Norfolk Southern is currently gathering up the seven GE "Super 7" B23-7R rebuilds, Nos. 4093-4099, for end of lease inspections and all will be returned to their lessor. These units were originally built in 1972 as Western Pacific U23B's and were rebuilt in 1989-90 by GE as Super 7-23B units for the Monongahela Railway. NS inherited the units with the takeover of Conrail in 1999. The units are being routed to Enola, PA and will be stored there pending their return to the lessor. Chris Toth
I for one will be sorry to see them go. I caught one of those in Troy NY days before the Conrail merger and spent the rest of the afternoon scratching my head as to what it was! Fortunatly, a local railfan at Selkirk was able to fill me in on them, but I didn't know they were originally WP. Thanks for the info, NS.
No problem, cthippo... For anyone interested in seeing photos of these units, below is a link from Wes Reminder's great website. Wes Reminder's B23-7R Photo Page Chris Toth
I like the Super 7's, although I haveonly seen the GECX ones. In other GE news, is it true that NS is sending some of their LMSX units to CN? Harold
The original deal between CN and Conrail with LMS called for the 40 Dash 8-40CW units to spend 6 months of the year on lease to CN and the other 6 months on lease to Conrail. With the Conrail takeover by CSX and NS, the Conrail interest in the LMS leased units was divided, with 700-714 going to CSX and 715-739 going to NS. NS has since negotiated a deal with CN in which they retain 13 of their units year round, while the remaining 12 units are on CN year round. NS kept 715-727 while CN has 728-739 which they have renumbered to CN/IC 2455-2466. The CN units are still in blue, but with the large CN letters on the long hood and IC sub-lettering and numbers on the cab sides. Here is a link to a photo of one of the relettered CN units: CN 2462 Chris Toth
