How about a Conrail two for Tuesday. Yeah, we thought you would like that.
In the top image, B36-7 No. 5040 leads an eastbound on the Fort Wayne Line in Alliance on Jan. 17, 1987. The train is crossing the Cleveland Line. Visible to the right is the double-track connection from the Cleveland Line to the Fort Wayne Line.
In the bottom image CR GP40-2 No. 3328 leads an eastbound in Alliance on Aug. 14, 1984.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Conrail 8865 and 9095 are back-to-back in Alliance on Aug. 19, 1986. No. 8865 is an SW7 while the 9095 is an SW9. They are sitting in the yard adjacent to the Fort Wayne Line where it crosses and connects with the Cleveland Line.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It’s July 1972 in Alliance. The fireman of Penn Central Alco C628 No. 6314 is giving a friendly wave as the train enters the Bayard Branch on its way to Conway Yard near Pittsburgh. Also in the motive power consist are PC 6314, 6300, and 6317. The track under the rear trucks of No. 6314 is the Fort Wayne Line to Canton and Chicago.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Somehow it got by all of us that this month marks the 45th anniversary of the Consolidated Rail Corporation beginning operations.
So to mark the occasion we set the wayback machine dial to the Conrail era.
It’s Aug. 15, 1984, in Alliance. SD50 No. 6742 is leading a train toward Pittsburgh via the Cleveland Line line through Bayard, Ohio.
Nearby is a set of helper locomotives sitting in the yard, GP38-2 Nos. 8132 and CR 8126.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Conrail was more than three years old when this image of an eastbound was made in Alliance. But note that the third and fourth locomotives in the power consist still wear Penn Central markings and colors.
Conrail SD40-2 No. 6405 was built in September 1977 and would later become CSX 8819.
It is July 6, 1972 in Alliance. Four Penn Central locomotives are working westbound with what looks like empty hoppers. The clouds helped make the lighting better for this photo. There is much about this image that says early 1970s including the vehicles at track side, the freight cars in the yard and the condition of the tracks.
I enjoyed the few years that Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian ran through Ohio in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
I rode from Cleveland at least twice with family members to Harrisburg and return.
I also rode to Altoona, twice to Pittsburgh and several times just to Alliance. When I wasn’t riding I would be trackside to photograph, make video or just watch.
Here are some of my favorite trackside images of the Pennsylvanian in Ohio.
In the top image, the westbound train is arriving in Alliance where a group of us will board to return to Cleveland during an Akron Railroad Club outing on May 16, 1999.
Next up is a westbound at Hines Hill Road in Hudson on July 25, 1999, followed by the eastbound passing the former Pennsylvania Railroad station in Sebring on Sept. 9, 2001.
In the final image of the sequence, Marty Surdyk introduced me to the Garfield sag after we caught the Pennsylvanian in Sebring on Sept. 9.
Penn Central GP40 No. 3234 leads an eastbound train on the Fort Wayne Line in Alliance on Feb. 18, 1973. It’s a nice period piece of what the former Pennsylvania Railroad infrastructure once looked like here at this busy PRR junction. It can still at times be a busy place under Norfolk Southern ownership, but the scene is much changed.
Its another Conrail two for Tuesday with images from Orrville (top) and Alliance. Both locomotive shown are GP38-2 models.
In Orrville on June 26, 1996, No. 8226 works on the Fort Wayne Line. The unit was built in September 1978.
No. 8226 is shown working eastbound on the Fort Wayne Line in Alliance in October 1988.
The unit was built for Penn Central in March 1973. Both units were later conveyed to CSX.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
When I first looked at this image of a westbound Conrail manifest freight in Alliance with a pair of SD80MACs on the point I thought it might have been made at an Akron Railroad Club outing.
In part I thought that because there is a guy standing next the second pole from the left who looks like Don Woods.
Photographer Bob Farkas said the image was made in 1998 but in looking through that year’s issues of the ARRC Bulletin I found no mention of the club having an outing in Alliance that year.
The club did go to Alliance on April 27, 1997. Could that image have been from that outing?
The report on the 1997 outing mentioned seeing westbound PIIN (Pittsburgh to Indianapolis) taking the Fort Wayne Line west as shown above.
That train had a pair of SD80MACs. But taking yet another look at this image convinced me it was not from the 1997 ARRC Alliance outing.
This image shows mostly sunny skies. The 1997 outing occurred under cloudy skies with rain in the afternoon. The only direct sunlight that day came at sunrise.
The ARRC did pay tribute to Conrail in 1998 during its annual July picnic, which was held at the former New York Central station in Olmsted Falls next to the Chicago Line.
After it got dark, picnic attendees enjoyed a member’s night slide show saluting Conrail. Marty Surdyk presented a Conrail quiz that was won by Dave Mangold who correctly answered all 12 questions.
