Norfolk Southern Office Car Special

What is the classiest way to travel in 2007? Forget stretch limos and private jets. How about the Norfolk Southern Office Car Train, seen earlier this year at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta and the Kentucky Derby? When Norfolk Southern executives want to travel in style or woo a client, this is how they do it, in a string of private cars behind a quartet of F-units.

Locomotives

In a nod to its heritage, the Norfolk Southern decided in 2006 to replace the modern engines that hauled its executive train with a set of vintage diesels. Through an equipment broker, they found a set of EMD F7's with a long history. The A-units were built in 1952 for the Baltimore & Ohio, while the B-units were originally delivered to the Chicago Great Western and the Chicago and North Western. In 1981, the four were rebuilt by Morrison-Knudson for a new career with MARC (Maryland Rail Commuter Service). After being retired a second time, they went to RailCruise America for dinner train service and then to the Kansas City Southern, which later declared them surplus and sent them to the equipment broker that sold them to the NS.

This time, it looks like the four wandering F-units have a permanent home. In late 2006, they were towed to the Norfolk Southern's ex-Pennsy shops in Altoona for a full mechanical and cosmetic overhaul. They emerged from Altoona in a paint scheme that harks back to NS predecessor Southern Railway, but with the Thoroughbred, Norfolk Southern's corporate symbol, emblazoned on the nose of each A-unit. Their maiden outing with the company train (minus one A-unit that was not yet finished) was in early April at the Masters golf tournament, and they have since been spotted throughout the Norfolk Southern system.

Office Car Special

While the executive train's engines are reminiscent of the Southern Railway, its consist looks pure Norfolk and Western, with smooth-sided passenger cars painted in N&W Tuscan Red and car NS 29 named "The Powhatan Arrow," after one of the N&W's premier trains. Like the F-units, the cars have a varied background, with one of the most interesting being the full-length dome, a rare sight on railroads east of the Mississippi. The Delaware, car NS 24, is a 1955 Budd product, built as a "Big Dome" for the Santa Fe's El Capitan, later sold to Auto-Train for service between Virgina and Florida, acquired by Conrail for its executive train, and then passed to the Norfolk Southern when Conrail was split up.

For the 2007 DAP program, M.T.H. offers a very limited edition model of this unique train. Like our EMD SD70ACe and General Electric ES44AC/DC diesels, this Norfolk Southern train is the first three-rail O gauge model of some of the newest equipment on American rails - but with a vintage flavor. Locomotives and cars feature accurate paint schemes and correct car names for the NS executive train, including The Powhattan Arrow, diner General William Mahone, and full dome Delaware. There's no better way for your own railroad's management to wine and dine a prospective client and travel anywhere in grand style.