N&W RS3 & CABOOSE (PEVLER BLUE)

Seeing the N&W cuts my farm in half let's see what I can remember from childhood days to NS days.  The N&W ran mainly steam Js and K2s on passenger service.  When the N&W dieselized the ordered GP-9s for passenger service but until they could be delivered they leased E-8s from the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac.  They stayed in RF&P colors but had Norfolk and Western stenciled in gold on the side of each engine.  As far as I know they only had A units.  When the RED GP-9s were delivered the E units were returned.  The first batch of GP-9s had 36" fans on them and the second batch had 48" fans.

When the N&W, NKP and Wabash merger went thru the GP-9s were painted blue along with all N&W passenger equipment.  N&W also gained passenger E units from Wabash that were repainted to the N&W blue and minimum striping.  They also picked up passenger GP-9s that were easily spotted as the original N&W GP-9s had the air tanks mounted on top of the fuel tanks seen from the side of the engines while the merger GP-9s had their air tanks on the top of the engine. 

Passenger service was discontinued before there was another color change.  The next red units were GE C-30-7s which were painted Tuscan Red with gold NW on them. I think there were three of them.   After the N&W and Southern were merged NS painted an F unit in Southern colors and a SD unit in Tuscan Red with a gold NW on the side.  These were used for special trains. 

I hope I've got this in the correct order seeing it's off the top of my head.  

Very cool looking! Both the engine and the caboose!

And, yes ..... those old ALCO's cry out for some grime! lol

Yeah, I think I'll take them out for a tour of Lambert's Point, I think there's enough coal dust floating around that it ought to give them the proper look

Bob Delbridge posted:

I know this is blasphemy to a lot of slobbering N&W freaks, but I've always liked the looks of the N&W blue engines and cabs.

Herman H. Pevler was to say the least, not a beloved President of the N&W. The disdain for Pevler Blue was the result of several things.  He was an outsider at the N&W. It was a too similar to Wabash blue, flew in the face of long N&W Traditions, and in general was a pretty nasty paint. "Pevler Blue" is a derogatory reference both to the man and his choice of paint colors. It looked terrible with road grime on it and from the time the units were painted, oxidized almost immediately. Color hues were all over the map. 

Other than that, Pevler Blue made for a pretty spiffy paint job. FWIW, you did get the color "right". Your railroad and color choices are at your discretion. 

Gilly, Any idea what the real name of the paint was?

Matching the old colors is impossible.  I see the GP-9 Virginia Transportation Rusting line and it doesn't look anything like the red I remember.  It seems like it has some metallic finish in it.  The blue changed color the day it came out of the paint shop.  The original pictures looked beautiful and thru time I've actually decided to model some Redbirds and Bluebirds along with some blue passenger cars.   I recently found some Midland Production Wabash kits and they will be done with blue paint and delux gold lettering for N&W.

The VMT Red GP9 is painted the wrong color. I believed they used a Erie Lackawana maroon. The N&W red did have metallic flake in the paint, but it was added by taking a handful of the metal flake and added to it, so it varied.  The Passenger red and the C30-7/SD40-2 red were different. Scalecoat make a N&W Red but it was a special mix by Tom Dressler, close but?

As far as the N&W Pelver Blue, I have a marker light from an ex. NKP RS3. Can some one tell me if it possible to retrieve the original color from it?

Stephen 

N&W blue diesels are the only way to go! 

Jeff C

Saw on Bloomberg Business News Canadian National might  acquiring the N&W.  Another Fallen Flag again?

There is no more N&W, only NS (Norfolk Southern) and they (NS) said it ain't happening.  There's a long talk about it in the Real trains forum.

Bob Delbridge posted:

Gilly, Any idea what the real name of the paint was?

Nope, but Mike Wolf might know. They got the color of their N&W Heritage ES44AC spot-on. I complemented him on it at York this year. He mentioned that they had matched it from a sample MTH received (I'm assuming from NS).

Don't believe a word coming from E. Hunter Harrison.  He was the head of the IC while it was corporate raided and the two track mainline from Chicago to New Orleans was sold off to become  a single track parking zone.  At that  time he was the third highest paid CEO in the Midwest.  This ain't his first trip to town!  If the NS gets sold to CN rail fans will plenty of time to watch CN trains stop and start.  I attended an IC Historical Society Annual   meeting where he was the keynote speaker and described plans for the IC extending through South Dakota into the Wyoming coal fields.  The IC had already been sold to the CN.  Harrison is now the CEO of the CN - see how that works?

"Nope, but Mike Wolf might know. They got the color of their N&W Heritage ES44AC spot-on. I complemented him on it at York this year. He mentioned that they had matched it from a sample MTH received (I'm assuming from NS)."

Tom "Gilly" Gilsdorf

 The NS/N&W Heritage ES44AC blue is not "Pelver Blue"!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have the Dupont paint #.

Stephen

Having maximized profits at CN by eliminating unnecessary overheads such as track maintenance, EHH jumped ship to CP in June 2012. Not too many more railroads left to receive the EHH "optimization treatment"...  

Pete

Ah hah... an N&W RS-3.

The first time I saw (that I recognized) an RS-3 was an N&W RS-3 sitting at the former Wabash Yard in North Kansas City.  This would have been mid-1960s?  I remember being shocked at becoming aware that the Wabash wasn't in much evidence anymore. (Follow the Flag!)  There it was, sitting by the control tower at the eastern yard throat.  Odd the things we remember.

Anyway, my MEMORY of that N&W RS-3 has Pevler Blue paint on it... but that MIGHT not be accurate, but instead imposed upon my memory by the many Atlas HO scale RS-3's I had purchased in N&W Pevler blue for stripping/repainting.

Hm... another memory jog:  We were crossing the Choteau Bridge in our family car (Choteau Bridge was just east of the Wabash/N&W yard) during that same time frame... and I remember seeing another RS-3 in a consist that was heading east. When the hoghead notched out, black smoke belched and boiled out of that Alco! 

Ah, the memories.

Robert J. Yanosey's book "Tidewater Triangle" probably has more photos of the blue painted engines then any other book I've ever seen.  He has a photo of RS3 #300 that looks like it just got painted, and looks very close to the C&O Enchantment Blue I used.

Also has some photos of the Tuscan Red engines.

I didn't think much of this book when I first got it but it has turned out to be one of the better collections of photos of my favorite RRs I've seen.

Thanks for all the info. It appears that all 3 are correct depending on how long they were out of the paint shop!  Bob, I am going to do the C420 in enchantment blue -love the way your RS3 turned out.  

Did any of the Blue locos make it to Hagerstown and run with the WM ?  Seems like most of the photos are captioned Ohio & indiana

Okay, since this thread has gotten bumped back up, I've got something to share: I have decided that I LIKE the Pevlar Blue better than the N&W's basic black schemes.  There, I said it.

(N&W: Like the line, but I'm not a "believer"... guess I'm a Pevlar infidel!)

Andre

Never had a problem with the blue but it had to be a cheap paint as it started fading as it dried.  The Tuscan was more stable.  I liked the UP colored passenger cars with the Norfolk and Western written out on the cars in red.   I have Wasatch dome coach already painted and waiting for ShellScales new O scale red decals to letter it.

I was with a 3-4 guys driving home to Middletown Ohio from the Cleveland O Scale Show in the early 80s.     I think we were on Rte 4 in Northern Ohio and saw a train heading toward the grade crossing we were approaching.    The lead engine was an N&W GE of some sort and it was painted dark read like the GP above.

The people in the cars behind us must have throught were looney tunes.   We were in a big van, and first at the crossing.    When I stopped, all 4-5 of bailed out with cameras and lined up in a photo line and started shooting away!    It was like the proverbial chinese fire drill.   

So N&W must have had a few locos painted dark red.    I don't remember seeing the blue ones, but maybe just did not notice.

N&W had several GE units and one EMD painted red with gold lettering around that time.  I think the GEs were C-30-7 and the EMD was an SD40-2 low nose.  I have some slides of one of the N&W reds coupled to a Southern F unit pulling a special train.   

Once there was thought that the N&W and C&O might merge, so some N&W engines were painted blue to see what they might look like in C&O blue paint.  The blue engines were short-lived -- just like the merger rumors.

nw2124 posted:

"Nope, but Mike Wolf might know. They got the color of their N&W Heritage ES44AC spot-on. I complemented him on it at York this year. He mentioned that they had matched it from a sample MTH received (I'm assuming from NS)."

Tom "Gilly" Gilsdorf

 The NS/N&W Heritage ES44AC blue is not "Pelver Blue"!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have the Dupont paint #.

Stephen

YEARs late with a response, but. You are right. The 1:1 Prototypical N&W Heritage unit isn't Pevler Blue. But MTH's version of it is. Honestly, I don't know what to call the color NS painted the N&W Heritage unit, or why they would have wanted to use that color.  It's their chooch, they can paint it pink if they want to.

I don't recall any N&W engines being painted blue pending a C&O merger.  Where did you get this info or is it rumor?