A bit of railroad history occasionally rolls through city
On a recent morning, a sight from the past appeared on the railroad leading into downtown from the north.
Two shiny black Norfolk Southern diesel engines pulled five Tuscan red passenger coaches, dining cars and business cars, bound for Charlotte.
Two weeks before that, two of the Tuscan reds rolled along a spur track that archs behind buildings between Lee and the South Elm Street rail crossing.
The cars are throwbacks to when private railroads ran passenger trains, with each railroad dressing up fleets in company colors.
Folks who've have been around a few years might remember the purple engines of the old Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (now CSX), which ran from the north to Florida through eastern North Carolina.
Southern Railway's stainless steel coaches, sleepers and dining cars had green trim. It's passenger diesels, and before that its steam locomotives, were painted apple green as they passed through Greensboro.
Norfolk & Western's passenger trains pulled Tuscan red coaches, dining, sleeping and observation cars through the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the Ohio Valley.
One N&W passenger train used to make its way daily down from company headquarters in Roanoke to Winston-Salem, over the Pumkin' Vine line, so named because its mamy twists.
The colorful era of rail riding and watching ended in the 1970s when private railroads turned passenger operations over to federally- subsidized Amtrak.
If you've seen one Amtrak train you've almost seen them all. They're pretty standard, although the locomotive that pulls "The Piedmont" from Raleigh to Charlotte and back daily catches the eye. It's done up in North's Carolina's blue colors and resembles the state flag.
Not all private railroads sent their passenger train equipment to the scrap heap. Norfolk & Western, which in the early 1980s merged with Southern Railway to become Norfolk Southern, saved a small fleet of passenger coaches, dining, sleeping, observation and business cars.
During the 1980s, the Tuscan red cars occasionally rolled behind vintage steam locomotives through North Carolina and Virginia. The occasions were steam excursions sponored by various railroad historical societies.
Norfolk Southern quit the steam excursion business by the early 1990s, but kept some of the cars.
Norfolk Southern spokesperson Robin Chapman says the cars roll for sundry purposes "such as track inspection, rail safety education and marketing. In this particularly case, you saw an an inspection train ridden by NS executives."
The business cars haul railroad executives from place to place along the line. One has a big rear picture window. Executives can sit theater style and watch the tracks after the train passes over them.
Chapman says the cars span the years 1917 to 1954.
They'll be back through Greensboro, located along Norfolk Southern's eastern main line from Washington to Atlanta. But it's hard to say when. The cars don't run on precise schedules as they did when hooked to real passenger trains.
They are a vivid reminder of the hey-day of passenger trains. Railroad went all out to impress those riding the trains and those seeing them from track side.