Norfolk Southern SD40-2s, both high and low nose!

NS3288GB_100305

THE SOUTHERN PROPERLY understood that hi-nose locomotives operating in long-hood forward mode looked great (no matter how hard it must have been to drive one of the things) and clung on to this philosophy right to the bitter end. Norfolk Southern has, since the beginning of the 2000s, been rapidly increasing the rate of ‘chopping noses’, but SD40-2 No. CG 3288 was untouched and in original condition when it was photographed at Roanoke, Virginia, on March 10th, 2005.

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The original Norfolk Southern scheme is surprisingly endurable considering its simplicity. It harks back to days before the famed NS thoroughbred started to get uppity, or before BNSF ’swooshes’, CP ‘beavers’, UP ‘lightning flashes’ and numerous other fancy livery adornments took over the sides of railroad locomotives. This example, SD40-2 No. NW 6123 at Roanoke, Virginia, on March 10th, 2005, is thankfully untouched by frame stripes, or other modern additions.