saginaw Mine at St. Clairsville, OH, March 23, 1982

On a side note another Atlas Rescue member who is also excited for this release, said he actually photographed the green SD-39's when they ran around Dillonvale.  He also called them the "Green Weenies". What!?  Not a nickname I would've expected at all!

N&W's Green Machines

A while back in the post "Shadows of the Past" I wrote about the neat green Illinois Terminal SD-39 engines the N&W received when they purchased that railroad. In the early 80's these hastily relettered green engines prowled the eastern end of the old ex-Wheeling valley lines. They hauled coal out the Adena and AC&NA branches, worked the mills along the Ohio River and moved other freight to and from Brewster. The unique green N&W engines among a roster of all black diesels seemed to draw many railfans down into SE Ohio to photograph them in action.

N&W 2965 SD-39 Pine Valley yard, Dillonvale, OH 1982

So naturally in my research of the Adena Railroad these green engines show up in many pictures around Adena, Dillonvale and along the Ohio River. They even appear in two out of the only four "in action" photos I have of my favorite bridge in that area, the Jug Run bridge on the Adena branch.

N&W Adena Branch SD-39 2963 2965 2964 Jug Run Bridge 3-12-81 Jim Marcus - Mark Lynn Photo

So because of all that I've grown pretty fond of them and always felt if the SD-39 was ever made in HO scale and offered in the green Illinois Terminal paint, I would probably have get a couple.

Well today Athearn announced a new model in their Ready to Run line, the SD-39, and they also offered it lettered for the Illinois Terminal!

Athearn is also doing these as repainted into N&W black with the full name spelled out on the sides. They look pretty nifty too, but the oddity of green N&W units is the attraction for me and all those who wandered down into SE Ohio to photograph those engines many years ago.

I think a couple of these patched with N&W lettering and heavily weathered would go great with my other N&W engines! With these supposedly due in late October 2016, I'll have plenty of time to save some pennies.

Wordless Wednesday #42

Way too modern for my 1950's railroad! However being Nickel Plate I couldn't help but to get one of Athearn's Norfolk Southern Heritage engines when a good deal presented itself a while back. I finally added a Soundtraxx MC2H104AT DCC decoder and upgraded to LED lights to run this with my son's present day equipment.

Sentimental Purchases

The Wordless Wednesday from a few days ago reminded me to share a new purchase I recently made.

While I do plan on modeling the steam era on my Adena part of the NKP's Wheeling District, I am somewhat of an engine collector and can be swayed by certain engine types or road names and sometimes end up purchasing an example. Sometimes this can be way outside my targeted era. I know I'm not the only one out there with this "problem"...

I became a railfan at the end of the Norfolk & Western's corporate life in the 1980's. I watched as the very debonair Southern engines began mixing in with the plain N&W black diesels, to be finally joined by freshly painted engines in the thoroughbred scheme of the new Norfolk Southern railroad.

A common scene from my younger train watching days, a N&W 225 and 237 GP-35 at Brittain Yard, Akron, OH, November 1988. Chris Ellis Photo

I rather liked the drab black N&W paint with its simple white block lettering. As a kid I thought, engines should be black and cabooses red, perfect right?

I moved on into the historical roots of the Norfolk & Western system that I railfanned across Ohio and obviously then discovered charm of the Nickel Plate Road and it's high speed freight philosophy.

However, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for those plain black N&W engines. So about a year ago when Athearn announced a new run of it's SD-40 engine with a high hood nose in that black N&W scheme, I knew I had to get at least one.

These engines ran on coal trains through Adena in the late 1970's and 1980's, and few of these engines numbered in the 1580's were paired with old Fairbanks Morse Trainmaster slugs and assigned to Pine Valley Yard in Dillionvale. So they wouldn't be out of place if they show up every now and then on the layout for fun. But not during any future operating sessions of course!

Athearn N&W 1613 SD-40 and an Atlas Caboose N&W 518655

Athearn's SD-40 run finally came in a couple of weeks ago and I ended up with two of them. Athearn did a real nice job with these, and I'm real happy with their brute looks and pulling power to match. The complimenting Atlas N&W caboose was aquired long ago on a similar whim.

This doesn't signal any kind of a era change or shift in design. I guess it just scratches an itch from old memories.