The Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad (N&PBL), a switching and terminal railroad that serves customers in Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth, Va., is celebrating its 115th anniversary this month with receipt of an EMD GP38-2 painted in the bright red-and-maroon livery used on its first diesel locomotives in the 1950s.
For many years, the N&PBL, jointly owned by Norfolk Southern and CSX, has been using solid black locomotives with simple N&PBL stenciling. N&PBL leases its locomotives from NS, which designed the heritage color scheme and painted GP38-2 no. 5260 at the NS Chattanooga Diesel Shop.
No. 5260 and will be delivered to N&PBL in the upcoming weeks. “The inspiration for the vintage color scheme was NS’ wildly popular Heritage Locomotives, a fleet of 20 locomotives that were painted last year in colors based on NS predecessor railroads,” NS said.
N&PBL owns 34 miles of railroad and has trackage rights over 27.35 miles on Norfolk Southern. Its 33 employees serve 25 customers in South Hampton Roads.