Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Both of the demonstrators at rest at Harrisburg. From this angle, you can see the unusual B-B-B wheel arrangement on the GM10B, made even stranger by those weird ASEA-developed coil-sprung trucks with 50" wheels. The GM6C looks much more conventional on the EMD HTC-II trucks. The GM10B was found to ride exceptionally well, and several people commented on how stable the locomotive was and that it surprisingly negotiated track that was in very poor condition. One rider mentioned pulling through a yard where the rail had many low joints and watching the freight cars rock back and forth behind the GM10B which was giving little indication in the cab of how bad the track was underneath.

An ex-Reading C630 counts down it's final days at Mingo Junction, surrounded by shiny blue SD45 variants. Once the stronghold of big Alcos, by 1979, the EMDs were moving in. The Conrail patch job with the blanked out Reading logo and new numbers is remarkably unobtrusive. The CR patch jobs that were done in the Reading and Erie-Lackawanna's own home shops tended to be very neat and carefully done, while those done on "foreign" locomotives in former PC shops tended to be much messier.

If ex-PRR/ex-LV RS-11 #7652 could speak in this photo, it would probably be "What did they do to you?" The road slug behind it, classified as an MT-6 in Conrail parlance, is built from a cutdown ex-PRR RSD-12 (the six-axle counterpart to the RS-11). The #7652 was one of only four RS-11s to be painted Conrail blue, and less than a year after this photo was taken, it was stricken from the roster and scrapped.

Taken on January of 1980, headed towards Conrail's fourth anniversary, and there is still a kaleidoscope of colors present. Included in the mix is a Conrail blue U30B, a patched Erie-Lackawanna GP35, a Penn Central black GP40, and a Conrail GP10 rebuild. The unit in Reading colors is actually not a Conrail unit, it's one of the GP39-2s that was financed for Reading by Chessie Systems, then taken by D&H on Conrail's formation, and is now being leased to Conrail by the D&H.

Back on home rails, a pair of ex-PRR SD45s cross the famed Rockville Bridge. The SD45s were the last motive power delivered to the PRR, although the last motive power ordered by PRR were C636s and U33Cs. Those were ordered so late that they were ultimately delivered to Penn Central. Sadly, no one had the foresight to save any of the PRR SD45s. They were sold to C&NW by Conrail and were ultimately scrapped decades ago. Today, drab black and white diesels still rumble across the Rockville Bridge, but now they are owned by Norfolk Southern.

A trio of GP30s, two ex-Reading and one ex-Penn Central, cross the Rockville Bridge. Built between 1900 and 1902, the Rockville Bridge remains the longest stone masonry arch viaduct ever built, at 3820ft long.

NickD said:

At least they fixed the tracks. 

An odd pair at work. A Conrail GP15-1 is helping an Alco S4 belonging to McCormack Sand, a large rail/barge/truck sand processing/transloading facility, to switch the facility. Conrail bought an even 100 of the EMD GP15-1, a 1500hp road switcher that was intended to replace older light duty power. The units are frequently misidentified as GP15Ts or "baby tunnel motors" due to the low-mounted radiators, giving them an appearance similar to an SD40T-2 or an SD45T-2, but they were nothing of the sort. There was eventually a GP15T, but again it was not a tunnel motor, it just used a turbocharged 567 V8 instead of the Roots-blown V12 on the GP15-1.

Painted in a one-of a-kind “Keep it Moving with Conrail” scheme, GE B23-7 #1980 leads eastbound train BUOI (Buffalo – Oak Island) across Oquaga Creek on the Southern Tier line. The train is descending Gulf Summit grade appraching Deposit, New York. The GE B23-7s, an update of the popular U23B, were some of the first new power purchased by Conrail, and they went all in, with 141 units rostered.

Conrail GP30s have cut off their train at Dover, NJ and are running back to Allentown under the old DL&W electrified commuter lines. They are passing by a set of the GE U34CHs that New Jersey Department of Transportation financed for the Erie-Lackawanna to replace the old E8s and keep commuter service running. After E-L was absorbed into Conrail, the U34CHs, a U36C with a head end power generator, reverted back to ownership by New Jersey and were put into service on the newly formed New Jersey Transit.

An odd conglomeration of power at Lehighton. The Conrail SW1500 and SD45 are kept company by a D&H Alco C420 and a Maine Central GP38. The D&H unit isn't too unusual, since the D&H had trackage rights over Conrail, but the Maine Central unit is definitely a stranger in a foreign land. That's the old abandoned Lehigh Valley roundhouse off to the left.

A former Erie-Lackawanna SDP45 leads a dimensional special, or an oversized load, out of "The Hole” at East Penn Junction. The recently rehabilitated connection from the Lehigh Valley main line to the Reading’s East Penn line has evolved from a little-used interchange to a vital link in one of Conrail’s busiest corridors for New York traffic. As a result of the LV and the RDG now being part of the same railroad, there was no need for interchange at Allentown yard, so many trains without Allentown blocks could bypass the yard on the LV main line. The quick drop in elevation from the Reading line to the LV main lead to crews calling the LV main “The Hole”, a moniker that persists to this day.

Conrail ended up with quite a few E-units after the merger, and most of them were gutted for their engines to refurbish old switchers or repower Alco RS-3s for the "Dewitt Geep" program, but three were set aside for use on their Office Car Special. Two were ex-PRR, #5711 and #5809, becoming CR #4020 and #4021, and those two were fairly solid mechanically and were given an electrical system upgrade (although not a Dash-2 conversion). They served as the primary power for Conrail OCSs. The third unit was ex-Erie/ex-Erie-Lackawanna #833, which was fairly solid but had tired engines. Conrail raided two of the ex-Reading EMD-repowered Baldwin switchers for their fresh V12s and put them in the #833, which became CR #4022, but did not perform any of the electrical upgrades to it. The #4022 mostly served as protection power for if either #4020 or #4021 suffered a failure, or if there was an instance where they needed the horsepower of all three. This photo of the #4022, out for a jaunt by itself on the CR Buffalo Line at Herndon, PA is thus a very rare sight. The Conrail blue was fairly short-lived on the executive E8s. It was found to get dirty too quickly, unacceptable for a train carrying the company officers around, and so they were repainted into Pullman green with dark gold lettering.

CR #4020 and #4021 in the later Pullman green and gold hustle through Port Kennedy. All three of the E8s still exist, all returned to their original identities. After the Conrail split in 1997, CSX ended up with all three of the E8s and promptly auctioned them off. They were bought up by Bennett Levin, who returned the #4020 and #4021 to their PRR colors and numbers and put them into service running special charter trains all over. They were parked several years ago due to lack of PTC and unfriendliness from Class Is for the charter trains. Levin also ended up with the #4022, but had little interest in it due to it's non-PRR heritage. His Juniata Terminal Company cleaned it up a little and sold it to a private owner, who returned it to its original Erie colors and numbers. Bennett Levi recalled being asked to look at it by NS crews at the 2014 Streamliners At Spencer event because it wouldn't load properly, and he was dismayed to find that all the work he had done to it had been undone and one of the engines was tagged out of service for internal water leaks. It ended up basically abandoned in Port Jervis after the New York & Greenwood Lake went out of business, and only recently was moved to SMS Rail Services and put up for sale on Ozark Mountain Railcar.

The Conrail OCS glides past the still-operating Bethlehem Steel complex on a chilly December morning in 1986. The lack of cars in the Bethlehem Steel yard are a grim indicator of what's to come.

A trio of GE B36-7s glide through Perdix, PA with a TrailVan train. The GE U36B had been a pretty terrible unit, known for how slippery it was due to being rated at 900hp per axle. There was a reason that Alco never offered a C436 and EMD's GP-series skipped from the GP40 to the GP50. But by the '80s, wheel slip control had improved, and GE rostered the Dash-7 successor to the U36B, the B36-7. The B36-7 proved to be pretty adept at handling high speed merchandise, and Conrail purchased 60 of them (Seaboard System purchased twice that amount!) to run on TrailVan piggyback trains and on their American Presidential container trains.

Someone incorrectly assigned three B36-7s to assist an old GP8 with a ballast train out of Enola.

A B36-7 leads some Geeps with an American Presidential Lines double-stack train on the Southern Tier Line.  Conrail had lost out on the Sea-Land container trains due to their arrogance, or ignorance, about Sea-Land's desire to use Little Ferry, NJ as the eastern terminus for its containers. Conrail wanted to cram their choice of terminals down Sea-Land's throat, but they failed to take into account the NYS&W haulage rights over Conrail trackage and D&H/Guilford trackage. As a result, Sea-Land told Conrail to take a hike and partnered up with NYS&W and CSX, so in return, Conrail inked a deal with American Presidential Lines.

Conrail Express was a very legitimate effort to treat Conrail's shortline partners as equals with Conrail for business matters involving equipment, service, and rates, and more. It was started not long before the arrangement with CSX to buy Conrail, which failed and then started the proxy fight between CSX and NS that ended up with the Conrail takeover in June 1999. Despite composing of twenty different shortlines, only two locomotives actually wore the Conrail Express livery. One was Maryland & Delaware Railroad #801, an SW900, and this unit is still kicking around in the Conrail Express livery, albeit somewhat worse for wear.

The only other was an ex-LV U23B that was on the Blue Mountain & Reading (now Reading & Northern). Yes, the all-EMD R&N rostered GE U23Bs in it's infancy. BM&R #2395 was painted in the Conrail Express livery, but it was very short-lived, since about a week after it was repainted to the new paint it was involved in a pretty terrific "hard coupling" incident that sent the #2395 to an early retirement. The crew had their train stall south of Port Clinton, so they uncoupled the pair of U23Bs, ran light to Port Clinton, grabbed some more power, then backed down to the train. They misjudged their speed and distance and hit the train hard enough to force the lead car up off the rails and onto the pilot of the #2395. And, yes, that is an ex-ATSF CF7 behind it. The BM&R/RBM&N/R&N also ran CF7s during their early years.

Speaking of mishaps on the R&N, last Saturday's Reading-Jim Thorpe fall foliage excursion was to be pulled by Reading #2102. It was a sold-out trip with excellent weather and the leaves in color, but unfortunately the #2102 developed mechanical troubles that caused it to be cut off at Port Clinton and replaced by the Fast Freight livery SD50s, #5018 and #5019, for the rest of the run to Jim Thorpe and back.

Kudos to the R&N crew though, as Andy Muller took to social media to explain that they would be offering discounts to all aboard, since the steam trips carry a premium over the diesel-powered trip. Pretty classy move, since the ticket sales do say that there are no guarantees that motive power won't be substituted for any reason at any time.

As for what happened with the #2102, it was announced that the firing table melted. The Standard HT-1 stoker auger feeds coal up into the firebox and deposits it on a plate with a number of vanes and steam jets. The jets can then be fired to blow coal off of the plate either forwards or to the right or left. The steam jets got plugged with dirt or debris, and so the coal piled up on the firing table and burned there, overheating the plate and exceeding it's metallurgical limits. Fortunately, R&N had spare firing tables manufactured ahead of time and have already swapped out the parts to have it ready for it's next trips.

Some pretty significant excitement on the local shortline  today. Eastern Idaho RR suffered a pretty severe derailment. Blocked one of the county roads completely.

In reply to Recon1342 :

Ooops

A schematic of the Standard HT stoker showing the firing table that failed on Reading #2102.