ALTOONA, Pa., March 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The first locomotive to be painted in Norfolk Southern's (NYSE: NSC) 30^th anniversary heritage paint schemes rolled out of the company's Juniata Locomotive Shop here yesterday. Locomotive NS 8098, a GE ES44AC, bears the "Conrail Blue" scheme. It is a 4,400-horsepower, EPA Tier-3 compliant Evolution Series locomotive equipped with distributed power capability. It will be run to Conway, Pa., and enter active transportation service.

Norfolk Southern also announced that an additional legacy railroad, Penn Central, has been added to the 18 heritage schemes previously announced. This will be an SD70Ace to be painted at Progress Rail Services' facility in Muncie, Ind.  The Penn Central Transportation Company was created in 1968 from the merger of the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford was added shortly afterward. Penn Central formed the core of Conrail when Conrail was created in 1976.

A photo of the first unit and a rendering of the Penn Central paint scheme, as well as the original heritage scheme announcement and graphics are available at Norfolk Southern's website.

Norfolk Southern Corporation is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 20,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

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SOURCE Norfolk Southern Corporation