You can’t tell from this angle but that is a former Pennsylvania Railroad FP7 sitting at the locomotive service rack at Collinwood Yard in Cleveland in either 1968 or 1969. That would make it a Penn Central locomotive although not but too long.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Penn Central GP7 No. 5673 is sitting just geographically northeast of the former Pennsylvania Railroad yard in Akron on Jan. 14, 1973. The long-removed walk bridge installed to make it easy for Firestone Tire employees to get to the streetcars and buses on the other side of the tracks is visible in this photo.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Penn Central Alco C628 No. 6301 is in Canton on a cold day somewhere between 1968 and 1972. This motive power consist also has an EMD SD45 and another C628. The 6301 was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in March 1965 as the 6301. It also carried that roster number during its brief time working for Conrail where it never patched with CR markings.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
The Conrail Historical Society moved last weekend a 86-foot-long boxcar that is slated to be the next home of the society’s museum and archive.
A local moving company helped move car 243880 within Pennsylvania from Chambersburg to Shippensburg.
The car was built for Penn Central and acquired from CSX, which had used it to move auto parts.
Located next to the Cumberland Valley Railroad Museum, creating of the museum and archive in the boxcar is expected to cost $134,000 of which $100,00 will be covered by a grant from the Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau.
The CVRM is located within a former PC boxcar adjacent to the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail.
The Conrail society plans to restore its boxcar to a Conrail scheme and give it insulation, heating and air conditioning.
Officials said there is no timeline for the museum’s opening.
Mail 9 was an intermodal train that ran well into the Conrail era under that symbol. But the history of the train dates to at least the Penn Central era.
In the top photo PC 4294, 4025, 4024, 4022, and 2287 are on the point of westbound Mail 9 in Canton in later 1972.
In the bottom photo, PC 4284, New York Central 4071, PC 4063, PC 4092, PC 2355, and PC 2839 have teamed up to pull the Mail 9 through Canton in September 1972.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Penn Central Alco C425 No. 2429 must feel at home in Conway Yard near Pittsburgh. The unit was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in March 1965. Conway was, of course, built by the PRR. This image was made in early 1973. No. 2429 would later join the Conrail motive power roster.
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
Louisville & Nashville F9B No. 578 is at Penn Central’s Sharonville Yard’s fueling facility in Sharonville, Ohio, on Aug. 25, 1972. It appears to be surrounded by PC units.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Let’s see what we’ve got here. There is E8A No. 4294, E8A No. 4070, E7B No. 4104, E7B No. 4107 and GE U25B No. 2658. They are teamed up to the westbound westbound Penn Central train Mail 9″in Canton on Sept. 10, 1972.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
The wayback machine has transported us back to June 1971 in Berea. An eastbound Penn Central mail train is passing BE Tower.
There is much to see here that is of historical significance and much you can’t see anymore. Let’s start with E7A No. 4034. Built for the New York Central in March 1939, it wasn’t all that long ago that it was pulling passenger trains. Now it is in mail train service, which wasn’t a bad place to be given how mail trains operated.
Look closer at the 4034. It may have a PC herald on its nose but its NYC “cigar band” stripe is still easily visible.
If you look back in the consist of the train you’ll find a rider coach and a string of Flexi-Vans, which were a NYC specialty.
You’ve probably also noticed the type G signal heads that lasted into the Norfolk Southern era on the Chicago Line.
Now look in the door of BE Tower. Yes, that is a child waving along with the operator. We don’t know the identity of the kid but it might be the photographer’s son.
Back then not only did towers have operators but some of them could also be quite friendly and accommodating.
Photograph by Richard Jacobs
