We Are Family

Norfolk Southern Family Portrait; Spencer, N.C.; July 2, 2012

After the conclusion of the marathon 18-day trip to Kansas City and Iowa (which took us four parts to cover in the blog), I was only home four days before heading south from New Jersey to Spencer, N.C. The occasion was the Family Portrait held by Norfolk Southern. NS had painted 20 new locomotives into old schemes of the railroads that have been merged or otherwise absorbed to make up the modern system. In addition to the two original primary components of NS -- Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western -- the paint schemes ranged from the obscure (Interstate Railroad) to the modern (Conrail) to the colorful (Illinois Terminal) to the weird (Penn Central).

Norfolk Southern came into existence in 1982 with the merger of the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western. As its 30th anniversary approached, railroad artist Andy Fletcher made up a poster of proposed "heritage" paint schemes that could be applied to NS's current diesel fleet and sent the proposal to NS CEO Wick Moorman. Mr. Moorman liked the idea, and after kicking around ideas the company endorsed a program of painting 18 locomotives; two more would be subsequently added. NS paid attention to detail, gathering paint diagrams from historical societies and other resources, and adapted paint schemes that never appeared on diesels that were this modern to fit today's carbodies. The results were spectacular.

For this adventure I was joined by my brother Bruce and Railfan & Railroad Magazine associate editor Otto Vondrak. We began our journey from New Jersey on July 1, 2012, and, of course, our first stop had to be at the great train watching town of Ashland, Va., on CSX's for Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac route. We shot a couple of Amtrak trains at Ashland, then moved north to Doswell for the last light of the day where we got a northbound CSX freight on the RF&P clattering over the diamond where the line crosses Buckingham Branch Railroad's ex-Chesaeake & Ohio route.

CSX Transportation; Doswell, Va.; July 1, 2012

Norfolk Southern; Spencer, N.C.

The next morning we photographed Amtrak's Piedmont trains at High Point and Thomasville, N.C. While Amtrak's Carolinian to New York operates with conventional Amtrak locomotives and cars, the carriers in-state North Carolina routes use equipment purchased by the state and look different than anything else operated by Amtrak. We needed to be at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer shortly after lunch, so we paused for one final southbound Norfolk Southern freight from  the highway overpass just north of the museum grounds before heading in. While walking back to the car, Otto's glasses fell apart, with one lens plummeting from the bridge into the deep weeds below. This would necessitate a couple of runs to Lens Crafters down in Kannapolis the following day, but it did yield some good photography.

Getting back to our immediate story, however, we entered the museum grounds and there they were -- 20 brand new locomotives in a variety of paint schemes surrounding the turntable. There really isn't any place else other than Spencer where this event could be held, as Spencer has one of the largest surviving roundhouses in the country and the roundhouse actually sits further back from the turntable pit than most -- there was enough room between the turntable and the roundhouse to fit an entire locomotive without having part of the engine inside the roundhouse.

The museum generously provided a scissors lift to get media members onto the roundhouse roof, where the colorful locomotive line-up provided many photo angles.

Norfolk Southern Family Portrait; Spencer, N.C.; July 2, 2012

Norfolk Southern's company photographer, Casey Thomason, had a skyhook that lifted him way up in the air (and I mean way up) but the museum moved its scissors lift to the front of the scene, giving media members a nice elevated view of the lineup. The photo below is actually five photos stitched together into a panorama. The locomotive at the lower right, NS 1030, is painted in the current corporate scheme and was chosen to represent the current railroad and its 30th anniversary.

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Norfolk Southern Family Portrait; Spencer, N.C.; July 2, 2012

The next day the crowds poured into the museum for the opening of the two-day Family Portrait event. It took a little bit of time to get crowd control figured out, and NS scheduled a corporate photo shoot for the morning (hey, at $2.5 million per locomotive, NS had something like $52 million in corporate assets tied up in the event so they deserved to get a little mileage out of the show!). Sweltering heat and high humidity didn't help matters, but as the sun went down the venue turned into a warm summer night under the lights as photographers gathered around the turntable.

Norfolk Southern Family Portrait; Spencer, N.C.; July 3, 2012

While the heat and humidity could have generated thunderstorms and plenty of clouds, the weather cooperated for the most part. The sun was out for most of the day, and surprisingly clear skies displayed a full moon as it rose over the roundhouse.

Norfolk Southern Family Portrait; Spencer, N.C.; July 3, 2012

The next day a well-organized parade of power was presented, letting everyone get nicely lit roster shots of each unit in the large field at the south end of the museum grounds. We headed out at midday to shoot some regular trains and were rewarded with one of Amtrak's North Carolina trains passing the ice house in Salisbury (the large city just south of Spencer).

Amtrak; Salisbury, N.C.; July 4, 2012

When we got back to the museum, they were putting the locomotives back onto the roundhouse radial tracks, so we were able to shoot several of the heritage units on the turntable, such as the one representing the coal-hauling Monongahela Railway.

Norfolk Southern Family Portrait; July 4, 2012

Your writer with NS CEO Wick Moorman

That night we did another night photo session, then headed north on July 5. With not much time to spend trackside we caught Amtrak in Richmond and a little bit of action in Ashland, but mostly it was a straight shot home, bringing to an end what will probably go down as the railroad event of 2012. Was it worth the quick turnaround after the long midwest trip? You bet!