Streamliners At Spencer

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 29, 2014

At the end of May one the biggest rail enthusiast events of the year took place; Streamliners At Spencer brought together one of the largest gathering of 1940s-1960s "cab units" built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) and the American Locomotive Company (Alco) for one colorful show. We'll take a day-by-day look at the event, starting with Thursday, May 29, as the locomotives began to gather around the turntable at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer. Reading F7 No. 284 came from the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey (above). Iowa Pacific E8 No. 515 was briefly disguised as Illinois Central No. 4035 on the first day (below).

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 29, 2014

Also in attendance was Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No. 611, a streamlined steam locomotive. The J-Class locomotive had just arrived in Spencer where it will be restored to operation as part of the "Fire Up 611" campaign. It was given the position of honor on the turntable for the first night photo session.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 29, 2014

Highlighting the second day was a freight train powered by an A-B-A set of F3 locomotives representing the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. The two A units came from the Bangor & Aroostook, while the B unit is a converted F7B from the Boston & Maine. One A unit is owned by the Tri-State Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, while the other A and the B come from the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society. The F3s were the oldest operating units at Spencer.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 30, 2014

The three-unit set was used for the night photo session, and made a fine sight as they passed under the museum's restored signal bridge.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 30, 2014

Also a part of the night photo session was a multi-unit set-up in the field south of the roundhouse, highlighted by "Baltimore & Ohio" F7 No. 722 (former Bessemer & Lake Erie) and "Chesapeake & Ohio" F3 No. 8016 (former Clinchfield). Both are now owned by the Potomac Eagle Scenic in West Virginia.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 30, 2014

Day Three found Canadian National FPA4 No. 6789 on the photo freight. Like all the other locomotives in attendance, movement to Spencer was provided free of charge by Norfolk Southern. No. 6789 came from the Monticello Railway Museum in Illinois.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 31, 2014

An antique car show was part of the festivities at Spencer, and the car owners didn't need much encouragement to bring a car over to pose with the trains. New Haven FL9 No. 2019 from the Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston, Conn., passed at Studebaker. Both were built in the same year -- 1960.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 31, 2014

Locomotives came from all across the country and from not only museums but also Class I railroads. The roundhouse tracks included privately-owned "Nickel Plate Road" (former Santa Fe) No. 190 from Portland, Ore., Southern Railway No. 6900 (which lives at Spencer), Erie No. 833 from the New York & Greenwood Lake in Port Jervis, N.Y., Union Pacific No. 949 which is used by UP on its business trains and Norfolk Southern F9 No. 4271 which is used in business train service for NS.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 31, 2014

In attendance was Electro-Motive Corporation (a predecessor of EMD) FT No. 103, the very first streamliner built in 1939. It shared the roundhouse tracks with Southern FP7 No. 6133 (which resides at Spencer), Pan Am business train FP9 No. PAR-1, and Chicago & North Western F7 No. 411 from the Illinois Railway Museum in Union.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 31, 2014

Perhaps the most surprising attendee was "Nickel Plate Road" No. 190, one of only two surviving Alco PA locomotives in the United States. Privately owned by Doyle McCormack, the PA made a cross-country trip from Portland, Ore., (with BNSF Railway donating the move across the west) to be one of two Alcos at the Streamliner event (joining Canadian National FPA4 No. 6789 from Monticello, Ill.) No. 190 was used during the final night photo event.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; May 31, 2014

All good things must end, and Sunday, June 1, marked the end of Streamliners at Spencer. There were still a few photos to be had, however. North Carolina Transportation Museum's own Atlantic Coast Line E3 No. 503 took a morning spin on the turntable.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; June 1, 2014

Chicago & North Western F7 No. 411 from the Illinois Railway Museum was making morning passenger runs. IRM also sent Chicago, Burlington & Quincy E5 No. 9811 to the Streamliners event.

North Carolina Transportation Museum; Spencer, N.C.; June 1, 2014

All in all, it was a well-run event. Thanks to the staff of the North Carolina Transportation Museum for all their hospitality. Also thanks to the Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association for providing the lights at the night photo sessions. And thanks to all the railroads and museums who sent crews and equipment to Spencer. You can see more photos of Streamliners At Spencer here.

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.

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight

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!