Inside Norfolk Southern's Business Train: Through the Lens of Casey Thomason

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When it comes to business trains, it isn’t often that the public gets to sneak a peek inside the train unless you are either employed by the railroad or are an invited guest. Equally rare is being able to speak with the company photographer about his experiences around the business train equipment. As the hunt for post-Conrail OCS equipment photos began for the Conrail OCS book, we contacted Casey for some help. Since then, I had the chance to speak with Casey about his career at Norfolk Southern. This article serves as a first in a series of articles that cover the Norfolk Southern business train.

In April 2024, Casey Thomason celebrated 27 years with the Norfolk Southern railroad. He started his career as a conductor in 1997 and became a locomotive engineer in 2000. His experience with the business train began in 2010 when served as the official Norfolk Southern photographer. Casey became famous for his contributions to the yearly company calendar. When Norfolk Southern posted a position for the company photographer, he immediately applied. His experience in train service (and his photographs, of course) made the company’s decision easy. Casey already knew the company safety rules and didn’t require an employee from the transportation department to accompany him on shoots.

During his time as a photographer, Casey worked with various departments inside the organization to outline the shots they wanted for marketing purposes. Many times he also had the freedom to develop plans on what he wanted to shoot, but felt the best shots he got were in-between assignments, shooting anything he happened to see without a plan. I’m not sure why this surprised me, but Casey told me that in comparison to his train service work, this position was a lot more work! “If you think about it, when you are on a train, you go to Birmingham on Monday, stay in the hotel, come back Tuesday, go to sleep, wake up Wednesday and go again.”

Being the company photographer meant he never had a set schedule, especially when the heritage units were coming out of the shops.  He remembers getting calls from the Juniata Locomotive Shop letting him know an engine was set to be completed that day, which meant Casey had to hit the road and get up there as soon as possible. The travel as a photographer was grueling, being gone for two to three weeks at a time. Of course, immediately upon his arrival home, everyone wanted the pictures he just captured.

His involvement with the Norfolk Southern business train started when he was asked to capture the train, the events, and the guests onboard the train. Casey ended up riding the train at least 20 times, but turned down riding the train many times so he could follow along trackside and capture the equipment. Casey also had the pleasure of being the engineer of the business train. After arriving in Pittsburgh on a Blue Ribbon Special (trips designed to reward agreement employees) from Altoona, Casey asked to ride the head end back to Altoona. Around Latrobe, Pennsylvania he took over and ran the F unit equipped business train back to Altoona. As they approached Cresson, there was a 45mph speed limit on a curve and he was impressed with the electronic air brakes that quickly and gently slowed the train down.

Wick Moorman had a big impact on the business train equipment during Casey’s time as photographer, going so far as to open the equipment up to the public on several occasions. Wick was also open to requests and suggestions on how the equipment was used. In one case, Casey recalled the E and F unit event in Spencer, North Carolina. He suggested to Wick that they take a few office cars to the event with the F units. Since the N&W 611 was going to be there, Casey would have a wide variety of photographs to capture. Additionally, many of the area hotels had long been sold out for the event so bringing the sleepers for those attending made a lot of sense, and Wick agreed. As a side note, Casey always preferred the sleeper “Indiana,” a former Norfolk & Western diner that served on the famous Powhatan Arrow. He recalled the rooms were large and comfortable.

When riding the business train, Casey always loved the platform of the “West Virginia” which allowed him to shoot the train, from the train! On a trip from Washington D.C. to New York City, the F units were running top speed on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (they were restricted to 90mph). He recalls passing a Southbound Acela train that just about took his Nikon camera as it passed at 120 mph. I asked Casey how the cars rode at 90mph and he recalled that they rode smooth at any speed, unlike the F units which he described comically was like “riding a horse.” While Altoona referred to them as “the babies,” Casey remembers that the engines rode rough and frequently tripped ground relays.

The Norfolk Southern business train also had a similar set of crew members as Conrail had to staff the train. The chefs who rode the train were often the same ones who worked events on the top floor of the Norfolk Southern headquarters building in Norfolk. Many times, the crew met up with the train wherever the event was happening as opposed to riding deadhead from Altoona. Casey recalls Carl Kennedy (who was in charge of the Conrail OCS cars in the 1990s) came back to contract with Norfolk Southern for a while and worked with Dennis Pennabaker on the mechanical operations of the cars. Most deadhead trips were just staffed by Dennis who often called office car NS 7 “Pennsylvania” (former Conrail 5 “Boston”) home away from home.

The corporate communications department, the same department that Casey worked in as a photographer, often developed booklets and route guides for the trips as well. Many of his photographs ended up in those documents. In addition, Norfolk Southern often gave away company swag to the guests aboard the train. Both of these practices happened on the Conrail OCS trips as well. Wick Moorman used to walk up to the head end of the train during a trip and personally hand out hats and shirts featuring the NS F units to the train crew to show his appreciation.

During his time as photographer, Casey was also able to visit other railroad business cars, including visiting a few CSX cars at an event in Washington, D.C. He also recalls touring the Union Pacific business train when it came out to New Jersey in 2017. He met the gentlemen in charge of the train and went through each of the cars, noting that they were very nice. In 2010, on a vacation to Las Vegas, Casey was also able to ride in the dome car of the Union Pacific Operation Lifesaver train.

Ultimately, Casey found out that the company photographer position was similar to the business train equipment. The need for a photographer was dependent on who was in charge of the railroad at the time. In late 2020, Casey was moved back to train service and a contractor was used to capture video when needed. That didn’t stop Casey from taking train photographs though and to this day, when he is off duty, he still loves capturing and sharing photos of the railroad.

For this series of articles, I’ll shift my focus away from the Conrail business car fleet for just a moment and spend some time looking at Norfolk Southern’s stylish business cars. Since photos of the equipment are everywhere, I wanted to provide an insiders look into the equipment with the help of Casey Thomason, the companies former photographer and current locomotive engineer. His insight and access to the equipment is unrivaled and I’m truly grateful to showcase his photographs.

Explore my Norfolk Southern business car series:

Norfolk Southern Business Train Introduction

Norfolk Southern Observation Cars

Norfolk Southern Sleepers

Norfolk Southern Diners, Power Car, and Exhibit Car

If you have stories from your time riding or maintaining the train, business train booklets, or other collectibles from the NS business train, please contact me as I begin researching the train in more depth for a possible new book.