Sadly Conrail fades away

sectioneight wrote:
I wonder how many previously black PC units made it through their 'blue' period to get NS black.

No operating units made it all the way to 1999 in PC black on Conrail (or any CR predecessor scheme for that matter)
The last of the predecessor schemes were seen operating on Conrail around 1984-1985, after that there were no more.

yes, many locos lingered in their PC black, a few are still wearing it today..but those are units that havent operated since
the early 80's..

Scot

sectioneight wrote:
I wonder how many previously black PC units made it through their 'blue' period to get NS black.

oh wait..you said previously black! I didnt catch that..
well thats a different story!

a LOT of PC engines made it through CR to arrive on CSX or NS in 1999..
several hundred...many still operating with CSX and NS today.

a list is here:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychao ... /index.htm

Scot

NS 5271 and 5290 were built for PC in 1973 as 8061 and 8090, respectively.

the years i spent watching conrail engines, and taking tons of pictures. People always said why are you taking pictures of those blue units you see so many of. Here it is 2008 and i am glad i have 5 albums of conrail blue!!! Bye Bye blue!!

I always felt as if I took it for granted. I saw so many, yet I got a kick out of them every time. But I never thought I'd see them be gone. And I have no pics, I was too young to realize what I was doing.

At leased the Cars are still rolling about the system even if them big blue units are gone! I did see a fun one the other day with a Boxcar that had NYCR as reporting marks on a Conrail Boxcar the R was painted over in Oxide Red but it bleed back threw.

Hopefully NS will run them long enough (and at least once) so I can catch them in Leechburg when I go up for Christmas. I miss seeing them chug through the small quiet town.

I do hope NS & CSX has the decency to Paint some "Heritage" loco's. The past is the past but... It is history. How about A LV,PC,L&NE,CNJ, etc...

scottychaos wrote:
No operating units made it all the way to 1999 in PC black on Conrail (or any CR predecessor scheme for that matter)
The last of the predecessor schemes were seen operating on Conrail around 1984-1985, after that there were no more.

yes, many locos lingered in their PC black, a few are still wearing it today..but those are units that havent operated since
the early 80's..

Scot

At least one GP35 was operational and still in EL paint as late as 1992, because every time it went out on lease or came back, the magazine reporting it would note the unit was still G/M/Y. By 1996 Conrail had pretty well dumped all 567 power units from the system, either as trade-ins or to scrap, and a lot of long-dead units left the property in EL, PC and RDG paint.

Someone posted up pictures a while back of a GP38 that while it hasn't been a Conrail unit since it came off lease in the early 1980s, is still in full Penn Central paint and lettering. It's in the midwest somewhere if I remember right, operating for a shortline - I forget if they own it or lease it from someone.

Grr, this really makes me mad. >_< Hopefully CSX doesn't do the same, I saw an ex CR EMD unit on the head (3rd unit back) of a loaded coal sitting at the junction.

iceman977th wrote:Grr, this really makes me mad. >_< Hopefully CSX doesn't do the same, I saw an ex CR EMD unit on the head (3rd unit back) of a loaded coal sitting at the junction.

mad?
no reason to be mad..its just life..

There are still a bunch of LV units running around..but not in LV paint.
There are still a lot of EL units running around, but not in EL paint..
pick your favorite fallen flag, and the story is the same..
the only things to blame are time and "business as usual"..no sense being mad at those..
they are merely doing what they do..

Its been almost 10 years..
we are lucky all the CR blue has lasted this long!

Scot

iceman977th wrote:Grr, this really makes me mad. >_< Hopefully CSX doesn't do the same, I saw an ex CR EMD unit on the head (3rd unit back) of a loaded coal sitting at the junction.

Doesn't seem likely given it took until 2008 to paint the last unit in C&O blue as delivered about 1966 or so, despite becoming Chessie in '72 and CSX about '85 with at least three different CSX official schemes since (4 if you count the solid grey scheme).

iceman977th wrote:Grr, this really makes me mad. >_< Hopefully CSX doesn't do the same, I saw an ex CR EMD unit on the head (3rd unit back) of a loaded coal sitting at the junction.

CSX painting seems to go catch-as-catch-can, with no organized approach.

A number of unlikely units were painted, including a few GP-15s and some SD-50s which were almost immediately released. Yet so many SD-40s, the backbone of CSX's freight power pool, remain in Conrail colors - badly in need of painting.

They all need it. Conrail fell ten years ago; that's a long time for equipment that's out in the weather.

conrail_engineer wrote:

iceman977th wrote:Grr, this really makes me mad. >_< Hopefully CSX doesn't do the same, I saw an ex CR EMD unit on the head (3rd unit back) of a loaded coal sitting at the junction.

CSX painting seems to go catch-as-catch-can, with no organized approach.

A number of unlikely units were painted, including a few GP-15s and some SD-50s which were almost immediately released. Yet so many SD-40s, the backbone of CSX's freight power pool, remain in Conrail colors - badly in need of painting.

They all need it. Conrail fell ten years ago; that's a long time for equipment that's out in the weather.

Funny you bring that up a local short line in my area baught 3 B23-7's all of them being Conrail units about 10 or 11 years ago. Two units came from CSX (CR B23-7's 1979 & 2004) and were delivered with in a few weeks and in rather badley weather beaten shape. The outher unit (Ex CR 1989) came from Norfolk Southern but was 3 mounths in arrivel becouse it was tied up in a 45 day inspection before it was to leave the NS Shop it was ordered to be repainted and none the less it came out in a fresh coat of Conrail Blue with full Conrail markings and still holding its original CR Cab numbers!

Well, safe to say NS is behind on painting. Went out to Kenova tonight and saw an empty coal set lead by a patched SD60M leading an NS SD60M and ES40DC down past Airport Road. :D