Conrail's 30th Birthday (NJ-specific)

Since today would have been the 30th Birthday of Conrail if it wasn't for the CSX/NS Merger, I would love to celebrate it by either seeing photos of Conrail freight trains in the NJ area or have people talk abot their railfan experiences on Conrail before the merger.

Thank You

Eric

How can you celebrate the birthday of a dead entity?

DutchRailnut wrote:How can you celebrate the birthday of a dead entity? The subject and pictures belong either in New Jersey Railfan forum or in Conrail forum, not in NJ Transit forum.

Well, Shared Assests I suppose could celebrate it and they have a fairly strong presence here in New Jersey.

Shared assets despite having name Conrail is only a itty bitty bit of once mighty Conrail.

At least it is part of Conrail and is of same company (only different operations and management).

Just light a candle and pull out your copy of Triumph V. Maybe the spirit of Alexander Cassatt will appear and talk with you about building tunnels under the Hudson and majestic railroad stations in Manhattan

Of course they will.. And we will have train service from Hoboken to Scranton and beyond in a year as well...

Actually there are some interesting NJ-Specific things that occured
on "Conrail Day".

Prior to "Conrail Day", Conrail announced a number of branch line closings, and other service cuts that would take effect on 4/1/76.

Some of the cuts that did occur on "Conrail Day" included;

Abandonment of the then Freight Only Wildwood Branch of the PRSL

Also on the PRSL, ticket agents were discontinued in Atlantic City,
Cape May, and Ocean City (9th street), leaving Lidenwold as the only staffed station.

Along the NJCL, Sea Girt was closed as a passenger stop.

The High Bridge Branch was also on this list, as was the NJCL below Bradley Beach. The NJ DOT purchased the NJCL segment, someone else could fill in who bought the High Bridge Branch, and if it was the entire branch, or just a segment.

Conrail also made it clear that both the Bayonne Shuttle, and the Princeton Dinky were on a short list of other lines to cut.

I know that there were other "Conrail Day" cuts all through the state
what other specific cuts and changes happended on "Conrail Day"

Ken

The ES-99 and SE-98 EL/CNJ pool freights from Elizabethport to Scranton that went via the High Bridge Branch were discontinued on this date as well. Conrail abandonded the portion of the High Bridge branch from Bartley south....


Steve