Just another train picture?

So you think this is just another train photo the Herald editor wanted to run, right? Well, look…again! That’s a “Jersey Central” railroad locomotive that you see idling at the head end of a train sitting temporarily in the Weaver siding just south of that community on December 6th of last year (below). In reality, it’s Norfolk Southern 1071, a “heritage” locomotive, one of the 20 brand new locomotives that Norfolk Southern had painted for its predecessor roads as part of its 30th anniversary in 2012. Central Railroad of New Jersey (aka “Jersey Central”) was a railroad that was absorbed by Conrail in 1976, which itself was later merged into NS and CSX railroads. This orange and blue locomotive was spotted while on a return trip from Winona that day and was obviously “run-through” power (locomotives that continue with a train from its home road to another to save time and effort switching them out at connecting points such as Chicago) for a Canadian Pacific train heading for St. Paul as NS does not run trains on rails in this area. It’s becoming common to see an NS run-through engine in the area, but NOT at all common to see a heritage unit, much less a unit from a long-defunct railroad such as CNJ. Could we see another, someday: the New York Central, or the Pennsylvania…or even the Wabash, shown at bottom in an NS photo from Altoona, Pennsylvania?
——Photos by Michael Smith