RAILROAD HERITAGE & SCHEMES

Many of today’s railroad companies are a combination of other railroad’s merged into one another or simply purchased outright and abandoned. For example, today’s CSX is a combination of the Chessie system and Seaboard System which included multiple railroad’s like the B&O, WM, C&O, L&N, ACL just to name a few.

Amtrak began in 2011 to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary by painting 5 locomotives in schemes off it’s past. Norfolk Southern took the lead to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary in 2012 by painting 20 new locomotives in paint schemes to honor the “fallen flags” as they’re commonly called by rail enthusiasts that made up the Class one company into what it is today.

: CSXT 1776 “Spirit of our Armed Forces” leads B451 the evening Rock Runner returning empties from Bladensburg, MD back to Millville, WV. Seen here crossing the well known wooden trestle thru Harpers Ferry’s Lower Town at about 1045pm on June 6, 2023. The GE built ES44AC-H engine combines the CSX dark blue and yellow colors on the front of the locomotive with gray camouflage on the sides and top. The paint scheme celebrates the five main branches of military service and features the CSX Pride in Service logo along with the logos of the program partners — Wounded Warriors, Blue Star Families, Operation Homefront and Operation Gratitude. A double exposure was used to capture both the night sky and lit up scene.

: MANCE NIGHTS The Capitol Limited eases around the less famous horseshoe curve in the Alleghanies at Mance, PA on the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline between Cumberland, MD and Pittsburgh. The building at the apex of the curve on the right sits at an elevation of 2,048 feet. Leading the train is AMTK 130, one of the engines painted in previous liveries to celebrate that railroads 40th anniversary in 2011. This engine was painted into the Phase 2 scheme in 2018 after AMTK 66 which originally was painted in 2011 was scrapped after a vehicle collision. Photographer note: A double exposure was used to complete this image. One for the sky and another with the lit up scene..

: Leading I136 through the Martinsburg Station and historic B&O Roundhouse Complex on February 21, 2022 is CSX ES44AC #3194. The engine, painted as the “Spirit of Law Enforcement” in 2019 is one of 3 units painted by CSX in their “Pride in Service” program (1776 for US Military, 911 for First Responders).

: N&W 611 J Class and Southern FP7 locomotives pose side by side at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. Both were built in 1950.

: SHIPPENSBURG, PA

: At approximately 1053AM on November 10, 2021 the eastbound Pennsylvanian arrives for its station stop at Huntingdon, PA on the former PRR mainline between Altoona and Harrisburg. Leading the way is the newly painted AMTK 108 which wears Amtrak’s Phase VI scheme in celebration of that company’s 50th year of operation.

: PRR 9339 Built in 1948 by General Electric, Pennsylvania Railroad 9339 sits at the Walkersville Southern Railroad in Walkersville, Maryland on former PRR track age. It saw service on the PRR until 1964 and included stops at the South Carolina Railroad Museum until when it was purchased by Jaime Haislip for use on the WS. It’s sister 9331 is also on site and sees occasional use on the line.

: The CSX OCS symbol P001-25 photographed in Martinsburg, WV as it makes it’s journey from Chicago, IL to Waycross, GA with some VIPs on board on the evening of August 26, 2021. CSX painted the entire train (engines and cars) in 1950’s Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger era colors. You’ll even note the brass “Capitol Dome” on the front of CSX 1.

: Norfolk Southern 8102 leads a hot intermodal train on the former N&W mainline just north of Sharpsburg, MD on August 18, 2021.

: Empty ballast hopper BO964346 sits at the siding on the former B&O/Chessie Petersburg Branch at Green Spring, WV now operated by the State of West Virginia as the South Branch Valley Railroad. Joining it is former B&O/Chessie GP9 6240, a workhorse of the railroad. An unlikely pair found 40 years after the demise of Chessie but still living together in harmony in 2021 and it active service 50-60 years after their build dates.

: OFF THE BEATEN PATH Norfolk Southern’s Virginian unit leads CSX intermodal train Q138 by the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Roundhouse complex and Amtrak station in Martinsburg, WV.

: B&O IN STAUNTON

: October 29, 2016 saw another NS heritage unit leading a train through the area. Here is NS 8102 the “Pennsylvania Railroad” leading 36Q by the N&W Depot in Boyce, VA just shortly before 11pm.

: 30 stars decorate the cab of Pennsylvania and Southern Railroad SW7 #17 with 15 on each side to honor those American servicemen that perished in the 2011 Extortion 17 Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

: RELIVED GEEP

: D&L HERITAGE AT SHERMAN CREEK

: HOLDING AT LEE’S: Due to a derailment on the CVRR near Carlisle, a PRR extra pauses at Lee’s Crossroads, PA after merging off the PRR main at Shippensburg to head east to Harrisburg where it will rejoin the main. Just kidding, its NS 043 with the restored PRR E8’S heading back from Spencer, NC.

: H48.4 CENTRAL OF GEORGIA: My first Norfolk Southern Heritage Unit I photographed in September, 2012 at White Post, VA. The building to the left is the 1940’same N&;W freight house.

: MOUNTAIN RAILROAD: The original logo for the MMID was a diamond with MM interlaced with each other to represent the Mountains and Valleys it traversed. No better example of this is the segment of line from Thurmont to Highfield where the railroad follows Owens Creek to Sabillasville. Here at the small hamlet of Lantz, the rails leave the gorge and begin it’s heavy pull to the top.

: FAST FREIGHT LINE

: ON CSX MAIN

: BACK IN TIME, B&O RR MUSEUM

: H40.0 BERRYVILLE, VA

: HIGHFIELD INTERCHANGE: After pulling onto CSX trackage, UBHF reverses onto the siding to drop off its train at Highfield.

: H2.7 Vardo yard, Hagerstown MD

: GOLDEN SLUMBERS: Returning from the Streamliner event in Spencer, NC are the Juniata Terminal restored PRR E8’s and train pictured at sunset after crossing the Potomac River. The train will stop at Hagerstown before continuing its trip back home to Philly the next day.

: ON THE OLD CVRR: The southern end of the NS Lurgan Branch is actually the old Cumberland Valley Railroad that went from Harrisburg, PA to Winchester, VA. The CVRR was later acquired by the PRR so catching the PRR E8’s on home rails was an added bonus here just south of the Mason Dixon Line.

: GOT HERITAGE?: Sitting in the yard before being sent west to Cumberland on the nights D720 is the B&O F7 coming back from the event over the weekend in Spencer, NC. Although not a true B&O Heritage engine, the former BLE locomotive was painted into the Baltimore & Ohio livery in 2010 to honor the South Branch Valley’s 100th anniversary. Also pictured are two EMD GP40-2’s both of C&O heritage.

: HAPPY CREEK ROAD – FRONT ROYAL, VA

The Wright Photography of Things Photographer of Night, Light & Steel Wheels