Our Conrail wayback machine has taken us to Orrville just in time to witness the passage of an eastbound on the Fort Wayne Line as it passes beneath the Wheeling & Lake Erie bridge. On the point is SD60M No. 5507. The image was made on May 25, 1996.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
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
Here are three trains passing through Berea on April 16, 2005. Although that was a Saturday, it was not an Akron Railroad Club Dave McKay Day, which was traditionally held on the first Saturday in April. In fact the first McKay Day was held two weeks before these images were made and it was snowing heavily that day. Note that in 2005 former Conrail locomotives in their original livery were still roaming Norfolk Southern.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Conrail SD40-2 No. 6470 leads an eastbound trailer train through Mace in Massillon in May 1979. The 6470 was built by EMD for Conrail in 1978. The trailing unit appears to be a GP40 still in Penn Central black with minimal Conrail markings.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
I shot a newly painted Conrail GP10 Monday morning in Cleveland. Well, actually, it is a former Illinois Central Geep painted to look like a Conrail engine.
It was painted at the West Third Street roundhouse of the Midwest Preservation Society and will go to the Cincinnati Scenic Railway.
That group operates dinner trains, excursion trains and the Ohio Rail Experience.
Photographs by Todd Dillon
How is this for an early Conrail era scene? GP9 No. 7074 still wearing Penn Central paint leads another GP9 that has received Conrail blue near Voris Street in early 1979. Note the former Pennsylvania Railroad cabin car in the consist.
Photograph 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
The Cincinnati Scenic Railway has repainted an EMD GP10 into a Conrail livery and plans to use the unit in tourist train revenue service starting in August.
The locomotive was built as a GP9 for the Illinois Central before being rebuilt in 1974 as a GP10 by Illinois Central Gulf.
The unit then was sold to the Paducah & Louisville. It later wound up at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum in Nashville.
CSR President Ray Kammer Jr. said his company acquired the 9037 from the Tennessee museum.
Mechanical work on the unit was done by Silcott Railway Equipment of Worthington, Ohio, and included a new main generator, new injectors, traction motor work, and minor running repairs.
The unit was painted in Cleveland by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.
In the restoration process the GP10 received roster number 7644, a number never used by Conrail for its fleet of 75 GP10 locomotives.
“Even though the locomotive itself is not historic to the Cincinnati area, the paint scheme was chosen because it represents a scene that was common in the region during the 1980s,” Kammer told Trains magazine.
The 7544 differs from Conrail’s low-hood units with its nose-mounted headlight, which was not a feature of the Conrail units.
CSR operates 12-mile round-trip tourist trains over the Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad and also operates the Ohio Rail Experience.
Conrail GP38-2 No. 8089 and its caboose are en route to their next assignment in Canton in May 1985. The unit was built for Penn Central in February 1973 and would later go to work for Norfolk Southern.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
We’re feeling blue today so let the wayback machine take us to a time and place where blue locomotives were common. CR GE C39-8 No. 6006 is eastbound in Ravenna in July 1986. This unit would later be on the Norfolk Southern locomotive roster.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
