Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Conrail #4416, in Quality Blue and running long hood forward, is passed by a set of SEPTA Silverliner II EMUs at Darby, PA

Bob Van Sant caught this terrific night shot of two E-44s at CP Minnick in Frenchtown, Maryland, with both pantographs arcing. Taken in August of 1980, the E-44s, and electric freight operations on Conrail as a whole, had less than a year left.

NickD said:

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.

Or maybe the original Chessie logo was just TOO BIG!

Time runs out. Conrail #4457 and two sisters lead a freight train through Washington Boro in April of 1981. The final day of Conrail electrified freight operations? May 1st, 1981. 

The logistics and economy of the situation were stacked against them. By the time Conrail came to be, Amtrak owned the majority of the NEC and also owned the electrical distribution network on the former PRR lines. Amtrak didn't want Conrail freights mucking up their passenger train schedules and initiated surcharges on electricity and car movement, and Conrail responded by moving as much of its traffic as possible onto its other lines that paralleled the electrified routes

Another factor was that Conrail decided on LV’s Oak Island Yard in North Jersey as its principal yard in the NY area. This was easily reached from LV, but not from PRR, diminishing the usefulness of electric freight hauling. Conrail also decided to use RDG and LV between Harrisburg and the NY area (Oak Island) via Allentown. Interchange from PRR to RDG in Harrisburg was easy and RDG to LV at Allentown was even easier since LV had inherited Allentown Yard when CNJ withdrew from Pennsylvania.

The E-44s had a rather unsuccessful career after retirement by Conrail. GE tried to interest Conrail in an upgrade program that would rebuild them with modern guts and uprate them to 6000hp, but it didn't change the fact that electric operations weren't feasible for Conrail. Conrail began scrapping the majority of them, but New Jersey Transit decided to buy several from Conrail. NJT had some harebrained idea that they were going to use them in commuter service, despite the fact that they were only geared for 70mph, lacked any sort of HEP or steam heat provisions, and had Tri-Mount trucks that were brutal on rail at higher speeds. They took ownership of them, applied NJT reporting marks, and then never once used them, after realizing that on top of all the other issues, they were worn out and they had clearance issues with some of the tunnels that NJT operated through. After sitting for a few years, NJT traded them off to Amtrak for E60CHs, with Amtrak wanting to use them for switching and MoW purposes, as well as potentially to handle express and mail traffic. While they saw some use on Amtrak, it was very little, mostly for the same clearance reasons and equipment that NJT had, as well as the fact that the Tri-Mount trucks didn't handle switches and sidings particularly well and Amtrak had removed a lot of catenary over repair facilities and sidings already. They sat around at Wilmington, DE for a number of years, until Amtrak became aware of the fact that the transformers, which were chock full of nasty polychlorinated biphenyl-based coolants, were starting to leak. The old PRR Paoli Yard, where the MP54 EMUs had been serviced was in the news around the same time due to PCB ground contamination and former employees at Paoli Yard developing numerous health concerns, and Amtrak decided the E-44s had to go. One, the final one built, was saved for the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, but the remainder all had their transformers drained and were scrapped.

Are E44s all electric versions of H44s?  I've always thought they were unique looking (very boxy).

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

By H44, do you mean like the Fairbanks Morse H-16-44 or H-15-44 or the Baldwin DRS-4-4-1500? In either case, no. The E-44s were an entirely GE design. There was some relation to the earlier Virginian EL-C/New Haven EF-4/Penn Central E-33, basically one of those but scaled up and with 4400hp instead of 3300hp.

There was some excitement on the Friends of the Reading & Northern Facebook group yesterday. Via the Port Clinton live cam, folks spotted the two ex-Southern Railroad of New Jersey (originally Bessemer & Lake Erie) F7As in front of the shops. R&N bought those two F7s, one in NYO&W paint and the other in a Rock Island-inspired livery, along with the SRNJ's RDC back in 2017 and moved them to Port Clinton. This was before they bought the ex-NS executive F9 A-B (sometimes referred to as F38-2s) set in 2019, and the plan was to overhaul the two and make them into basically what the NS units were. They were in pretty rough shape, I don't think they'd run since before 2010, and they never quite got around to working them. When the NS units came up for sale two years later, it just made sense to grab them, and the two F7As, numbered to R&N #250 and #251, have sat out behind the Port Clinton shops rusting away. I've seen them a couple times on my trips over the R&N, and they're pretty bedraggled looking.

The R&N has been kind of hampered by only having an A-B set of F-units. They can handle the Reading-Jim Thorpe runs, because there's a wye at Port Clinton, but elsewhere they lack places to turn them, so they can't run some of the charter trips up the various branches or stuff like that, like they can with the RDCs or a road switcher and passenger cars. So, fixing up one of the A-units to run an A-A set or A-B-A set would be really useful.

That being said, there are disputes on what the future for them is. Some are saying that the plan is to assess them and work on the better of the two. Another guy said he heard that the plan is to strip the trucks, traction motors, and generators to use as spares, and swap the dynamic braking gear over to the F9s/F38-2s, since they lack that feature. It'd be neat to see them have an A-B-A or A-A set, but looking at those photos, those bodies have some serious rust issues (look at the Rock Island-painted unit, at the sill over the fuel tank), and an F-unit is monocoque construction.

R&N #3068, the most recently painted SD40-2, also made an appearance down to Port Clinton and everyone was oohing and aahing over the paint.

In reply to NickD :

Yes similar look to the H16-44.

Conrail also had the GE E-33s, which somewhat resembled a high-nose U25C. Those things got kicked around quite a bit between owners. Virginian Railway purchased telve of them in '55 to replace the old EL-1a jackshaft-driven boxcabs, and they were the first mercury-arc rectifier electric locomotives in mass production. Virginian, which called them an EL-C, had them set up so that there was a bus bar on the ends of the units that made connection when they were coupled together, so that you could run two of them off of one pantograph, which cut down on wear on both the pantograph shoes and the catenary wire. Virginian was bought out by N&W in '59, and N&W took down the wire in '61. They tried converting one EL-C into a road slug, but that wasn't a success, so the EL-Cs went up for sale in '63. New Haven, under the (mis)management of Patrick McGinnis, had shortsightedly put all their big freight and passenger electric motors out to pasture and was trying to make do with the dual-mode FL9s and the troublesome EP-5 "Jets", but when N&W put the EL-Cs up for sale at a steal of a price, the New Haven trustees jumped on them and grabbed them up, including the unit converted to a road slug to use as a parts source. They were painted in snappy New Haven orange, white and black, renamed to EF-4s, and put into service. As you can see here, New Haven kept the bus bar system (lead unit doesn't have it's pantograph up, and you the bar is the little rectangular thing sticking up above the headlight). Then in 1969, New Haven was crammed into Penn Central by the ICC, and the EL-Cs/EF-4s gained a new name of E-33s, following the old PRR naming system. For some reason I cannot find, Penn Central removed the bus bar system and operated them with the pantographs on each unit in service. I wonder if they were concerned about dead spots in the electrification from the degraded condition of the infrastructure and felt it was safer to just have each unit drawing it's own power. After 7 years of Penn Central limping along, Conrail was formed, and the units were moved onto the Conrail roster, renumbered again, but retained the E-33 nomenclature. Several of them were repainted to Conrail blue, but not all of them, before Conrail ended electric operations again. Most of them were scrapped, but two were preserved, one at Roanoke in Virginian colors, and the other went to Railroad Museum of New England only to be sold to IRM, where it awaits restoration.

New Haven EF-4s pass by a New Haven 4400-series "washboard" EMU at Stamford, Connecticut. The "washboards", so nicknamed for the ribbed stainless steel shells, were some of the newer MU cars bought by New Haven, but some of the earliest retired. One big problem was that they had issues with popping rectifiers and they rode really rough, but the big issue was that they developed "Budd Syndrome" fairly early on in their life. While the outer shell was stainless-steel, the interior structure was carbon steel, and they developed water leaks through the skin that rotted out the inner structure. NH mostly used the 4400s as reserve cars, since they were so disliked by passengers, and really didn't pay attention to how they were stored, until they went to pull them out of storage and discovered that they were coming apart under the skin.

New Haven EF-4s congregate at Oak Point Yard in New York, along with a lot of other New Haven power. There's FL9s to the left, an SW1200, an Alco S-1 and an Alco S-2. There's also an old steam locomotive tender in the background, painted orange and paired up with what looks like a wreck train. It was possibly being used with a steam derrick, or just as a water canteen.

New Haven #305 and #309 get underway with a freight train out of New Haven, CT in 1964. Looking at the shiny new paint and motive power, one would never expect that the railroad was in deep financial trouble.  On the left, in the background, there is an EP-5 "Jet", then two separate sets of FL9s, and then just visible behind the freight train, at the platform, is another EP-5 "Jet".

Two E-33s, already renumbered and painted and having had the bus bar system removed, make their wait out of Enola Yard with a Penn Central freight on January 9th, 1970.

Two E-33s hustle a southbound freight through Elizabeth, NJ. I don't believe the E-33s were set up with dual control stands like the E-44s were

A pair of E33's have just entered the Northeast Corridor at Lane Tower and are now passing the platforms at North Elizabeth, NJ

Two Penn Central E-33s make the the climb out of the Susquehanna Valley, heading east to Parkersburg and beyond on the Altgen & Susquehanna Branch. Too bad I can't make out what is on the autoracks behind the power.

A Conrail-painted E-33 exits Wildcat Tunnel in Fulton Township, PA on the Port Road. By this time, in their relatively short lives, the E-33s were on their fifth owner. (Virginian, N&W, New Haven, Penn Central, Conrail)

E-33 #4608 exits Frazier Tunnel in Conowingo, Maryland, just 1/10th of a mile short of the Mason-Dixon Line on the Port Road.

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The engineer of an eastbound E33-powered freight grabs orders from the operator at COLA Tower (COLumbiA, PA). The #4604 is one of two preserved E-33s, back in it's original Virginian Railway paint and numbers at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, VA.

Conrail #4608 rolls across the lower level of the fascinating dual-level bridge at Safe Harbor. The upper level, the Altgen & Susquehanna Branch, is now abandoned and converted to a hiking trail, while the lower level remains, operated by Norfolk Southern but no longer electrified and operated entirely at night.

A string of dead E-33s sit at the western end of the electrified line in Harrisburg, PA, after the end of electrified services. Look closely and that unit that is second from the end appears to be one of the EMD-ASEA experimental electric freight motors, either the GM10B or the GM6C.

NickD said:

Two Penn Central E-33s make the the climb out of the Susquehanna Valley, heading east to Parkersburg and beyond on the Altgen & Susquehanna Branch. Too bad I can't make out what is on the autoracks behind the power.

The white ones look like vans to me. I'm thinking Dodge, or possibly Chevy. I can't make out the cars further back though. 

 Essex steam train, CT. Rolling real coal.