Conrail's Chicago line stretched from Selkirk, NY to Chicago, IL and was an extremely important double track main in which the majority of its traffic from the western roads reached the New England states and the East Coast. Included on this route were important terminal cities like Toledo and Cleveland, OH and Conrail's major classification yard in Elkhart, IN. This busy route saw anywhere from 50-60 trains a day including a lot of foreign power from western connections with Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe and their predecessors.
You can also view this gallery on an interactive map.
151
A pair of big Centuries are pulled out of the Rochester engine facility.
152
A pair of former Penn Central Alco's charge up Westinghouse Hill after crossing bridge 1 in Cleveland. C636 6783 and C630 6770 are westbound this April day in 1979.
153
Conrail SD50 6800 is seen leading a freight on the Chicago Line in upstate New York.
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Conrail SD50 6802 is seen leading a mixed freight on the Chicago Line in upstate New York
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Conrail SD50 6820 is seen leading a stack train on the Chicago Line in upstate New York.
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My research shows that this was an unusual combo. The RSD-15 was reengined with an EMD, and the slug was from an RSD-5. This set of 2 was given number 6849.
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6849 consisted of an EMD reengined RSD-15 and a converted RSD-5 slug. This is the converted RSD-5 slug.
158
Conrail SD60 6861 is seen leading a westbound freight past the old Syracuse Amtrak station.
161
The Buffalo - Rochester Turn was commonly used to get the Frontier Yard SD-38's some road time.
Here an SD-38 leads an SW-1500 & GP-35 into Goodman Street Yard. It was pretty normal for this train
to have 1 or 2 of the SD-38's on it.
162
CR 6972 and 6971 leads steel train WDGI-1 at LaPorte, IN on January 7, 1997. These two engines were the assigned power to this train, which ran steel coils to a local steel mill near Burns Harbor, IN.
163
Conrail SD40-2R 6993 is trailing on a westbound auto parts train as it leaves the west end of DeWitt Yard at Minoa, NY
170
5 units from 3 builders and 2 RRs power a train working Goodman Street yard. The GT unit was a leaser.
171
This eastbound Conrail freight with 8095 leading has diverged from the former PRR route at Lake Junction(now CP 505) and is now swinging onto the former New York Central alignment at Whiting, IN. June 1982. Conrail severed the PRR main line through East Chicago about 1980. After that date, all eastbound trains (except local moves to the Whiting refinery) diverged off of the PRR at Lake Jct and took the former NYC alignment through East Chicago. On the west side of Gary, at CP 501, the Broadway Limited (and any other train) could diverge from the Chicago Line and return to the PRR route at Clarke Jct. Doug Davidson photo with permission
173
Conrail GP38-2 No. 8114 leads a westbound freight past Porter Tower, in September 1981. This was PO tower back in New York Central days. Doug Davidson photo with permission
174
A view of the west end of our Operation Lifesaver train at the Amtrak station in Cleveland with the Great Lakes Science Center in the background. NS 5342 was CR 8181. It's on what's left of the ex NYC Lakefront Chicago Line, now just a single track. The Cleveland Line can just be seen in the foreground, and that's the Cleveland RTA under the wires.
175
Engineer Bob Stowers is at the throttle of Conrail 8198 as it pulls Conrail Local "CEICO" back towards Conrail's AY yard near mp 127.9 on track number one. Ashtabula, Ohio
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Conrail 8201 leads Westbound Conrail Local "CEICO" @ the CP 127.9 Signals on track#1, Ashtabula, Ohio
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There is no doubt about the heritage of this little unit that is switching the intermodal yard in Rochester.
179
The heritage of this SW-9 is obvious as it switches the intermodal terminal in Rochester.
180
The yard switcher is parked in front of some nice ex EL units at the West end of Goodman Street yard.
