For school, I was asked to write two short narratives about personal things in my life. I just had to do it on my passions of Cartooning and CONRAIL.
When I was a sprout, I remember seeing those C40-8W's. Blue, monolithic, imposing, tough. At that time it was special to see one of them, those wheeled titans. Then we moved to Texas. Conrail was still my favorite railroad at that time, along with the crumbling empire that was the Southern Pacific. In a sea of warbonnets, armour yellow, and SP Lark Dark Grey, some simple Conrail blue was always refreshing. I used to watch my Train videos, all of which were of locomotives on the west coast, and whenever I saw that shade of blue I'd say "Conrail!" One day, I walked into a train store, and I saw a Conrail SD40-2. I asked my father if I could buy it, but we couldn't.
I thought that would be the only time I'd be disappointed with the blue raiload. When I moved to New York some years later, I had a brief sickness of the big blue. To a young railfan, seeing a sea of blue was just as boring as seeing an army of armour yellow diesels. But then the news came:Conrail was to be broken up! I was heartbroken. The big blue, my special favorite, the one that had some sort of mysterious "quality" 
to it, was to be gone. *sigh* I guess it would have hurt less to have remained afar. CSX is nice, but why couldn't they have stayed? They ran a train like a *real* railroad and not like a faceless corporation who could care less about the customer. And they didn't scream like an angry black scourge when you took pictures, they always waved, not slumped in their chairs thinking about layoffs. But life keeps rolling like the steel wheel in the can opener logo that had symbolized Conrail since the day they became a "Real" railroad. Conrail will keep rolling on, in my dreams.
When I was a sprout, I remember seeing those C40-8W's. Blue, monolithic, imposing, tough. At that time it was special to see one of them, those wheeled titans. Then we moved to Texas. Conrail was still my favorite railroad at that time, along with the crumbling empire that was the Southern Pacific. In a sea of warbonnets, armour yellow, and SP Lark Dark Grey, some simple Conrail blue was always refreshing. I used to watch my Train videos, all of which were of locomotives on the west coast, and whenever I saw that shade of blue I'd say "Conrail!" One day, I walked into a train store, and I saw a Conrail SD40-2. I asked my father if I could buy it, but we couldn't.
I thought that would be the only time I'd be disappointed with the blue raiload. When I moved to New York some years later, I had a brief sickness of the big blue. To a young railfan, seeing a sea of blue was just as boring as seeing an army of armour yellow diesels. But then the news came:Conrail was to be broken up! I was heartbroken. The big blue, my special favorite, the one that had some sort of mysterious "quality" to it, was to be gone. *sigh* I guess it would have hurt less to have remained afar. CSX is nice, but why couldn't they have stayed? They ran a train like a *real* railroad and not like a faceless corporation who could care less about the customer. And they didn't scream like an angry black scourge when you took pictures, they always waved, not slumped in their chairs thinking about layoffs. But life keeps rolling like the steel wheel in the can opener logo that had symbolized Conrail since the day they became a "Real" railroad. Conrail will keep rolling on, in my dreams.