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Norfolk Southern ES44AC No. 8104 (Lehigh Valley Heritage Unit)

NS 8104 is another one of NS’s heritage units, representing the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This engine was built by General Electric in 2012, and immediately painted in Lehigh Valley colours, albeit initially without the grey stripes on the front. It wasn’t until July 2012 when the engine returned to Altoona, Pennsylvania for the aforementioned stripes to be added.

Today the locomotive is still in service with Norfolk Southern, which is what I expected given that she is only eight years old.

(The following description of the Lehigh Valley Railroad is from a YouTube video by Trains21)

The Lehigh Valley Railroad was - hands down - the most colourful big railroad in America with a myriad of colour schemes during its last 10 years of operation.

Founded by Asa Packer, anthracite coal was the 1,362 mile line’s lifeblood until it fell into ConRail in 1976. Its main disadvantage in life was that it had the longest of four competing routes between New York City and Buffalo, NY and - therefore - had to fight for every car load it could get.

(And now some information on the railroad that found myself)

The Lehigh Valley was founded in 1846, and remained an independent railroad right up until 1976 when it was merged into ConRail. When it was first authorised, the company was named the “Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company”, but was renamed to the much simpler “Lehigh Valley Railroad” in 1853.

A core route for the company was the “Lehigh Line” which - when first opened in 1855 - ran from Easton, Pennsylvania to Allentown, PA. In later years this was extended from Easton to Buffalo, New York and from Allentown to New York City. The route was inherited by ConRail and later Norfolk Southern, who continue to operate trains over the line today.

As with all 19th century railroads in America, the Lehigh Valley Railroad started out using steam locomotives. The most notable of these early engines was the original 2-8-0 ‘Consolidation’, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1866. This was the first 2-8-0 steam locomotive ever built, and the wheel arrangement would eventually be a common sight the world over (even New Zealand had a sizable number of 2-8-0’s; the O, OA, OB, OC and P classes).

The 2-8-0 from 1866 certainly wasn’t the first steam locomotive bought by the Lehigh Valley; that honour goes to 4-4-0 No. 5 ‘Delaware’; built in 1855. Shockingly this engine was scrapped all the way back in 1874. Oddly enough the first 4-6-2 ever built was Lehigh Valley No. 444, built at the railroad’s own Wilkes-Barre shops in 1886.

Throughout the years, the Lehigh Valley would have a number of named passenger trains, including the Black Diamond. This ran from New York City to Buffalo from 1896 until 1959. For this - and the “John Wilkes” service - the LV had a small fleet of streamlined engines; the horrendously ugly K6b class 4-6-2’s.

In 1931, the LV got their first diesel locomotives, in the form of two ALCO HH300 switchers. By 1951, the railroad had gotten rid of steam locomotives entirely, and remained diesel-only all the way to 1976. Shockingly every single one of the Lehigh Valley’s steam locomotives didn’t make it into preservation.