Weekly Photo Fun 3/28 - 4/4/14

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Okay GEC your last photo appears to be a ex Conrail now CSX. That reminded me of a locomotive that I painted a few years ago. I live in PRR/CONRAIL country. So for my open house i did this

Technically speaking... the locomotive is owned by NS, but both the NS and CSX locomotives are being operated by "Conrail Shared Assets Operations". It actually is still technically Conrail... just not so big anymore. Conrail is now half owned NS/CSX, operating in southern New Jersey/Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, and Detroit.

A friend of mine gave me a detailed book published by the railroads for exactly how the split would work, down to how many locomotives of what type would be stationed where. It was basically a game plan for the transition.

Apparently, this was done to avoid monopolies. Lately though, I've been seeing nothing but Norfolk Southern. I haven't seen any CSX locomotives in a while, but they used to be fairly common.

WHAT!!! Les, I was expecting some Conrail steam.

Wayne

Atleast I posted some Steam-Era electrics!

To be fair though, while no steam locomotives survived to wear Conrail reporting marks, there actually were quite a few steam engine tenders on the Conrail roster modified to fulfill secondary roles. One was an ex-CNJ firefighter car, useful in the fire-prone Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

This one is used to carry water for a steam-powered wreck crane, Now imagine it normal Conrail Blue and White!



Reportedly, that steam engine tender was normally paired with crane 50089