As the 1950s drew to a close, the handwriting was on the wall for the remaining steam engines on the Norfolk & Western. The line began leasing and testing Atlantic Coast Line E units for service on passenger trains, and the steamers began to be relegated to freight service. Even that was just a temporary reprieve. Within a couple of years, sights like this would be just a distant memory. Standing in as the "leased E-unit" for this re-creation is the North Carolina Transportation Museum's slant-nose EMC E3A #501 from the Atlantic Coast Line, re-lettered for the N&W, but not repainted....just as would have been the case with the leased units.