Speaking of Early Conrail

[Green_Elite_Cab]

This two former RDG SW1500 are awaiting to become patched Conrail switchers 9614 (solid green) and 9618 (yellow green).

ps. They are both victims of miserable weathering attacks...

please accept this as constructive criticism!

Typically, Conrail did not paint out the entire logo. There was an unwritten rule that patchs were supposed to be done "attractively", although Reading road units in particular seemed to suffer from awful black patches on their long hoods.

In the case of Conrail 9618, The Reading company diamond was retained, but the "reading lines" lettering blacked over. a CR stencil was a applied.

Sometimes, the panel between the windows and the battery box was painted black as well with white conrail road numbers. On others, the paint was retained (such is the case for Conrail 9620, another former Reading yellow and green unit, with conrail road numbers applied directly to the cab sides). This unit remained in reading paint into the early 80s at least.

9614 was repainted blue very early into conrail, with some of the earlier photos being in July 1977 (Conrail started April 1976). Conrail 9614 was former Reading 2764, a yellow and green unit. However, Reading 2763 WAS an all green unit, becoming Conrail 9613. I don't have any data on when it was repainted, or how it was patched.