Have the Conrail fans disappeared with the blue paint?

[chessie]

So where have all of the Conrail fans gone? Have they disappeared like the blue paint on the CR locos? Stand up and be counted, lest the forum may disappear :(

Harold

[rhensley_anderson]

I don't know about everyone else, but I've been tied up with several things over the holidays.

I have one advantage that many Conrail fans do not have. A near by defect detector still reports as Conrail. CSX has not gotten around to changing it, so it still sounds like Conrail lives. Oh, that's at Chesterfield Indiana on the old Big Four main.

[Fred]

I still work for Conrail here in Detroit, Mich. Latest news (not a rumor) is that in Feb a "Black Box" controlled switcher will be brought into town, needless to say BLE members are not happy as they have no contract to operate such engs, only the UTU has an agreement to operate such engines.

[JOtto]

Hello. I'm new to the boards. I am definitly a Conrail fan. You can say I grew up with them. When I was a kid I lived about 20 feet from the main south bound tracks leaving the Enola yards.

[Alan]

Jason, welcome to Trainboard smile.gif Good to have another Conrail fan here.

Do you have any tales to tell, or photos for us to enjoy?

[chessie]

Jason,
Welcome to TrainBoard! Wow, living that close to Enola Yard must have been something else ;) Some folks have all of the luck tongue.gif

Harold

[Hunter]

I am still here, chessie, as rhensly said, I also have been busy with website, and buisiness, and other things...I do check the CR Forum every once in a while...like every week!! smile.gif

Hunter smile.gif

[MarkJ]

I grew up watching and photographing Conrail trains in and around Reading, PA. At the time (mid 80’s), I had no idea Conrail would someday disappear. I have many pictures of Conrail second-generation EMD and GE locomotives, which (like Conrail) have almost all disappeared. Now, since Norfolk and Southern took over this area, all you see are black, wide cab, AC this or MAC that! Not that I’m complaining, but I just don’t see much variety anymore.

I need to get a scanner and put some of my photos on the web! :D

[ConductorRick]

No, most of us ex-Con[rail] types remember it well. At least we didn't always have to look over our shoulders for the SAT[uration] teams...

Things are different now, and its not for the better. Conrail had its bad points, but nothing like this...

Rick

[MetroNorth]

I miss Big Blue, although I still see some conrail locos thunder by in part of a csx consist, usually 2 or 3 csx locos and one pretty blue conrail. I doubt I'll see it much longer.

[Conrailrad]

I'll always be a Conrail fan. I just haven't had much time to get on the internet. Just too much other stuff going on.

[Israel]

Haven't seen any Conrail locos in awhile around here (Buffalo, NY) but I see quite a few freight cars still. Everyday actually.

Israel

[Comet]

Welcome to TrainBoard Israel. Great to have you on board.
Now that you mention it, I can't remember seeing many CR units along the Lake Shore either. I think in the last year or so, I've seen more SOO units.
Bill

[Jack P]

Conrail fans:
The Raritan River Rail Road in New Jersey was controlled by the CNJ. Conrail assumed operations of the railroad by April 24, 1980. RRRR owned a fleet of six SW900's, RR 1-6. These were numbered CR 8658-8663. Conrail didn't run these locomotives for very long beyond 1980, putting most if not all of them into storage.
Several friends and I are trying to locate any or all of the six (6) EMD SW-900's which were taken over by Conrail from the Raritan River Rail Road. There seems to be a deadend as far as the disposition of the units. Do you have any information regarding the locations or dispositions of these beautiful units?

[Israel]

Thanks for the welcome Comet.

I see alot of CSX (of course), some NS, a few CN & CP crossing the international RR bridge over the Niagara.

Israel

[Comet]

Welcome to TrainBoard Jack P.
I don't know about the CR/RR/CNJ units you mentioned, but I will ask around the WNY CR railfan community.
Also, there is a Yahoo! group that deals with loco dispositions, but sorry, I can't remember the group name. Hopefully someone else here can provide you with that info, or you could do a search over there.
Good luck with this,
Bill

[Don Rickle]

So where have all of the Conrail fans gone?We're still here.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/Early-railfan-photos/aag.sized.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/Early-railfan-photos/abw.sized.jpg

[Peter_PH]

Hi to all. Just as a Leper changes it's spots, I have GONE BACK to my all time favorite of CONRAIL, PENN CENTRAL, LEHIGH VALLEY etc. Yes even us Aussies model CONRAIL.
By the way love the above photos.
Thanks

[Don Rickle]

Welcome Pete. From what railroad did you just switch from?


http://www.railimages.com/albums/Early-railfan-photos/abr.sized.jpg

[omnitrax]

Hi to all again.
Only recently joined again.
I've been away from the internet for a while.
I have a passion for railroads in the Midwest too, so i've been following along with SOO LINE, GBW/FRVR/WC for a time, but I always seem to come back to CONRAIL.
Will always remember & LOVE BIG BLUE!!!!.
Thankyou.

[Triplex]

Hello.
I've never railfanned in the East or seen a single Conrail engine. The only layout I've ever built was a pathetic attempt at CN in HO. Then, around 1997, I saw some Model Railroader articles on Conrail and instantly fell in love with with Big Blue and its finest engine, the SD80MAC.
Whenever I get the chance to build a layout worthy of my dreams, I'll model Conrail in N scale, and set the layout in 1997. I used to think I was an (aspiring) present-day modeller, but I was wrong. I was a 90s modeller (but it happened to be the 90s then).
We aren't gone.

[N_S_L]

I love the Conrail blue & white !

[omnitrax]

Hi to all.
Yeah Love those "White Smileys" SD 80 Macs.
I wonder how well they would have looked if the White stripe had followed all along the Long Hood & around the back.
Then maybe not. They look Unique in their as applied livery.
Then again WE ALL LOVE ALL OF BIG BLUE. Right.
Thanks.

[chessie]

Pete,
Super photos! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Harold

[wlal21]

Big Blue is still alive and well in my train room and we are still here. Just got done with a detail project of CR GP40-2`s...

[NSSRNW]

Conrail is still a very big presence on the rails in my part of Northern Va. Big Blue is sometimes the leader in an NS consist. Sometimes, Big Blue is not. But the CRs I still see are all Quality. I rarely ever see a Conrail without the word Quality anymore.

[chessie]

I saw a couple of NS trains led by the blue units today. For the most part, all I ever see are the GE's, though we do have a GP15 for local duty and occasionally an SD50 or SD60M.

Harold

[Don Rickle]

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/adu.jpg

[ January 23, 2006, 10:51 AM: Message edited by: Don Rickle ]

[Don Rickle]

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/ady.jpg

[Don Rickle]

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/adz.jpg

[Don Rickle]

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/aea.jpg

[SecretWeapon]

Nice Don graemlins/notworthy.gif

[chessie]

Don,
Those are really great photos of a bygone era... I still see a little "blue" on NS, but it is fading fast. :(

Harold

[BoxcabE50]

Really nice photos!

I've never been able to get used to those speaker/megaphone style horns/bells. They look so out of place. Such as on a Bulldog nose like 2024.

Do I see the roof of an interlocking tower behind the train?

:D

Boxcab E50

[chessie]

It seems like L&N used some of those... they were actually "electronic bells" that looked like megaphones...

[Peirce]

I've never been able to get used to those speaker/megaphone style horns/bells. They look so out of place. Such as on a Bulldog nose like 2024.
What you are looking at is a Hancock Air Whistle on top of the cab of a Metro North FL9.

By-the-way, I am curious as to how this unit managed to appear in a Conrail topic.

[chessie]

Originally posted by Peirce:


By-the-way, I am curious as to how this unit managed to appear in a Conrail topic. Because it is close?? :rolleyes:

[Martyn Read]

May well have been a Conrail loco once, for a little while! ;)

[Don Rickle]

The FL-9 doesn't really belong here...I threw it in because I was too lazy to start up a thread in the passenger section. (It was once under Conrail ownership).

[chessie]

I was excited to see some ex-CR locos today: one train had an ex-LMS loco on the point (still in CR blue) and the other train had a pair of CR-Quality painted SD60's: an SD60M and an SD60I.

Harold

[Don Rickle]

Former Erie Lackawanna #3681 SD45-2. The last new EL unit. Seen here on Conrail's Chicago Line at Milepost 338. June 25, 1998. 8:40 AM. Westbound.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/aee.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/aef.jpg

[chessie]

That's a great train! An SD60 and an SD45-2!! :eek:

[Don Rickle]

Operation Lifesaver special. Claypool IN, on the Marion sub. June 24, 1998.

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/aeb.jpg

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/aem.jpg

[ March 06, 2006, 04:37 PM: Message edited by: Don Rickle ]

[chessie]

Don,
Super pics! I have never shot E8's! :eek: :eek:

Harold

[Don Rickle]

Thanks Harold. It was the only time I saw the CR E's. It was all by chance, the train showed up as I was shooting some Geeps parked in a siding at Goshen IN. A disappointment that CR #4022 was NOT in the train...the ex EL E8.

[chessie]

I caught a couple of ex-CR SDP45's.... they had VMV decals attached.....

[Don Rickle]

You must show! MUST SHOW!

[chessie]

Originally posted by Don Rickle:
You must show! MUST SHOW! Gotta see if the scanner will cooperate... it has been uncooperative lately :(

[Don Rickle]

I know all about that.

[Don Rickle]

My all time favorite place for rail photography...the Hudson Valley. Of course, I haven't been out west where the real scenery is.

http://www.railimages.com/albums/album65/agn.jpg

[ March 16, 2006, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: Don Rickle ]

[Spirit of the Conrail7]

Conrail will never die.....

[jimmygolds]

Conrail will never die.....
amen to that:thumbs_up:

[EL03440]

Worked as a Conrail Scale Inspector from 4/01/76 to 5/31/99. Always a ConRail Fan, Alway will be!:)

[Calicoaster]

just bought two bachmann spectrum HO Conrail SD-45s
my dad used mto take pics of conrail when i was little

[conrailmike]

Conrail will always live on, even if it's in 1/87 scale! I used to see quite a few CR units ( the ones that CSX got) in the consists that ran through here in Highland, MI on CSX's Saginaw line, but don't see too many anymore.

[JPowell]

<=== is a CR fan through and through.

[OC Engineer JD]

Caught this unit on the headend of the Local that interchanges with us at Siskin Yard, in Gadsden AL.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/SiskinYard012507.jpg

[OC Engineer JD]

Closer shot. :)
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/SiskinYard_local.jpg

[r_i_straw]

This one was on the BNSF in Rosenberg, Texas earlier in the week.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/601/IMG_0792.JPG