Railroad Forums 

  • 6 Years ago today

  • Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.
Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.

Moderators: TAMR213, keeper1616

 #132481  by AmtrakFan
 
Folks,
6 Years ago today Conrail became part of NS and CSX.

 #132521  by crazy_nip
 
somewhere, people are crying...

and I am laughing at every one of them

 #132541  by AmtrakFan
 
crazy_nip wrote:somewhere, people are crying...

and I am laughing at every one of them
I would be laughing at them. I have never really cared for Conrail.

 #132552  by jmp883
 
There's a bit of irony here....4/1/76 could well be considered 'the day the railroads died' (to paraphrase a line from Don McLean). For years Conrail was considered the red-headed stepchild of railroading and got little, if any respect. Granted some of that lack of respect was warranted...it took a long time before Conrail became a viable railroad. But once it did it quickly became a fan favorite.

Jump ahead now to 6/1/99. Conrail is split between NS & CSX, along with Conrail Shared Assets. First it was NS who was able to keep things somewhat running while CSX's side of the railroad quickly ground to a halt. Then after a few months or so things flipped....CSX got a grip on things and NS lost theirs. Now things seem to be going fairly smoothly for both railroads, or as smoothly as they can on any large railroad.

CSX's River Line seems to be back to its Conrail-era level of activity, as is NS' Lehigh Line across central NJ. Yet the Southern Tier is wilting away...hopefully the CNY can breathe some new life into it between Binghamton and Port Jervis.

The irony is that where once we loathed Big Blue, now many of us long to have CR back!
 #132553  by Noel Weaver
 
Nip and Amtrak Fan, you guys can laugh all you want but railroading all
over the place was much better before CSX came on the scene. Track
maintenance was much better under Conrail and the shippers and
receivers of freight were much better served than they are today with the
problems with CSX.
Amtrak trains did a lot better under Conrail too, I know, I got held for
them quite often back then.
The way CSX is heading, we might just see another Penn Central disaster
in years ahead and maybe another government involvement.
Noel Weaver

 #132645  by AmtrakFan
 
Mr. Weaver,
I for one agree with you CSX will become the PC that's why I hate CSX. I never cared for Conrail's Leadership, their attitude towards Shorthaul bussiness and they ripped off our tax payers.

 #132648  by Noel Weaver
 
AmtrakFan wrote:Mr. Weaver,
I for one agree with you CSX will become the PC that's why I hate CSX. I never cared for Conrail's Leadership, their attitude towards Shorthaul bussiness and they ripped off our tax payers.
The government got a "nice piece of change" when Conrail went public
and the shares went on the market.
Noel Weaver
 #134186  by Matt Langworthy
 
CR ripped off taxpayers? If CR hadn't entered the picture, alot of Northeastern shippers would have gone under. Imagine the effect on the economy if that had happened. I didn't agree with all of CR's policies, but it was better than the alternative. Remember, all of the pre-Conrail RRs except EL asked the federal gov't for permission to cease operations. To me, CR is an example of gov't intervention done well.

Joe P, even though part of me misses CR, I am glad to have the Penn Central merger undone at long last. Now, if CSX could just get their act together...
Last edited by Matt Langworthy on Mon Aug 08, 2005 5:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 #155276  by TheChessieCatLives
 
After the 199 acquisition, the former Conrail West Virginia Secondary experienced a 110% increase in the amount of traffic that uses the line. In 1998, Norfolk Southern did a $20 million dollar line replacement job from Mullens, West Virginia to where the line connects with the West Virginia Secondary at Alloy, West Virginia. In the upgrade, this included upgraded track and a slightly higher increase of the speed limit for the line.

 #155283  by GE-RULES
 
AmtrakFan wrote:Mr. Weaver,
I for one agree with you CSX will become the PC that's why I hate CSX. I never cared for Conrail's Leadership, their attitude towards Shorthaul bussiness and they ripped off our tax payers.
How can you make these statements without ever working for either railroad? Why is it you hate CSX? Did they do something to you personally? Something just doesn't add up here.