The Colorful Norfolk Southern

A visual history of Norfolk Southern’s evolution from monochrome engines to colorful heritage locomotives and beyond.

The Norfolk Southern Railway, formed by the merger of the Norfolk & Western and Southern Railways in 1982, has been known since its inception for the black and white/monochrome livery applied to its locomotives. While both of its predecessors once made use of more colorful hues on their motive power, by the 1970s both roads had turned to black paint, although the Southern also included a horizontal area of off-white in what was termed the ＂Tuxedo＂ paint scheme.

In 2012, the Norfolk Southern, led by its CEO Charles W. ＂Wick＂ Moorman, took to heart the suggestion of a young railroad enthusiast and launched the program that created 20 ＂Heritage＂ units, which utilized paint schemes from railroads that had formed the two predecessor roads. Some of these were, indeed, colorful. In subsequent years, this group of locomotives was joined by others that have liveries commemorating a variety of entities, which added to the colorful motive power fleet. In addition, it has also become increasingly common for locomotives from other railroads to operate on the NS and vice versa, adding doses of additional color to what otherwise would be rather somber-looking locomotive servicing facilities.