Conrail units in pre-Conrail colors.

[EugeneV.Debs]

Does anyone know when Conrail finished up painting operational Conrail predecessor units into Conrail colors? Does anyone have any pictures of Conrail units in pre-Conrail colors post 1980?

[scottychaos]

Does anyone know when Conrail finished up painting operational Conrail predecessor units into Conrail colors?

technically..never.
many a unit operated for many a year after 1976 and was never repainted.
and retired without ever being repainted.
I saw operating units still in PC paint in 1984.

Does anyone have any pictures of Conrail units in pre-Conrail colors post 1980?

lots of them in various places around the internet.
Try here:

http://www.railpictures.net/

do a search for "conrail" under railroad.
click "find the photos!"

then do "sort by date - oldest first"
then you can wander through time starting in 1976 and moving forward.

(someone says they have a Conrail photo from 1965! ummm..ok...I sent in a correction for it.)

You could also search for "conrail" on the main page, then pick a specific year.

Scot

[scottychaos]

Or if you meant "when did the last predecessor unit still in predecessor paint operate with Conrail?" the answer is probably about 1985.

I saw a RDG GP30 in 1983, several PC black units in 1984...but nothing but solid Blue from 1985 and after.

a scan through RP.net shows:

some PC black still around in 1984.

a PC black GP9 in 1985, but could be stored.
(stored units still in predecessor paint are still out there today!)
but no units obviously operating in 1985.

RDG GP30 in 1986!
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=27648
also looks stored (notice the numberboards are gone)

PC black in 1986, but doesnt count, its a stored unit:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=99836

EL in 1986, but appears to be stored:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=104266

and I think that it..going into 1987 and '88 the colors are gone.
nothing but Blue.

my personal assessment is:

1984 - still some noticable predecessor paint here and there.
1985 - almost gone..hard to find.
1986 - its all over.

1985 was probably the last year.

I never saw another one after '84.. and I was trackside along the Southern Tier Main nearly every day.

Scot

[LCJ]

Nitpicking here, but that RDG unit is a GP35.

There was a bit of controversy in CR headquarters in the late '80s about there still being black units running around. Someone told a certain "militaristic" former NYC/PC VP (told with a straight face, no doubt, too) that were none out there, that they were all blue by then (except for stored units awaiting the scrapper).

Some of those old GP30s and GP35s got painted up rather quickly shortly thereafter, even though they weren't much good for anything when they were dragged out to supplement the regular fleet on occasion.

Shows you how managing with fear (or stark terror) often ends up being wasteful.

[U-Haul]

There are two photos that really stick out.

A Erie Lackawanna painted unit in 1991.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=75958
6-77
http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/gp35/xrdg3626er.jpg
and fifteen years later on 11-22-92
http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/gp35 ... fstore.jpg
a 1985 picture.
http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/gp35 ... efdead.jpg

[lvrr325]

I believe the answer is roughly 1995 depending mainly on when one unit was painted.

There were a lot of units as late as 1990 which left the roster never repainted - at least one EL SDP45 from the second order went back to by-then NS (N&W financed these units under Dereco) in EL paint, for example. NS ran these units before trading them in, so it ran on NS in EL paint for a short time.

One ex-EL GP35 to my knowledge was never repainted, CR 3682. These units went in and out of storage in the 1980s and 1990s along with the U23B's that remained serviceable. A Railpace noted these were leased to CP Rail for a time and noted then that this unit was in EL paint; although I believe that was in 1992, I cannot find the reference in my magazine collection. I have never seen anything to indicate it was painted, although it could have been. Given these units would never run again if they had a major failure, I tend to think that if one escaped the paint shop that late, no one would think it worth the money to put blue paint on it. But applying logic to any corporation's decisions is a chancy thing at best.

I have to think the GP30s and GP35s which got repainted as a result of the events mentioned in the previous post are the ones I see in some shots in blue and lettered but with no logo on the side.

Last but not least, in 1995 when Conrail cleaned out it's 567-engine power, a few GP30s and GP35s went to trade in in RDG, EL and PC paint (here again, from Railpace, shown in a photo). There may have been a few GP9s left at that time also. That's when the 3682 left the roster; I'd have to dig through more magazines to get more specific - if anyone has more details or a repaint date on that unit, please post the info.

[EugeneV.Debs]

Thanks a lot for all of your responses.

[scharnhorst]

use this link below if you want to see hundreds of Conrail units in varyed paint jobs.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cr/cr.html