Roger has been shooting Conrail action since the beginning in his home area of Ohio. These superb photos come from Roger's extensive collection.Â
A busy morning at the South St TBS as the op has just handed the 19's to a southbound(westbound) Conrail train headed up by former Erie Lackawanna SDP45 #3636. Holding a little west of the crossovers is CR 7991 on OM-8, and over on the ex EL an eastbound waits with Penn Central F7A 1773, RDG C430 5211, and a PC GP-9. Conrail is only a month old and a lot of the inherited power has been scattered to every corner of the railroad.
Ordered with dual control stands, the former EL SDP45's could be ran long hood lead as witnessed by CR 6669, the ex EL 3638 leading "hammerhead" style through Akron, Ohio in October 1977.
A westbound coke train drifts down Wooster Hill near Wooster, Ohio in July 1979. Still in it's (rough) EL red/white/blue scheme, it would receive a coat of dress blue. Of interest is the trailing unit, CR 6688, the former EL SDP-45 #3657 that has a wreck replaced long hood.
Since today is the 4th, I'll toss this on the site. Both of these Erie Lackawanna RW&B units would become property of Conrail in a few months and get new numbers, 6669 and 6097, and run in this paint for a couple of years before dress blue was applied. The 3632/6097 survives today as the engine test bed at Altoona (ex CR Q1). In this photo 2nd NY100 cools it's wheels at JO in Akron for a Chessie to cross over in front of them. You can tell JO was a PC/Chessie controlled tower, as anyone in an EL tower that stopped this train would probably be unemployed after doing so!
I seemed to run across this unit a lot, which is OK in my book. A pair of ex EL SDP45's have pulled up to a stop in Walbridge, Ohio to wait on C&O traffic. The sun was right on the horizon, and I'm fighting shadows, but the lowest of low light sure brings out the under frame detail.
A former EL SDP-45 gets a little help from a PC F7A and a PC FP7A as it waits for railroad west on the ex EL at Voris St in Akron, Ohio.
A former EL unit on home rails, CR 6675, the ex EL 3644, leads an eastbound through Akron, Ohio.
Units from the Erie Lackawanna and PRR pass at Center St in Youngstown, Ohio in Nov 1979. It's an all blue scene, as both the SDP and the Alco C425 pair- as well as all the cabin cars- have received a new coat of Conrail blue. The 6687 has just arrived from Ashtabula and the Alco's are on a local out of Brier Hill. The caboose line up is ex DL&W, DL&W, PRR, and Erie.
Running out it's last two months as an EL unit, SDP-45 3668 would become Conrail's highest numbered SDP as the 6699. Shown on a cold February 1976 day in Akron, note the pup getting dusted off to the left. It's in the clear for this e/b on the ACY transfer. All track is gone now, and it's hard to tell a railroad even ran in this spot.
A trio of Conrail Centuries, 2 Lehigh Valley units and 1 Reading, wait for the engine maintainer to show up and fix yet another problem. All 3 of these units were in storage at Conrail's startup, and all were showing the effects of sitting around for a time. The train was a "Creston Turn" ore empty from Youngstown to the N&W interchange at Creston, Ohio. LV 629 would become CR 6725.
A Lehigh Valley/Penn Central pair team up on southbound tonnage through Barberton, Ohio on former PC/Chessie track. That's the Akron Barberton Belt line off to the left and the CR/ABB interchange in the distance at BN.
Heading to her funeral dressed in Cornell Red, ex Lehigh Valley C628 #629 has passes through the Collinwood shops- the chalk date on the frame is 08-01-1979 - and is ready for her final "run" to the scrapper, a sad end to a colorful career. An unidentified sister seen in the background will join her as the Alco era on Conrail continues drawing to a close this August 1979 day.
Looking more like the Sayre deadline than Collinwood, 3 former Lehigh Valley Alco C628's have reached the end of the line and are stored. CR 6727, 6731, and 6735, ex LV 631, 635, and 641, form this sad Cornell Red reunion. All will be scrapped.
A former Lehigh Valley Alco C628 has some former Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna units for company under the ex EL fuel and sand service area at the Brier Hill yard in Youngstown, Ohio.
What a circle of power this day around the Conway turntable. Lehigh Valley and Reading Lines centuries rub elbows with a variety of Penn Central units. Conrail is only 2 months old and the control cab for the turntable is still sporting it's "PC" logo. LV C-628 #640 would eventually get a coat of blue.
Eastbound grain has Penn Central Alco C628 # 6302 and Reading Lines C630's 5301 and 5305 for power at Collinwood on a muggy August 1976 day. PC 6302 would become CR 6740, the two RDG's would become 6754 and 6758.
In a typical early Conrail scene, a westbound out of Conway has stalled going up the hill towards Wood tower, and why? Maybe that crew member looking inside that dead Lehigh Valley C628 is a good clue. It's a nice June 1976 day in New Brighton,Pa.
Penn Central C-628 would become Conrail 6749 , but by September 1978 it would reside in the Collinwood deadline.
Back in the days when we could do such things I would walk through the Collinwood deadlines and shoot anything that was sitting out. Their days of hauling ore over for good, these ex Penn Central Alco C628's wait out their final days, cast off's no longer needed due to new power on the property and a decline in business. While many units in those deadlines came up missing parts to keep others running, the 6750 (ex PC 6312) was intact.
A pair of former Reading Alco C630's and one ex PC geep are power for this hopper train. A little grainy due to being scanned from a print negative.
Reading Lines C630 5307 has seen better days. It's the summer of '77, and this unit would be deemed unfit for service or fixing and placed in the Collinwood deadine. Assigned Conrail number 6760, she would never physically be renumbered and go to scrap with her Reading Lines diamonds a couple of years later. On a sad note, everything railroad in this photo is gone- units, shop, and tracks.
Conrail Alco C630 #6771 resides in the Collinwood deadline showing the results of being involved in a wreck. Here is a shot of the other side :
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=236176&nseq=2
CR 6771 was Penn Central 6321.
A set of 4 units, Alco C630 6773, C628 6749, a U33C, and SD45-2 6666 back down the north to Whiskey Island to tie on to their train. Bridge 1 and drawbridge tower are behind the power, and that's the B&O curving away to the right behind DB. 6773 came to Conrail as Penn Central 6323.
Alco C630 6776, the former Penn Central 6326, leads two unrenumbered Lehigh Valley C628's and a BAR GP-7 through Brady Lake,Ohio in November 1976 with an empty coal train. In true early CR form, one of the LV Centuries has died leaving Cleveland.
Four big Alco Centuries, 2 C630's and 2 C628's, pull out of Collinwood for Whiskey Island. CR 6777 was PC 6327 prior to April 1976.
Former Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna units team up for ore train service at Cleveland, Ohio August 1978. CR 6781 is ex PC C636 6331 and CR SD45-2 6666 is ex EL 3681.
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.
A westbound has pulled into the former EL yard in Kent, Ohio on a cold but sunny Feb 1979 day. Units 6792, 8151, and 7744 would spend most of the day here waiting on a rested crew. Big Alco C636 6792 has less than a year to go as an operating engine on Conrail, but she looks good this day in clean blue.
A nice variety of former Penn Central units are at Camden, N.J. this November 1976 day. Alco RSD-15's 6812 and 6816 are switching, the first number and last number of the 5 total on the roster. Also seen are an SW-7, SW-1, and a pair of E44's. The two RSD's would become MT-6's 1125 (6812) and 1126 (6816) and go through multiple re-numberings under NS, 1125 to NS 1114, then 985, then eventually to RPU6 851. CR 1126 became NS 1115, 985, then RPU6 857.
Conrail slug 6849 resides in the Collinwood deadline this November 1979 day. It's 1/2 of a 2 unit set in which both the mother and slug had the same number. The mother was a former RSD-15 with an EMD engine in it, and the slug was kitbashed from an RSD-5 and RS-1. It would be Conrail's first slug. They were numbered 9949 on the Penn Central, and were renumbered 6899 just prior to scrapping in 1980.
Conrail got to rub elbows with some pretty interesting railroads during it's life span, and the Chessie System was one of them. Here Conrail train MECI waits to go west on the former EL while a Chessie eastbound with Western Maryland GP-9 6401 passes on the joint CR/B&O Warwick to Akron line. CR U33C 6872 is a former Erie Lackawanna unit on home rails, but that WM chop nose geep is far from the WM. Today CSX still uses the tracks the Chessie train is on, the EL is long gone.
