Oldest conrail engine?

What is the oldest conrail engine still in active service? It can be a switcher or bigger road power. And I also heard that conrail had a small number of engines that for quite some time, still bore PRR paint scheme or PC scheme. Any of those units still active, or did they eventually all get conrail paint and now have been retired?

Many locomotives operated in "predecsessor paint" into the mid 1980's..
I started taking train photos in 1983, and I saw several units in PC black into 1985..but none after that.
I have read that people saw a few operating into the late 80's..
but by 1990 it was definately over, and everything was in CR blue through the 90's..
(yes, several locos remained in predecessor paint after that, but they were stored or sold locos..not actually operating with Conrail)

So I would place the date for "All Blue" around 1987 or 1988..

As for the oldest Conrail locomotive still operating today, I would be willing to bet its an EMD SW1 from 1939 or 1940..
those were about the oldest locos that made it to the CR roster from the predecessor roads..
I have a few listed on my NYC, LV and EL survivors webpages:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/

Im not sure which is the oldest, or which is the (oldest + still operating),
but we could probably figure it out with a little research..

I doubt you find much of anything older than a 1939 or 1940 SW1 still operating today..

(probably the *oldest* surviving loco that actually operated with Conrail is "Old Rivits"..the first GG1..she was built in 1934!
but obviously she is no longer operating today..)

Scot

I know of three "Conrail predecessor" locomotives still in original paint today!
(although none operated with Conrail into the 1990's)

WAMX GP38 3817 is still wearing her PC black paint today!
http://rrpicturearchives.net/locoPictur ... 660&Page=1
The paintscheme is very tattered..but its definately the original PC paintscheme..
thats the only NYC/PRR or PC loco I know of still in original paint..

Lehigh Valley SW1 number 112 is still wearing her last LV paintscheme!
from the early 1970's:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scottychaos ... tives.html
the only LV loco still wearing original LV paint..
(112 never belonged to Conrail)

And there is one known EL unit..
Alco S1 number 315.
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychao ... Survivors/
http://www.denverrails.com/db/attrctpix ... tr_id=1608
still wearing her early 1960's EL scheme..

and thats all I know of..
there are a lot more REpainted units, in museums, wearing their older schemes..
but they were repainted at a later date, and once wore Conrail blue, or other schemes, before being restored to their older or original schemes.
so those are all "museum restoration" paint jobs..a reproduction paint job, not the actual literal paintscheme it wore in service.

Scot

Probably the oldest surviving locomotives ever to operate on any part of Conrail are the S class motors that were last used
as switchers in Grand Central Termnal. One or two of these old timers are still around but they will never run again and at
least one is rusting away in New York State just outside of Albany. I am not sure where the other one is. These old motors
predate the GG-1's by many years.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:Probably the oldest surviving locomotives ever to operate on any part of Conrail are the S class motors that were last used
as switchers in Grand Central Termnal. One or two of these old timers are still around but they will never run again and at
least one is rusting away in New York State just outside of Albany. I am not sure where the other one is. These old motors
predate the GG-1's by many years.
Noel Weaver

wow..I would have never imagined any of those actually operated with Conrail!
but it seems its true:

The S2E's were some of the oldest, if not oldest, locomotives on Conrail's roster. They served in the New York area and were never renumbered.

http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/elec/elecindex.html

http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/elec/s2e/s2e.html

thats pretty amazing!

But Airman was asking about the oldest *operating* loco.
we still dont have an answer for that..
I will dig into to some of the EMD SW1 contenders..

Scot

How about the oldest loco still in regular active duty be it CSX or NS. (since those companies got all of conrail's equipment)

my Guess would be one of the Jersey Central SD35's. Not sure if this particular unit actually made it to Conrail. I recall seeing it in service on NS in Railpace a few years ago. ( just a guess/ speculation, am curious as well)

airman00 wrote:How about the oldest loco still in regular active duty be it CSX or NS. (since those companies got all of conrail's equipment)

mainetrain wrote:my Guess would be one of the Jersey Central SD35's. Not sure if this particular unit actually made it to Conrail. I recall seeing it in service on NS in Railpace a few years ago. ( just a guess/ speculation, am curious as well)

CNJ (and PC) SD35's were built in 1965:
but none operated on Conrail up to 1999, so none made it to NS or CSX:
"Since all units were retired prior to June 1999, no SD-35's were transferred to CSX or Norfolk Southern."
from: http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/sd35/sd35rost.html

There are a few SD35's listed on more recent NS rosters, but they are of SOU heritage..

And this 1999 "Conrail Split" roster:
http://www.thedieselshop.us/CR.HTML
Shows no SD35's on the 1999 CR roster..

The winner in this category (the catagory being "Oldest Conrail loco still operating with NS or CSX")
are probably the group of PRR SD40's, built in 1966, several of which still operating with NS and CSX:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychao ... /index.htm

Scot

There was a battery electric locomotive used in one of the shops that predated pretty much everything else, but it didn't last that long. Should be pictured in Hartley's Conrail Vol. 1 -

Oldest currently in service would likely be one of the PRR SD40s that got rebuilt by Conrail in the 1990s.

I realize that this does not really answer the question but I will try to shed a little more light on this subject, as of July, 1988
the oldest engines in service or at least on the roster at that time were: E-8's 4020 and 4022 - 1951, GP-7/GP-8 - 1950,
GP-9/GP-10 - 1955, SW-7 and SW-8 - 1950.
What we really need is a roster as of when Conrail took over in 1976. I might have one somewhere but right now I am not
sure about that.
Noel Weaver

Currently I think its like everyone else is saying the ex-Pennsy SD40's that were rebuilt, there is one of them though that is of CNJ/B&O heritage on NS not sure exactly what year it was built though for CNJ/B&O but it was rebuilt around the time the Pennsy units got rebuilt to 40-2 specs by Conrail.

Kaback9 wrote:Currently I think its like everyone else is saying the ex-Pennsy SD40's that were rebuilt, there is one of them though that is of CNJ/B&O heritage on NS not sure exactly what year it was built though for CNJ/B&O but it was rebuilt around the time the Pennsy units got rebuilt to 40-2 specs by Conrail.

I am pretty sure there are older former Conrail engines still in use than the former PRR SD-40's. GP-7's, GP-9's, a former
NHRR C-425 in New York State, FL-9's, probably more. The GP-35's on Metro-North and on the Housatonic RR are former
Conrail units as well I think.
I am not convinced that we will be able to figure out the answer to this one no matter how much we try.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:

Kaback9 wrote:Currently I think its like everyone else is saying the ex-Pennsy SD40's that were rebuilt, there is one of them though that is of CNJ/B&O heritage on NS not sure exactly what year it was built though for CNJ/B&O but it was rebuilt around the time the Pennsy units got rebuilt to 40-2 specs by Conrail.

I am pretty sure there are older former Conrail engines still in use than the former PRR SD-40's. GP-7's, GP-9's, a former
NHRR C-425 in New York State, FL-9's, probably more. The GP-35's on Metro-North and on the Housatonic RR are former
Conrail units as well I think.
I am not convinced that we will be able to figure out the answer to this one no matter how much we try.
Noel Weaver

yes, there are older units still in use..
but its confusing because we have three or four different catagories under discussion all at the the same time!
the PRR SD40's are in reference to "operating with NS or CSX" only..not operating anywhere..

For the "Former Conrail locomotive still operating anywhere" catagory, its probably what I said at the start..
EMD (or EMC) SW1's built in 1939 or 1940..
I know a few are still operating..not sure exactly which ones, or which is the absolute oldest..
but I bet its almost certaintly a SW1..

Scot

I don't know if this qualifies but right now in Mt Holly NJ there is a self propelled crane unit that is pulling a gondola around the yard as CSA reconfigures the small yard. One of the CSA workers told me the diesel electric unit was built in 1947 and obviously is still working. It is in PC black stenciled CR and looks like CR did back in the 70's before they got around to repainting all those PC units.

I saw that there are only a small number, of former Conrail sw 1001's still going on. They appear to have been built in 1973. In fact, Norfolk southern engine #2100, is the last sw1001 still in conrail paint on there roster, CSX still has a few in CR paint. The remaining ones have been painted into there respective company colors. So I would say all the SW1001's qaulify as old Conrail engines still on active duty.