NS Business Special @ Centralia, IL, 10/4/2016

[C855B]

Many thanks to leads from @MRLX1020 , Robyn and I nabbed this NS officers' special this morning. There were a couple of regular folk stopped at one of the crossings, both who on seeing my camera asked about the train after it passed, "It's gorgeous!" Can't say I disagree.

[davefoxx]

Good catch, @C855B!  A proper lash-up of A-B-B-A; like they were supposed to be.  Beautiful.  Thanks for sharing.

DFF

[Mark5]

Very elegant train! Still loving the Southern scheme on the F's - very nice nod to heritage and the F's always looked great in that scheme.

Mark

[Blazeman]

Todd Treaster has piloted that train when it's in PA.

[Joetrain59]

Very cool looking. Only thing better would be a steamer up front.
 Joe D

[C855B]

Very cool looking. Only thing better would be a steamer up front.

I'm coming to believe that covered wagons are rarer in mainline service, and need to be celebrated for that rarity. Discussions with managers at UP's heritage operation inferred that the EPA is giving the steamers a pass for their historic value, but 60-year-old diesels are expected to toe the line for current standards when being repowered, even including overhauls of the in-place prime movers. That's why the UP E's and NS F's "sound wrong", as they have 645s with reworked exhaust management, and not their original 567s and straight manifolds. It's also why there is not a second UP E9B, which they wanted to do - they have the shell on the property, but EPA wouldn't let them repower it without (then) Tier 2 and California compliance. This was a budget-buster.

Adding insult, until there is dispensation for historic diesels, Tier 4 puts long-term running survival of the current fleet in doubt as compliance complexity exceeds the ability to be shoehorned into the old carbodies. You already see the aesthetic impact of regulations in the NS Fs - to comply with Amtrak's HEP mandate, NS chose to put the generator where the steam boiler was. (UP's solution is power cars.) So there is a modern fan and that ugly muffler spoiling the historic roof profile. And don't get me started on ditch lights.