The Norfolk Southern Office Car Special went through Northeast Ohio on Monday. The train has new motive power, a pair of SD60E’s that have been re-geared for 79 mph running. They are its new power replacing the old F units. I caught the train at Rootstown.
Photographs by Todd Dillon
Back in May Norfolk Southern ran its executive train on the Fort Wayne Line through Northeast Ohio.
I chased it to get some new views and as many old Pennsylvania Railroad position light signals as I could.
I also went out because NS has repainted and renumbered the engines so they wouldn’t conflict with new diesels they had bought.
My first photo location was the curved bridge in Massillon. It’s probably the most famous spot on the line and a must have photo.
Next was Wooster but the train was going through just as I pulled up. I then went to Lucas, which is just east of Mansfield.
After a crew change I got it passing under a signal bridge in town.
My final stop was North Robinson passing an intermediate signal. This ended the chase as it was getting dark then.
The executive train of Norfolk Southern is no stranger to Northeast Ohio, but its visits and few and far between enough to make getting it still a treat when the opportunity arises.
Such was the case on Sunday afternoon when operating as symbol 955 the train of A-B-B-A F units and 12 cars can through on the Cleveland Line and then the Chicago Line.
It was en route to Chicago and reportedly stayed overnight in Elkhart, Indiana, before continuing to the Windy City on Monday morning.
I intercepted it in Oak Harbor along with fellow Akron Railroad Club members Marty and Robert Surdyk.
We had been in Fostoria for the annual ARRC longest day outing and decided about 5 p.m. to head up to Oak Harbor, where the 955 came through about 7:20 p.m.
The train did not appear to have anyone aboard other than the head end crew.
That Union Pacific business train that we talked about at the May Akron Railroad Club meeting did, indeed, pass through Northeast Ohio on Norfolk Southern rails, but under the cover of darkness.
It was reported in Berea at 3:45 a.m. and in Macedonia at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday en route to New Jersey operating as NS symbol 066-30.
The train had originated in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Wednesday and arrived at UP’s Proviso Yard in Chicago about noon.
A report on the Trains magazine website indicated that the OCS had locomotives ES44AH No. 2752 and SD70AH’s Nos. 1943 and 9082 from Council Bluffs to Chicago. No. 2752 was removed at Chicago.
UP had equipped Nos. 1943 and 9082 in Council Bluffs with NS cab signal equipment so that No. 1943, which has a livery honoring the U.S. Armed Forces, could lead on NS rails.
No. 2752 led from Council Bluffs to Chicago because it had UP cab signals.
The OCS is expected to depart Croxton, New Jersey on June 4 to return to Council Bluffs.
On Wednesday the Norfolk Southern office car special came through Northeast Ohio. I caught it at Alliance. I was about to head home when I heard a report that the Central of New Jersey heritage unit was leading NS train 15V. This train takes the Fort Wayne line at Alliance. I went to Louisville where I got him at the MP94 signals which are still a Pennsylvania Railroad design.
I didn’t take long for word to get out at the Great Berea Train show on Saturday that the Norfolk Southern executive train was coming. Reportedly, it was headed for St. Louis.
It departed its base in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in late morning, which meant it was likely to pass through Cleveland in late afternoon.
My fellow Akron Railroad Club member Todd Dillon decided to intercept it at Hudson, which it passed through just before 5 p.m.
I left the train show just after 4:30 p.m. and headed for Olmsted Falls. Eastbound manifest freight 34N or 34M (I don’t remember which letter it was) was passing through as I arrived. It would be the only eastbound I would see over the next two hours.
Operating under symbol 955, the OCS was following manifest freight 11V. L13, the Bellevue-Rockport Yard turn, and a coal train, the 552, would also depart westbound ahead of it.
About 5:30 p.m., ARRC Bulletin Editor Marty Surdyk arrived. He had planned to run home to grab his camera, but traffic leaving the train show was heavy.
He reckoned that it would be cloudy when the OCS came through and his chances of getting a good image on slide film were slim. So he just came out to watch and didn’t bother to get his camera.
Marty’s hunch proved to be correct. There was some nice sunlight just before the L13 led the late afternoon westbound parade, but by the time 955 showed up at 6:53 p.m., it was cloudy and dark.
Even with a digital camera, it was a tough image to make. But I got it and saw something I don’t see often.
It also means that the last two times that I’ve seen the NS OCS I’ve been trackside with Marty. We had caught the OCS last month at Salem on the Fort Wayne Line.
The consist of the train was NS F9A 4270, F9B 4275, F9B 4276, F9A 4271, and passengers cars 23, Buena Vista; 24, Delaware; 19, Kentucky; 18, New Orleans; 2, Carolina; 4, Michigan; 14, Missouri; 13, Georgia; 11, Illinois; 9, Alabama; 20, Ohio; 3, Claytor Lake; 7, Pennsylvania; and 39 (a power car).
Even in the near dark it was an impressive looking consist. It was not a bad way to begin October.
The Norfolk Southern executive train rushes through Salem late on Sunday afternoon.
Norfolk Southern doesn’t operate passenger trains in the traditional sense. It doesn’t offer scheduled trains for which the traveling public can buy a ticket.
But like other major railroads, it has a fleet of passenger equipment for use in its executive train fleet and for other purposes involving track inspection.
When the word got out on Sunday that the NS office car special was traveling through northern Ohio en route to its home base in Altoona, Pennsylvania, it seemed that everyone and their brother went trackside to get it.
The OCS had been in the St. Louis area and traveled on the former Wabash mainline to Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Saturday night.
It had F9A 4271, F7B 4275 and F9A 4270, and passengers cars NS 23 (Buena Vista), NS 24 (Delaware), NS 7 (Pennsylvania) and NS 21 (West Virginia).
I first heard about the move of the OCS, which operated under symbol 956, from Marty Surdyk, who joined me in Sebring for an afternoon of railfanning on Sunday afternoon on the Fort Wayne Line east of Alliance.
Marty’s nephew Henry was chasing the train around Cleveland and sent us OS updates.
We elected to photograph the executive train as it passed through Salem because the tracks here are on a northwest-southeast alignment and the lighting would be better.
Train 956 was following intermodal train 20E and both were crossed over from Track 1 to Track 2 at CP Murph to run around grain train 52T, which was stopped ahead on Track 1 at CP Lum near Columbiana.
The intermodal train and OCS went back to Track 1 at Lum to continue their journey toward Pittsburgh. A report on HeritageUnits.com indicated that train 956 reached Altoona around 10:30 p.m.
My other sighting of NS varnish came late Friday afternoon in Olmsted Falls. It was a track geometry train with NS 38, a track test unit that railfans have nicknamed “the brick” because of its rectangular shape.
No. 38 was behind NS GP40-2 No. 3035 and was accompanied by NS 36, an open platform passenger car that carries the name “Research 36” on its flanks.
I could see NS personnel wearing safety vests sitting in the rear-facing seats and watching the tracks unfold behind them. It may be a research train, but it carries passengers and wears the same Tuscan red that adorns the NS executive fleet.
Traveling under NS symbol 906, the track geometry train tied up for the weekend at Rockport Yard. It left Cleveland on Monday morning headed for Pittsburgh.
A report on HU indicated that “the brick” would be inspecting Track 1 from Pittsburgh to Altoona.
This past week the Norfolk Southern office car special came through Northeast Ohio. On Monday it deadheaded to Cleveland and on Wednesday it took officials to New York via the former Nickel Plate Road and Southern Tier routes.
I got these photos at Cleveland on Wednesday morning. Aside from the two views of the OCS, I also found an interestingly painted RTA car being used on the Red Line.
“That looks like an F40.” And it was, leading the CSX executive train at Greenwich on May 28, 2006.
Ten years ago today several members of the Akron Railroad Club gathered for what was one of my top five outings in the nearly 13 years I’ve been in the club.
It was a trip to New London and Greenwich that was ideal because of its good weather, diverse mixture of trains and a few pleasant surprises.
When the idea was mentioned during a club meeting about holding a Memorial Day Weekend outing, club members initially settled on going to Greenwich.
But Marty Surdyk said he planned to spend the morning in New London at the above-ground reservoir there and would go to Greenwich in the afternoon.
At the time, I had never railfanned in either location so I followed Marty’s lead and began the day at the reservoir.
CSX traffic was steady throughout the morning. Most members who participated in the outing began in New London, although a few spent all day in Greenwich.
At one point a flock of vulture was flying above us, which as you might expect led to some joking. We learned from Peter Bowler that a group of such birds is known as a “kettle.” I’ve yet to hear that term used since that day.
In putting together my program for the ARRC 80th anniversary event I had a chance to review my photos from that day and had forgotten that among other things we saw a caboose on the rear of an eastbound train.
Another train featured a BNSF warbonnet with its motive power running mates consisting of a Norfolk Southern unit and a TFM locomotive.
Most of our group at New London spent their time atop the reservoir or at its base.
Tim Krogg was one of those who spent the morning down below and about 1 p.m. he started getting impatient.
“When are we going to get some (expletive) lunch?” he bellowed up at us.
With that we descended to ground level and headed into town to McDonalds’s, where we could eat and keep an eye on the CSX mainline.
After lunch, we went back to the reservoir but shortly thereafter decided to head for Greenwich.
I didn’t know how to get there so Marty said, “follow me.” I did and the route he took was one dusty road after another.
In Greenwich we continued to have good luck and even caught an eastbound Wheeling & Lake Erie manifest freight with GP35 No. 2662 in the lead, one of the railroad’s two “Kodachrome” or “painted ladies” locomotives.
But the sighting of the day was a westbound train on CSX that went straight through toward Crestline and Galion.
We had seen a headlight and heard a symbol that no one recognized. As Marty eyed the train through his telephoto lens he said, “that looks like an F40.”
I didn’t believe it but as the train got closer it turned out to be a three-car passenger train that was, indeed, led by an F40PH.
It was my first and thus far only sighting of the CSX executive train.
We speculated it was en route to Indianapolis to pick up VIPs who had attended the Indy 500 earlier that day.
I never forgot how much I enjoyed that outing and I wanted to do it again, but it took a few years before I could get it onto the club’s schedule.
The date was set for May 26, 2013. Unlike the 2006 outing, this one was a total bust. I was the only person to show up.
As I wrote this, I thought about what made that 2006 outing so enjoyable. There were a number of reasons, most noticeably the fellowship of being with fellow rail fans. I would have enjoyed seeing and photographing those same trains had I been there by myself, but it is more enjoyable to do it in the company of other like-minded people.
It also was my first time to railfan in New London and Greenwich. Although I’ve been back to both places numerous times in the intervening years, like anything else in life once you do it several times it just doesn’t have the same excitement of discovery feel that it had the first time.
Beyond that, there are some events that seem destined to be special because of the set of circumstances that surround them and what happens during the day.
That decade ago outing in New London and Greenwich was one of those. It cannot be duplicated in quite the same way as it played out, but at least I’ll always have my memories.
A Helm Financial, a.k.a. HLCX, SD40 trails on this westbound manifest freight. No. 9039 was built in April 1970 for the Louisville & Nashville.
The typical motive power on a typical CSX stack train.
We were still surprised to see a caboose on the rear of this eastbound CSX train even if it was battered and vandalized.
What a motive power consist this train had. That is Peter Bowler making a photograph at the far left.
It is always a good outing when you can catch a warbonnet leading a train.
Even some of the clouds seemed special.
A colorful W&LE sighting in Greenwich.
Many of us spent most of the morning atop the reservoir.
Cancellation of the steam program, putting a posh executive resort up for sale and now not sending the executive train to the Masters golf tournament in Georgia.
None of those actions that have been undertaken by Norfolk Southern will do anything to improve the company’s bottom line, but they will have symbolic value in the months ahead as the NS board of directors continues to fight an unwanted takeover bid by Canadian Pacific.
Trains magazine reported last week that NS didn’t send its executive train to the golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
It remains to be seen, but chances are the executive train won’t be going to the Kentucky Derby either.
In both instances, NS has historically sent its executive train to both high-profile sporting events to entertain shippers, public officials and executives of other railroads.
Just as predictable as flowering trees in the spring, the NS executive train has departed Altoona, Pennsylvania, in the morning and passed through Northeast Ohio on the Fort Wayne Line about a week before the Derby, which is held on the first Saturday in May.
But when you are trying to cut costs, executive perks can become expendable. It is all about promoting an image.
“We do not have business cars at the Masters,” NS spokesman Rick Harris told Trains. “It was an internal business decision.”
CSX and BNSF do have their executive trains in Augusta, but they are not currently the target of a takeover bid by CP or someone else.
Norfolk Southern is not cutting expenses because it is unprofitable.
NS may be suffering from lost coal traffic, but it is not losing money. It is far from being Penn Central or Erie Lackawanna, two railroads that served the Eastern United States that lost a gondola load of money, seeking bankruptcy protection as a result.
No, the issue is a matter of how much money NS makes and whether it is doing enough to make more of it.
In that regard, the primary concern of NS executives is not just prevailing over CP as it is pleasing Wall Street analysts who can influence the buying and selling of NS stock.
That is not to say that the CP takeover bid in unrelated to what Wall Street analysts think.
When a company is unable to increase its financial performance with substantial new business, it often tries to make itself look good by cost cutting.
There is a saying that you can’t cut your way to growth, but you can make your financial statement look better in the short term, which is mostly what Wall Street cares about.
Hence, NS has announced a five-year strategic plan to achieve $650 million in annual savings and reduce its operating ratio to 65 percent or lower by 2020.
The plan also talks about finding new business. The strategic plan is filled with long-term goals and objectives, but it was created for short-term benefit.
Whether the five-year plan ever achieves its objectives is largely immaterial at this point. It shows that current management is doing something now to bolster the balance sheet.
In the short term, NS management is most concerned about the May 12 annual meeting at which interests representing CP will propose a resolution directing NS to discuss a merger with CP.
NS CEO James Squires will point to a laundry list of actions his company has undertaken to reduce costs as a way of arguing against the resolution and against the need to merge with another company.
Not operating the executive train to a golf tournament will save only a few pennies in the scheme of things, but keeping the executive horses in Altoona will be worth valuable debating points.
The last thing Squires needs is a dissident shareholder harping about how NS is spending money on “frills.”
Squires needs to create the impression that he and the current NS management are doing all they can to turn things around and that they know what they are doing.
It is all about building an image that instills confidence in the current management among stockholders.
That might be enough to persuade enough of them to vote down the CP-sponsored resolution.
Saving pennies is the sort of thing that you do when you are in a tough situation that has no easy or immediate solution. You play for time and hope to ride out the storm.
It must gall Squires and the NS directors that CP’s E. Hunter Harrison has all but called them incompetent by saying that if Harrison were the CEO of NS he could realize $1.2 billion in savings by implementing his precision railroading operating plan.
In time, NS will either chase Harrison away or succumb to him. In either case, it seems likely that the NS executive train will be back at the Masters in 2017.
If NS triumphs over CP, it will be able to return to a sense of normalcy, which means wooing shippers, politicians and other railroad executives by taking them for a train ride.
If Hunter gets what he wants, he, too, will need to reach out to the same constituencies.
And what’s spending a few pennies to do that? It won’t affect the bottom line but could go a long way toward helping build a badly-needed positive image.
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