No Joke! Conrail turns 45 today.

This is a wonderful post. So many memories. I have become a huge fan of Conrail and Penn Central over the years. Their collective histories bridge the golden era to today. I need some time to compose some thoughts to correctly respond but thank you for spurring this conversation. Great stuff. And I love the black engines and rainbow cars in tow. Let’s toss in Amtrak early days to add to this too. So many GG1s and those early metroliners on the NEC. Fun stuff.

@GG1 4877 posted:

45 years ago on this day in 1976, Conrail officially started operation...

...When in college in Muncie, IN Conrail operated lots of trains over the former NYC route and I used to take dates to watch trains at night.  I don't know who was crazier - me for

What memories do you have of Conrail?

Memories of Muncie, Indiana,  college and dating; well that does remind me of something:

Conrail should be revered if for nothing else than putting together the end of the abomination that was Penn Central. A worse managed "railroad" would be hard to find, at anytime. History's best assets, all run into garbage by inept "management" and internecine fighting. While it was a shame to lost the fallen flags that made up Conrail, they'd been falling forever. Conrail actually made a viable railroad out of them. Sure, it took cuts, even freight was at a level less than half where it'd been a decade earlier. Worn out and redundant track, worn out equipment, worn out people, all had to go. But in the end it saved railroading in the Northeast.

PENN CENTRAL never made sense.

The Pennsylvania Railroad and Norfolk & Western were practically 'married' railroads that had little overlap. Someone lost all logic to not realize it.

PRR and N&W merging IS what was supposed to happen.

The New York Central could have merged with the Santa Fe or another Western series of railroad for cross country service.

Andrew

I remember being on the conference call in the early 1990's when the announcement was made that Conrail bought 50% of Triple Crown (Norfolk Southern owned the other 50%).  This opened an entire new market for the Triple Crown roadrailers.  At the time Triple Crown was also experimenting with domestic containers and inherited the Conrail Mercury door to door intermodal service so for about six months or so, I worked with shippers, consignees and intermodal truckers routing freight from Southeastern Michigan ramping over Conrail Toledo headed to PA, NJ and MA markets.

Also during my days a Triple Crown,  I learned quite a bit from an ex Conrail Trainmaster.

Here's a company promotional photo from the early 1990's.

Conrail wasn't perfect, but it did do more right than wrong especially considering all that came before it, and I have a lot of fond memories of the big blue diesels running around in most of the hotspots throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It's now one of my personal favorite railroads to model.

My memories of Conrail are mostly of my grandmother’s house in Lilly, PA - jewel of the mainline.  

I was born 2 years after the merger, and as a child I was often compared to Radar O’Reilly with my innate ability to discern the sound of an EMD 645 bouncing off the surrounding hills before any of the adults.  

I would run to the back door where I was just tall enough to see out the screen door through the trees to the tracks a few hundred yards below.  I would beg to go down to the rickety pedestrian bridge and watch each and every train that passed by.

I miss those days.

With no offence, and forgive my ignorance not being much of an eastern railroad enthusiast , but didn't Conrail die in 1999? If so, it hardly seems like a 45th anniversary...please aluminate...

@Mill City posted:

With no offence, and forgive my ignorance not being much of an eastern railroad enthusiast , but didn't Conrail die in 1999? If so, it hardly seems like a 45th anniversary...please aluminate...

No, At that time Conrail was downsized from a class 1 railroad to the CRSA (Conrail Shared assets) that it is today. CSX and NS took over Conrail assets in 1999, however Conrail lives on, complete with paint schemes, equipment, etc.  It certainly didn't "die".

@Magicland posted:

No, At that time Conrail was downsized from a class 1 railroad to the CRSA (Conrail Shared assets) that it is today. CSX and NS took over Conrail assets in 1999, however Conrail lives on, complete with paint schemes, equipment, etc.  It certainly didn't "die".

Yes, but did not the name go away as a result?

Here's a link to maps of their current operating routes:

https://www.conrail.com/system-map/

@SteveH posted:

Here is a current map of their operations:

https://www.conrail.com/system-map/

Interesting...didn't realize  Conrail was still a concern so far after the fact. Thank you.

I remember seeing conrail engines on the csx mainline. I think this was after csx bought the engines (not sure if conrail rented track rights and I saw a “real” conrail train. My dad and I would walk beside the csx mainline in Harford  county md (very early 2000s) and I got to see the engines from only a few feet away. Now the area is fenced off and overgrown. Back then they didn’t enforce trespassing, as people would walk or take their atvs down by the tracks and the neighboring woods. So, even though I’m a youngster I do remember conrail engines. Happy birthday conrail!

@GG1 4877 posted:

...  When in college in Muncie, IN Conrail operated lots of trains over the former NYC route and I used to take dates to watch trains at night.  I don't know who was crazier - me for even offering, or my date for agreeing to go. ...

Me, too.

When I went to Rutgers, we lived in a garden apartment complex that was bisected by Conrail's (previous Lehigh Valley RR) mainline heading toward the Oak Island yard in Newark NJ. There was also a passing siding there. I would take my girlfriend, a couple of folding chairs, a little Igloo cooler, and a blanket .... and sit trackside during the evening. Romantic. lol. Yet, she ended up marrying me anyway.

Central Railroad of NJ's Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Branch went though my hometown, and I watched it morph into Conrail's industrial Chemical Coast Secondary. I really liked cruising around watching the bold blue engines work, and slowly converted my HO layout to Conrail.

Conrail was "our railroad." Shame it was gobbled up like that.

@Magicland posted:

... however Conrail lives on, complete with paint schemes, equipment, etc.  It certainly didn't "die".

Conrail Shared Assets uses engines wearing Conrail blue? I didn't know that. I thought they used NS- and CSX-painted equipment. Very cool that Big Blue lives on like that!

I was still pretty young when the Conrail split happened so I don't really have memories of Conrail operations, but my grandpa worked for Conrail which meant that one of my de facto favorite railroads.  More tangential but this lead to having an annual tradition of making a Conrail logo Easter egg.

Some years are better than others.

I was on an EB BROADWAY LTD. CHI-WAS.  13 months into CR.  There were fans everywhere taking pictures. Saw power from many railroads.  However,  PC locomotive had to lead on the old PRR main.  My train was powered with a PC lead unit and 3 Amtrak E units because of the SDP40F ban on CR.

At Harrisburg, the train was split into 2 trains, and the handover from diesel to GG1's.

I beleive the SDP ban also caused CR to order SD40-2's with the older pre-Dash 2 truck.

I am thinking of getting a Williams GP9 in CR.  Still have memories of that trip.

It was during Stanley Crane's tenure (no relation) as President that Conrail became a formidable Class 1 carrier.

@CNJ Jim posted:

Me, too.

When I went to Rutgers, we lived in a garden apartment complex that was bisected by Conrail's (previous Lehigh Valley RR) mainline heading toward the Oak Island yard in Newark NJ. There was also a passing siding there. I would take my girlfriend, a couple of folding chairs, a little Igloo cooler, and a blanket .... and sit trackside during the evening. Romantic. lol. Yet, she ended up marrying me anyway.

Central Railroad of NJ's Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Branch went though my hometown, and I watched it morph into Conrail's industrial Chemical Coast Secondary. I really liked cruising around watching the bold blue engines work, and slowly converted my HO layout to Conrail.

Conrail was "our railroad." Shame it was gobbled up like that.

Conrail Shared Assets uses engines wearing Conrail blue? I didn't know that. I thought they used NS- and CSX-painted equipment. Very cool that Big Blue lives on like that!

No, we don’t. Nothing is painted conrail blue anymore. All our power is leased from CSX and NS. You can still see can openers on MOW equipment and trucks and we still use the can opener on publications and buildings/signs as well.

@Mill City posted:

Yes, but did not the name go away as a result?

It’s Conrail shared assets, but when I talk to a foreign railroad, I call as a “conrail” crew.

My license is a conrail license, although through NS

@Mill City posted:

With no offence, and forgive my ignorance not being much of an eastern railroad enthusiast , but didn't Conrail die in 1999? If so, it hardly seems like a 45th anniversary...please aluminate...

Funny thing is...next year, SAA will be just as old as “big conrail”

I sense that a may be in the minority here, but growing up in New Jersey, I hated everything about Conrail. To start, it was a government run railroad, which is never a good situation. Its name was atrocious and sounded to me like a railroad run by cons. I recognize that its actual name was Consolidated Rail, but that name itself was cold, showed a total lack of creativity and failed to give deference to any of the railroads it was replacing. I also did not like it's color scheme. Finally, I could also never get past the fact that it was replacing many of the railroads I grew up with. I was very happy when Conrail disappeared when it was broken up and sold to NS and CSX a number of years ago.

Pat

In my small town in Ohio, we had the faded and worn Penn Central trains go through.  It probably looked good right out of the paint shed but by the time I saw them, they looked pretty bad (mid '70s) so the new blue Conrail engines were an upgrade.  On the rare occasion we saw a Chessie System engine, that was a real treat.  It looked like someone made an actual effort.

Fast forward to the late 80's and my new father-in-law had a really nice B&M layout.  We got to talking about what railroads I remember growing up and I said Penn Central and he visibly winced and said, "nobody models that".  I mentioned Conrail and he said "them either".  I decided not to mention Chessie at that point.

falconservice: Right on!  A PRR/N&W merger was a natural from the Get Go!  Don't know if marriage talk ever came up, but bet the stinkin' ICC wouldda nixed it anyway.

Conrail should still be here in Century 21!  Keep it moving with Conrail...thumbs up!

Item: Bet lots of $$$ flowed under fancy decorated tables with vintage French wine and cheese to get the likes of SCL and ICG mergers approved!  Not long after, tracks started coming up, while long time dedicated rail customers were left with one choice to move their goods to market: Motor Freight!

The rest is history.

Around 1958 NW and the PRR discussed a merger.  PRR owned 48% of NW at one point and they had similar cultures.  Oddly enough C&O discussed merging with the NYC around the same time.

Agreed that the ICC would not likely have agreed to those mergers at that time.  However, when Conrail was formally split it was largely along the same lines as those proposed original mergers.

Under Shared Assets I find it funny that for a period locomotives permanently assigned to baby Conrail had small lettering for PRR under NS while CSX units had a small NYC stencil.

We can never be sure it would have solved the root cause of the decline of eastern roads in the 60's.  I still would argue it took Conrail and Amtrak for the Federal government to understand the policies set in place that hampered private railroads ability to operate.  The Staggers Act went a long way towards restoring profitability to the freight markets.

Amtrak allowed for weeding out passenger services that were completely unnecessary.  While Amtrak is a different story all together, one could make the argument that since the 80's Amtrak has gone too far in reducing it's service.  Hoping to see some change there finally.

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

Conrail should still be here in Century 21!  Keep it moving with Conrail...thumbs up!

There's an interesting thought.  I wonder what the engines would look like.  Still the solid blue, the wave like the SD80MACs or something else.

Conrail and only Conrail was what began my life long love of trains. The blue geeps were the only thing I saw passing through my small Ohio town. At one point I have to admit it got a bit boring because all of the trains I saw in the train sets, at the local department store, had more colors. It's true many times that you don't appreciate something until it's gone. I will always remember and honor the fallen flag on my layout because had it not been for this railroad I may not be writing on this post today. LONG LIVE THE BIG BLUE!

Dave

And today, I found this Lionel Conrail BC w/ RS, and, after being disappeared for over 10 years, the battery hadn’t leaked! And, it works like it should.

What would have intetrsting if:

1.  For a while in the 1980's, ATSF wanted Big Blue.

2.  In the 1990's, CR wanted to buy part of the SP:  The Sunset Route and the Cotton Belt.

Would have been intetrsting if one or both would have happened.  The road that should have been broken up was the SP, not CR.  Reason:  Route structure at the time.

@naresar posted:

I was still pretty young when the Conrail split happened so I don't really have memories of Conrail operations, but my grandpa worked for Conrail which meant that one of my de facto favorite railroads.  More tangential but this lead to having an annual tradition of making a Conrail logo Easter egg.

Some years are better than others.

Wow, this post just struck a Conrail memory. About 40 years ago I decorated a hard boiled egg with the Conrail logo and gave it to my friend. A few years ago I received a package in the mail. It was the egg I decorated. The insides disappeared somehow and my friend kept. I have it somewhere but it's packed away right now.

@GG1 4877 posted:

Under Shared Assets I find it funny that for a period locomotives permanently assigned to baby Conrail had small lettering for PRR under NS while CSX units had a small NYC stencil.

I remember seeing Conrail engines with PRR stenciled on the cab sides.  I believe that the stencils were used to identify whether Norfolk Southern (PRR) or CSX (NYC) would get the engine when the Conrail locomotive fleet was split up.

I guess when Conrail started, they weren't really preservation minded and started to erase evidence of former railroads including repainting diesels and cabooses blue and repainting some freight cars into Conrail. They also put up their own signs at yards, no trespassing signs, and at control points with the name on a blue metal rectangle in white in Futura Bold usually mounted to a silver/gray control box. And they shed a lot of secondary lines, some were ripped up, some were sold to newly formed short lines. But, Conrail in the late 70's and through the 80's allowed lots of steam and diesel fan trips which were almost non existent by the 90's except for maybe some Amtrak charters. And nowadays the current class 1 and Amtrak climate is with the exception of UP and maybe some commuter operations, there are no public excursions, steam or diesel anywhere on class 1's since March 2018, when former Amtrak head Richard Anderson banned excursions and charter trains and restricted PV moves. The only passenger trains you will see on most class 1's now are regular Amtrak trains and the class 1 freight railroads OCS business trains. The circus train ended a few years ago, although Ringling Bros. came back in a smaller form and probably travels by truck.

@GG1 4877 posted:

45 years ago on this day in 1976, Conrail officially started operations after consolidating the assets of the Penn Central, Ann Arbor, Erie Lackawanna, Reading, Central of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, and Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad along with the shared assets of those roads. While Conrail was officially formed in February of 1976 today is when the company officially assumed operations of all these roads and commuter operations.  I was only 7 at the time, but the irony in this start date was no one expected Conrail to succeed.   

As a teen I always looked down on Conrail because they took over my favorite railroads, but looking back I have fond memories.  Yes, they retired the majority the GG1 fleet first, took out a lot of track for scrap value, took out a lot of the PRR electrified infrastructure, and retired lots of classic locomotives.  Still, they made some smart decisions as a corporation and got some important rules through congress that benefited all railroads.  Somehow they managed to exorcise the red team-green team demons of PC along the way too.

I remember the local freight that served a few businesses along the NY&LB.  Power was typically a pair of GP35s or 38s pulling about 10 cars max.  I was not as well versed about locomotives to know the difference at the time, but definitely second generation EMD.  It was treat to see one of the units with it's worms still.  I enjoyed watching the former PC commuter trains with mostly all black E8s pulling mostly stainless cars, while the CNJ GP40Ps just lost their logos and big CNJ lettering on the side pulling an assortment of cars that is best explained as eclectic.

I missed seeing a Conrail GG1 digging in to pull freight and never saw a train on the Trenton cutoff or NEC.  Mainline operations were a mystery to me for Conrail freight until I was regularly riding the late 80's version of the Broadway Limited from Fort Wayne, IN to Trenton NJ during college.  I saw lots of Conrail then which was largely dominated by 6 axle EMD power with some GEs.  Never failed to miss hearing and seeing them passing on the opposite track of the not-so-much broad way across Ohio on the original PRR route.  When in college in Muncie, IN Conrail operated lots of trains over the former NYC route and I used to take dates to watch trains at night.  I don't know who was crazier - me for even offering, or my date for agreeing to go.

Unlike most of us in middle age today's "Conrail" is smaller in the midriff as a shared asset itself than it was when it started, but those memories still live on.  Now looking at the history of this now classic railroad, I guess the joke was on us all this time.

What memories do you have of Conrail?

In the beginning the wild west continued. In the end it was a great RailRoad, those of us around from the beginning have these to remember it all by, the clock still keeps perfect time.

Craig

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