The engineer actually did give a wave as he trundled by. I think this was a high-nosed SD40-2, but that's not for sure.
May have been one of the ex Virginian GE EL-C electrics that they converted. Here is a slug with dynamics just up the tracks from the shops in Roanoke.
9914, a RP-F6Y, is former Virginian HM-24-66 #74 (Virginians last Train Master)... N&W did no such conversions to the EL-Cs. The slug was donated to the VMT and has sat behind the East End shops for several years.
Hey, I got the heritage right. I think the Trainmaster trucks were supposed to be interchangeable with the EL-C or vis versa.
They were interchangeable, as both were tri-mounts. I don't belive they were specifically ordered that way though (i.e, GE's standard six-axle US truck at the time the EL-Cs were built was the tri-mount Adirondack, FM's standard truck at the time VGNs H24-66s were built was the GSC tri-mount (they had used an Commonwealth design on the early H16-66s (similar to the one Baldwin used), but they were also tri-mounts) More fuel is that the Alco C630s N&W ordered with FM trucks didn't require modification to the bolster (or the two pads that constitute the 'tri-mount'). GE also specced N&W that it could use either the Alco, FM or it's own tri-mounts on the U25C without any wheelbase change as well (that's a whole 'nother story)
I've heard of one EL-C slug, but I've never seen a picture. It would explain the vanishing of one unit from the roster sometime before Penn Central.
