First Conrail widecabs.

[scottychaos]

What units were conrails first widecabs?
and when did they arrive?

I remember photographing Conrail alot in the mid-80's, when everything was all still standard cabs, then I went to College and dropped out of active railfanning for many years..then when I started photographing trains again in the late 90's widecabs were everywhere!
I missed the transition..
thanks!
Scot

[Urban D Kaye]

scott-

Between 1990-94 CR bought its first GE C40-8W units, many of which went to LMS. Some did stay on CR however.

I think the first EMD widecabs CR bought were SD60M units. These were introduced by EMD in 1989, but CR didn't order them right away so they got theirs late '92 to early '93. Conrail's order had special handrails and class lights (or "marker lights" if you prefer).

[scottychaos]

thanks D!

[msernak]

I never thought CR would purchase widecabs. The first one I saw had to be in 1990 when I was driving on Route 22 in Hillside NJ and saw a pair of them on the ex Lehigh Valley pulling a freight Eastbound.

[MR77100]

What is the difference between an SD60M and an SD60I?

[charlie6017]

The only difference is that "I" stands for isolated cab. The front part of the cab rides on rubber pads, which blocks out much of the loud sounds and I believe it also makes for a better ride. It's still a wide cab like the "M" version.

Conrail's SD60M roster was: #5500-5574
And their SD60I roster was: #5575-5654

[Urban D Kaye]

A quick addendum to Charlie's post...
From a spotter's standpoint there are 2 ways to rapidly tell an SD60M from an SD60I. The "M" has the nose door on the left (from the crew's perspective), and the "I" has the door on the right. Easy to remember. Also, the SD60I has a visible seam between the nose and the crew cab.

[BrianM]

[quote="Urban D Kaye"]scott-

Between 1990-94 CR bought its first GE C40-8W units, many of which went to LMS. Some did stay on CR however.



This is not totally correct. The First C40-8W bought by Conrail are numbers 6050-6099. All arrived in the standard Conrail paint. 6100-6285 arrived in Conrail Quality paint. The LMS units are a seperate order/batch. These units had numbers 700-739 and had been lettered LMS. These units had been joint owned by Conrail and GE. they went on lease 6 months out of the year and the other 6 in service for Conrail.

Now there was a second batch, 740-760. These units also went out on lease for LMS but Conrail owned them in full. Later, these units had been renumbered to 6266-6285. These units had always carried the Conrail Quality logo.


Brian

[Engineer Spike]

Getting back to the SD60 M&I, in the SD60M order there was one unit that had an isolated cab. This was a test of the concept for CR and EMD.

[Noel Weaver]

The FIRST wide cab engines on Conrail were 6050 - 6099 which started
arriving in 1990. The EMD SD-60 wide cabs started arriving later.
The LMS units were ordered in conjunction with the Canadian National and
were rotated in use between the two railroads. They had nothing to do
with 6050 - 6099.
Noel Weaver

[SSW9389]

Aren't you all really talking about wide nose units? No such thing as a wide cab. Cab widths are pretty much the same between the old and the new.

[scottychaos]

Aren't you all really talking about wide nose units? No such thing as a wide cab. Cab widths are pretty much the same between the old and the new.

well yeah, technically I suppose it is the nose, and not the cab that is "wide"..
but, the accepted jargon is "wide cab"...
I have seen a few references to the use of "wide nose"..but its not very common..
"wide cab" was just the term that was adopted I guess, even if it isnt technically correct.
Scot

[Allen Hazen]

I remember being very surprised when Conrail got its first C40-8W: at that time I thought of Conrail as a desperately poor, nothing-but-the-basics, operation, not likely to go for extra-cost options. And yet they were the second railroad (after U.P.) to get C40-8W. The "Railroad model Craftsman" article on the C40-8W (January 1981 issue), with photos (b&w and color) of Conrail units and drawings of a C40-8W with Conrail-style class lights, says that the first were delivered in late spring of 1990.

[Noel Weaver]

When the first C-40-8W's came on the line, Conrail wanted to use them on
jobs where they would get the maximum use (read miles) out of them.
I had a regular job on SEEL out of Selkirk at the time and that was a through train from Selkirk to Elkhart with a couple of stops for work west
of Buffalo.
It was late spring and summer of 1990 and I was delighted with the new
air conditioned cabs.
It was a long ride from Selkirk to Buffalo but believe me, I was glad to
have the comfort of air conditioning. The job was the envy of many of
the other crews who were still sweating on the older units.
Noel Weaver

[AmtrakFan]

When did Conrail buy their SD70M's.

AmtrakFan