Early Norfolk Southern, 1987-1989

As the decade of the 1980s came to a close, Norfolk Southern was coming closer to presenting a unified image. The reality was that Norfolk Southern was still a holding company owning two individual railroads: the Norfolk & Western and the Southern Railway. While the locomotives and equipment were being painted into a unified image, there were still a significant part of the fleet still operating in the paint schemes of both the Norfolk & Western and Southern Railways.

Picking up where the previous volume left off, we see action filmed primarily on the west end of the former Southern Railway line from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis, Missouri. Action is centered on Centralia, and locations include Hoffman, Posey, Bartelso, Walnut Hill, Bluford and Mount Vernon.

Older locomotive models abound, including GP30s, GP35s and SD40s in both N&W and Southern paint. GP38s variations are plentiful, along with GP50s and GP59s, SD50s. There is also General Electric power in the Universal and Dash-7 and a few Dash-8s. Former Southern Railway bay window cabooses were still in use on most trains at this time, and the train consists were loaded with roads that are fallen flags today.