CLEVELAND — Norfolk Southern has introduced a pair of specially painted SD70ACe locomotives for use on its executive train with a unique design blending Norfolk & Western Tuscan Red — matching the office cars — with the standard NS black-and-white scheme. Locomotives 1230 and 1231 are shown on their first trip on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, running in a light rain just west of Cleveland at Battery Park. The railroad has not had locomotives specifically designated for executive train service since selling a A-B-B-A set of F units in 2019 [see “NS to dispose of executive F units …,” Trains.com, Nov. 12, 2019].
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A yellow stripe on the engine cab deck! Things that make you say, “Hmm.”
Rationale for using locomotives out of the general pool is that they can go back in the pool to pull freight. Also, it dispenses with the cost of maintaining specific locomotives. The flip side of the coin is that when two locomotives out of the general pool are pulling a non-revenue move then they are not pulling freight. Why not have dedicated locomotives for such purposes? Yes, it can go either way.
That said, I don’t dislike the paint job. If NS were going to be around a while then I’d like to see how that scheme looks on a pair of Genesis locomotives.
Not to mention that once UP inhales NS everything will probably be painted Armour Yellow anyway.
Looks like they are coping CSX type paint scheme
Why waste the money? They are not used near as much as BNSF and UP who are constantly on the RR, mostly with customers
I doubt that the locos will remain idle while the cars sit in Altoona. They can clean the road grime and touch up the paint when they’re needed for display in Augusta or Louisville.