Thank you for finding more Espee bloody nose SDs! I really like these and the bloody nose GPs. I'm a big fan of the high cab EMDs. I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they remind me of being younger. I'd love photos of them operating in TX especially from San Antonio up into Dallas via Hearne, Flatonia and Ennis.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
They also looked terrific in the Black Widow livery, although that wasn't terribly long-lived. The SD9s were bought between '54 and '56, and the Bloody Nose livery started rolling out in '58. The big problem with the Black Widow livery was it was expensive and time-consuming to apply, with four different colors (black, orange, silver and white) and the much more complex shapes on the ends.
CSX has unveiled their fourth heritage unit, CSX #1976, which pays tribute to Big Blue, the Consolidated Rail Corporation. Unlike Norfolk Southern, who used the original Conrail livery with the "broken wheel" logo, CSX has decided to use the late Conrail Quality livery.
Also, the nose of that unit just peeking out of the paint booth behind it is reported to soon to be CSX #1850, the Louisville & Nashville heritage unit.
CSX #1973 is still my favorite so far. Although I do understand the criticism that the Chessie System logo on the side is oddly small.
I've also seen some golden memes picking on the people who feel the need to tell you that the CSX heritage units are ugly and you shouldn't like them
CSX #1973 passing by the famed ex-B&O station at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
A better side view of CSX #1976
And NS's Conrail heritage unit, #8098, in the full original livery. I believe this makes Conrail the first Class I railroad to be represented by a heritage unit on two separate Class I railroads.
GE E44 "bricks" in fresh Conrail blue roll through Conowingo, Maryland on the Port Road, which was originally the Columbia & Port Deposit Railroad, running from Columbia, PA to Port Deposit, Maryland.
Three E44s, one in Conrail blue and the other two still in Penn Central black, lead a manifest freight around the curve along River Road in Washington Boro, Pennsylvania. The date is sometime in April of 1981. The final day of Conrail electric freight? May 1st, 1981
Conrail E-44 #4456 leads a piggyback train at Fort Washington, PA on the Trenton Cut Off, a 48-mile line built by the PRR to allow trains between North Jersey and Harrisburg to bypass Philadelphia.
Two E-44s lead a northbound TrailVan piggyback train through Iselin, NJ on the Northeast Corridor. The E-44 "bricks" handled the majority of Conrail's electric freight-hauling operations, since there was 66 of them, and they were all fairly new. The E-33s, on their fourth owner by the time Conrail took over, were only a couple years older and were pretty good machines, but there was only 12 of them. The GG1 fleet had been split between Amtrak and Conrail, and by that point they were pretty long in the tooth. Conrail tended to assign two GG1s to a train because they didn't trust that a single one could get it over the road and not get stranded somewhere. And the E-40s, well, they barely ever ran after Conrail took ownership and were scrapped just one year in. Really complicating things was that none of the three classes that saw widespread use on Conrail could be M.U.ed to each other.
Conrail E-44 #4451 and a mate scream out of Williams Tunnel on the Port Road, with the engineer giving photographer Bob Van Sant a friendly wave. The Port Road was an unusual operation, with electrified locomotives running along the east bank of the Susquehanna River, a number of unlined tunnels that were just holes blown in the mountainside, and the bizarre dual-level trestle at Safe Harbor, PA. This line still exists, but the catenary is gone, and Norfolk Southern freight moves on it are entirely at night.
One Penn Central black E-44 and a Quality Blue sister, exit Wildcat Point Tunnel on the Port Road with a freight train in the fall of '78.
Conrail #4414 and a Penn Central black partner race through Trenton, NJ, running long hood forward. The E-44s were ordered by Pennsylvania Railroad with dual control stands, since there were far less turning facilities for electric locomotives.
Grungy E-44s with Conrail lettering patches rattle along the eastern end of the Port Road, at Perryville, MD, where there was also a connection to the Northeast Corridor.
Traffic on E. Bel Air Ave in Aberdeen, Maryland waits as two patched E-44s roar through at 50mph with freight headed to Baltimore.
In what I am certain has to be some sort of hospital move, two E-44s lead two GG1s and then another E-44. The third E-44 is definitely offline, because the pantograph is down, but I have to imagine that the two GG1s are also not online. Reports of that era said that two GG1s or three E-44s was all the infrastructure and generating capacity could really handle.
One year into Conrail, and three E-44s hammer through Washington Boro, PA with a westbound mineral train
Conrail #4429 and two other E-44s head out onto the lower level of the unique Safe Harbor dual-level trestle.
The 295-foot long lower level bridge, comprised of three riveted deck plate girders, was built during the Pennsylvania Railroad's glory days under President Alexander J. Cassatt, replacing the original 1904 flood-destroyed six-arch stone bridge of the Columbia & Port Deposit Branch (C&PD.) The new lower level bridge was originally designed to be 55 feet above the 1905 river level. The new upper level line, 96 feet to the east, and then 92 feet above the C&PD, was known as the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch, (A&S, or a.k.a. "The Low Grade") opening in July, 1906, a month earlier than the flood-damaged lower level. The spectacular double-tracked upper level bridge was the last project for the PRR's chief engineer, William H. Brown, before his retirement. It consists of a center 300-foot pin-connected Pratt deck truss, with plate-girder viaducts on steel bents at each end; nine spans totaling 480 feet at the (RR) west end, and seventeen curving spans totaling 780 feet on the (RR) east end. The high stone piers supporting the 300-foot center truss are integral with the lower level supports, making this truly "two bridges in one." The Pennsylvania Steel Co. of Steelton, PA fabricated the steel work, which was erected by contractor H. S. Kerbaugh, Inc., during 1905. Construction of the Safe Harbor Dam in 1930-31 compelled the PRR to raise the grade of the C&PD by four feet in this area, hiring the Belmont Iron Works to do the job on the lower level bridge. Electrification of both lines followed shortly thereafter, in 1937-38. The upper level "Enola Low Grade" was eventually single-tracked in the late 80s and finally abandoned by Conrail in 1990 in favor of its Lebanon Valley Line, and survives today as a rail-trail to the east and west of the high bridge. There's some talk of reopening the high bridge to hikers and bikers, but there are no concrete plans in the works. Daytime traffic today on the lower level is practically nil, as a result of the notorious Chase, Maryland wreck of 1987 involving three Conrail light engines and an Amtrak passenger train. The last electrically-powered train on the C&PD may have been the "Farewell to the GG-1" excursion operated by the Lancaster Chapter NRHS in June, 1981. All trolley wires on both levels were removed by Conrail sometime in the mid-80s."
Three E-44s make the climb up the short, steep ramp track from the Port Road to the Enola Branch at Washington Boro, PA. Pretty interesting in the foreground is the No. 1 Track with jointed rail on one side and welded on the other, as Conrail was in the midst of rebuilding the Enola Branch after years of neglect under Penn Central.
Conrail #4460 kicks up a cloud of dust as it blasts pass CP PORT interlocking in Washington Boro.
A month later and #4460, with the nose door open to provide air conditioning, parts the weeds at Cola Tower in Columbia, PA
A pair of E-44s, again with two GG1s in tow, pick their way through the weeds on the Columbia Branch. The pantographs are up on the GG1s, but trying to run two E-44s and two GG1s would have tripped the breakers at any of the substations.
Conrail #4448 passes a diesel-powered freight as they cross over Swatara Creek in Middletown, PA. Check out that mint DT&I boxcar.
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