The Grandfather of Heritage Unit
With blue skies overhead NS 4610 is participating the Tennessee Valley Railroad 1st annual National Train Day event, and one of the last few public events in it's iconic tuxedo green paint scheme. NS 4610 is a GP59 followed the EMD practice of numbering one down from the parent series to denote a turbo 12 cyl offering. The GP59 (60 Series) has a 12-710G3A @ 3000 HP, the GP49 (50 Series) has a 12-645F3B @ 2800 HP, and the GP39(-2) (40 Series) has a 12-645E3 @ 2300 HP. NS 4610 was the only GP59 painted in the Southern experimental Tux Green to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Southern Railway at the suggestion of Benjamin Lee and others at NS which made a mainstream appearance at the 1994 NRHS Convention in Atlanta, GA. 16 years later this small locomotive have made a name for itself, among railroaders, and railfan's alike. Time is the enemy and it was ticking for this GP59, and signs was very clear that the railroad wasn't going to keep this motor in the Tux Green for long. Years later it was sent to Altoona for a repaint in the new up to date NS black and white Operation Life Saver scheme. If only we knew then, that two years later in 2012 that NS would approve the idea of Andy Fetcher and painted 20 new locomotives in the color schemes of NS predecessor railroads for NS Corp 30th anniversary.
