Conrail MOW trucks

Conrail MOW trucks Just a few questions. Was the standered color of MOW Trucks always Yellow and when did they start going over to White MOW trucks?? Or did they get what ever was on the dealers lot??

AFAIK, the Conrail color for M/W vehicles was the bright yellow; this for visibility purposes along the rights-of-way - especially in winter. A white vehicle simply does not stand out in the snow country.

Conrail MOW equipment passing Oaklyn, NJ, swim club (former Reading Company passenger station) on June 26, 2008.

I've seen both the white and the yellow trucks in use here in South Jersey...and if I recall, before the split between CSX/NS, they were all yellow. In any case, for demonstration purposes, see the image below in 2003:



Mike DiMunno

Conrail trucks were always yellow, GM trucks were standard GM fleet dark yellow. The same color was used on other fleet trucks and on Suburbans sold to be used as school busses.

Beginning in about 1993 with the newer style Chevrolets, the hi-rail trucks went to a flourescent yellow color. I've seen a few other non-RR vehicles in this color (a Niagara Airport surplus Chevrolet pickup), which makes me think it was another fleet option.

CSX vehicles tend to normally be white, I saw a brand new Chevrolet truck yesterday in the white colors. A friend has a retired one that is also white. I'm not sure why they chose that color, since they get dirty and look pretty terrible in a hurry. But it's another GM fleet color.

From what I can see, Conrail and CSX both favored General Motors with their vehicle purchases, I can't think of a late model work truck I've seen that wasn't a Chevrolet or GMC, unless it was so large a truck it was beyond what GM produced.

the first new CR MOW trucks were Conrail blue.

Virtually all of those were gone before I can remember. Was it actual CR blue special-order, or standard GM fleet blue? Lehigh Valley trucks were a fleet blue in the '70s. I have a former US Navy Suburban and it shows the USN blue as a special order fleet color in the RPO codes.

Bear in mind that Conrail trucks under the Shared Assets operation are owned by either CSX or NS. (Take a good look & you'll see the NS logo & vehicle ID number on the front fender on NS pickups). Thus they come from the same fleet ordrs that either railroad places - both favor white trucks. You'll also notice that the heavy trucks now have a different bed design than the standard (pre-1999) Conrail design - point in fact is the international based out of South Plainfield NJ. I see this same bed on NS trucks out here in Ohio, in fact if I recall correctly the mudflaps on the conrail version even say 'Norfolk Southern'.

So to answer your question - I saw the changeover start in 1998-1999 as the takeover was beginning to happen.

-M

the slide I have is a new 1976 International Harvester w/stinger boom. It is all conrail blue,so it must have been a spl. ordered paint job.

After the blue started going away, the trucks and equipment I saw and photographed, was a color called "National school bus yellow". Seems to be the exact color Conrail used. We repainted a highrailer and re-lettered it, on the M&E, and that's the color paint we got, that matched the original ordered paint from the ex-Con we purchased.

Wouldn't surprise me if once they settled on the blue scheme they used it to repaint MOW trucks that came from their predecessor roads.

Come to think of it, the CNY Chapter has a boom truck that belonged to Conrail at one point. Seems like it was built white, painted blue, then painted orange, may have had still another color before the orange (I think it belonged to the BattenKill where it got the orange paint).

Not the greatest pics in the world..
but thought they might be of interest to someone:








Scot

ugly looking critter! I saw one of these van/truck things once about 15 years ago or so in Weedsport, NY. It reminds me of a cut down Bread delivery/Newspaper Van cab mounted on a pickup truck frame. It seems like I saw an old photo of one of these with a Penn Central logo on it some place here on the internet. Were these custom made by Penn Central from salvaged parts or something??

They were purpose built trucks with Grumman or other aftermarket bodies instead of a cutaway van cab, probably for ease of maintenance. GM made bodies in that style, too, I have one that's a factory GM steel body, so it may depend on who's chassis was used as to who made the cab structure.

I own two former CR MOW trucks. The CNY NRHS also has two IMTCO boom trucks one 1984 GMC that was delivered yellow and sold to C&G Surfacing and was repainted white. The other CNY truck is a 1977 Ford F-700. It was delivered in Blue and later sold to BVRR and was painted Orange at some point. It is now restored blue with the logo and all. My two trucks are neon yellow/green like the one above. Mine are 1994 GMC's. Now a buddy of mine had a 1993 hirail pickup painted orange with CR block logo on the door. So as far as I know white was not a choice color of CR. Now as a point my trucks and my buddys 93 both came from an auction at Harrisburg held by NS in 99 or 00. I will try to get pic up of the trucks.

JJ-
P.S. LVRR325: You have seen and been in my 94 that is in NY.