NORFOLK & WESTERN
The N&W ran two distinct operations in my hometown of Buffalo, NY. The ex Nickel Plate entered the city from the southwest after running along the southern shore of Lake Erie and hugging the ex NYC mainline most of the way from Cleveland, OH. This line featured mainline trains with any road power on the N&W at that time, the trains terminating in the joint (with E-L) Bison Yard for connections east on the E-L and the Lehigh Valley. The other operation was the ex Wabash line which ran from Detroit, MI across southern Ontario on CN trackage rights. Trains then crossed the CN's bridge into the U.S. at Black Rock, in the northwest corner of the city of Buffalo, then ran on the E-L Black Rock Branch into Bison Yd. These trains were notable for their power, ex Wabash F7's built by GMD in London, ON for the Wabash's Canadian operations and where they continued to live out their days on the N&W lasting well into the late 1970's. The Conrail merger was not kind to the N&W as it's eastern connections were now gone and there was talk from time to time of the N&W abandoning the NKP line and utilizing trackage rights on the parallel Conrail main. Luckily traffic picked up in the 1980's as the D&H became a respectable eastern connection, container trains began to appear in conjunction with both the D&H and NYS&W, and P&LE unit coal trains begain using the line from Conneaut, OH to Buffalo as well. Today the line is busier than ever under Norfolk Southern operations.
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A pair of C30-7's (#8044, 8055) bring train CN-90 into Buffalo, NY on July 22, 1984. View is from the Tifft St. bridge. The C30-7's along with SD40-2's were the dominant power on the ex NKP main in the mid 1980's. |
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N&W painted a few C30's in this experimental tuscan red with gold lettering scheme. Here #8076 along with GP38 #4137 & SD40-2 #6143 bring train TC-4 east into the Buffalo Jct. Yard at South Park Ave. on September 23, 1984. |
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C30-7 #8032 and SD40-2 #6199 are eastbound with TB-28 on Conrail's Belt Line approaching the Colvin Blvd. overpass in Buffalo, NY on November 24, 1984. This train originated in Talbotville (St.Thomas) ON and will terminate in Buffalo Jct. Yd. |
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C420 #417 at Brewster, OH on June 24, 1975. N&W had only 9 of the C420's, 8 high nose types bought new and one lose nose unit from the Nickel Plate takeover. |
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C424 #424 is at the Bison Yard engine facility in Buffalo, NY on August 12, 1973. This unit is the ex Wabash #B904, which explains it's low nose. |
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The ex Wabash F7's were assigned to the CN shops at Fort Erie, ON for maintainence. Here is the #3661 at the shop with the two shop workers awaiting the foreman's instructions on where to move the unit. September 23, 1972. |
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F7 #3660 leads GP9 #2488 west on ND91 approaching Military Rd in Buffalo, NY on August 31, 1977. This train is on the CR (ex E-L) Black Rock branch and will soon cross the International Railway Bridge into Canada. By this date the F unit ranks were pretty thin, and a matched set was rare. |
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F7's #3659, 3726 and 3660 are moved around the engine tracks at Bison Yd. on April 25, 1973. The N&W units wore one of two paint schemes....the #3659 has the solid blue colors, while the 3726 was one of several that retained the Wabash gray along the roof line and top of the nose. Both of these units would be destroyed in a bad wreck in Simcoe, ON in June 1975 that would kill the engineer and brakeman on DN90 |
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The #3666 being worked on inside the CN shops at Ft. Erie, ON across the river from Buffalo. This unit also shows off the 'grey top' scheme. The CN continued to touch up the units in N&W blue, and thankfully, none were ever painted into the NW black scheme as far as I am aware. |
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GP7 #3453 and F7 #3725 are on ND91 on 6/4/78 as they cross the large bridge in North Buffalo that carried the E-L Black Rock branch (now Conrail) up and over the old E-L Niagara Falls branch. Pre merger this trackage was the Lackawanna RR and the line it crossed was an Erie line, with the Erie having it's own parallel line to the CN connection at Black Rock at the bottom right. |
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Hi nose GP30 #540 leads a C30-7, and SD45 and another GP30 on D&H train EDNW westbound at Silver Springs, NY on July 14, 1984. This D&H train is utilizing trackage rights on Conrail's ex E-L Southern Tier Line. |
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GP30 #533 leads a transfer job south past FW in Buffalo, NY on March 26, 1983. In a moment this train will take a switch into Buffalo Jct. Yard. |
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The N&W did have 9 low nose GP30's that came from the Nickel Plate. Here is the #2905 and GP38 #4116 at Bison Yd. in Buffalo on Sept. 7, 1981. The N&W has removed the low nose headlight, but the distinctive bell in the cut-out remains. These units also lacked dynamic brakes, so they tended to stay on the ex NKP and Wabash lines. |
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After the F7's were retired, N&W brought in the small fleet of ex Wabash and NKP low nose GP35's to work the Canadian trains. Here is the #2911 (ex Wabash #540) 2910 (NKP's only GP35 #910) and one other unit on ND91 on the ex E-L Black Rock Branch at Main St, Buffalo, NY 4/9/82. The rusty track is the old E-L Niagara Falls branch, out of use by Conrail. |
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GP35 #226, U25B #8146, GP9 #626 and GP35 #1314 are on the LV main in Buffalo NY on August 17, 1973. They have just tied onto the hot westbound Apollo 1 intermodal train for the rest of the run on N&W rails. Like other N&W units of that time, the #226 has dual controls allowing it to run long hood foward. |
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GP38-2 #4162, GP9u #2001 and GP30 #2901 are pulling train NE01 out of the D&H's SK Yard in Buffalo, NY on October 28, 1984. One of only 4 GP38-2's on the roster, all came from the takeover of the Illinois Terminal RR, this unit being the ex IT #2003 |
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N&W's Fairbanks-Morse units played out their last days primarily in Ohio. The old W&LE yard at Brewster, OH was teaming with F-M's, both in service and in the deadline. Here among the living is H-12-44 #2151 in faded blue on June 24, 1975. |
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H-12-44 #2140 at Brewster on 6/24/75 exhibits the later squared-off boxy styling of this model. The ex-Nickel Plate yellow frame striping is beginning to show through. |
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The N&W used 3 unit sets of RS-11's like #2567 on April 25, 1973, as hump pushers at Bison Yard in Buffalo, NY. The units used were always ex Nickel Plate 2500 series units, not the ex N&W originals in the 3 digit numbers. |
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SD35 #1555 leads a westbound freight at Hamburg, NY on June 2, 1974. The railroad had a large fleet of 80 of these units, all with dual controls. |
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The EMD SD fleet was the backbone of N&W coal service. Here SD40-2 #6118 leads an eastbound coal train at Blake, WV on May 30, 1982. |
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Train CN90 is arriving at Buffalo Jct. Yd. on July 8, 1984. Power this day is SD40-2 #6190, C30-7's #8042 & 8053 and SD45 #1779 as they pass another C30-7 to the right. Behind the train is the Conrail NY-Chicago main. |
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SD40-2 #6192 and C30-7 #8006 power train ND91 on Conrail's main at Filmore Ave. in Buffalo, NY on August 18, 1985. In less than a mile the train will diverge onto the Belt Line and make it's way across the Niagara River to Canada. |
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SD45 #1755 & GP40 #1360 lead train TC-3 out of Frontier Yard and onto the CR Chicago Main for a few miles at Bailey Ave. in Buffalo, NY on July 15, 1984. At CP Draw the train will roll onto N&W rails for the trip west. |
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N&W's T-6 switchers could be found in Virginia and the Cleveland, OH area. Here is #23 switching at the Atlantic Avenue Yards in Norfolk, VA on Sept. 24, 1980. |
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U25B #8146 sits in front of the Bison Yard sanding tower on August 12, 1973. The 15 unit fleet came from the Wabash takeover and apparently the units were not well liked as most were retired in 1974-75 lasting less than 15 years. |
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J Class 4-8-4 #611 came to the Buffalo area several times over the years. Here the #611 leads an eastbound excursion towards Buffalo over Cattaraugus Creek in Irving, NY on August 11, 1984. |