It’s the early Conrail era and we find former Reading Lines SD45 No. 7600 in Akron on Aug.1, 1976. The 7600 is hooked up to a second EMD SD45, Erie Lackawanna No. 3609.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Posts Tagged ‘Reading locomotives’
Another Early Conrail in Akron Memory
February 4, 2022Something Different in Cleveland
July 16, 2021
These are Conrail locomotives although they don’t look like them. No. 6724 is an ex-Lehigh Valley Alco 628), No. 6754 is a former Reading Alco 630 while the 6731 is an ex-LV Alco C-628. The units were photographed in Cleveland on May 14, 1977.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Take a Look Back at the Reading
October 4, 2020
It may not be as colorful as some Reading locomotives, but switcher 2704 shown here in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 10, 1973, had an interesting history.
It was built by Baldwin in June 1943 as a VO-1000 with roster number 73.
In April 1959 it was sent to the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors for rebuilding where it emerged with a Geep style long hood and a new model designation, VO100M.
It also was given a new roster number. No. 2704 would make it to Conrail where it spent time on that company’s motive power roster where it was 9304.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
B&O in Akron in 1967
April 25, 2020
As you requested, we’ve set the wayback machine to December 1967, Akron, Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio mainline, Akron Union Depot.
And what pops up but an eastbound train about to pass the station, led by GP38 No. 836.
A couple of things are of interest in this image. The second unit is a Reading Lines GP30.
There is also construction work going north of the tracks. Note the concourse of Union Depot is no longer connected on the north side to the bus station.
But there are buses still parked there as a new building is being constructed nearby.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
CSX Donates Ex-Reading Unit to Reading Museum
October 5, 2019CSX has donated a former Reading GP-39-2 to the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
No. 4317 was the last new locomotive delivered to the Reading before it was taken over by Conrail. It was built in December 1974 as No. 3412.
However, the locomotive was actually owned by the Chessie System and was leased to the Reading.
The unit will be repainted in Reading green and yellow from its current CSX livery as soon as time and funding permit.
When Conrail was formed in 1976, 20 Reading locomotives were set aside for the Delaware & Hudson, which eventually purchased them from the Reading estate.
Canadian Pacific returned the ex-Reading units to CSX after it acquired the D&H.
The Reading museum is part of the Reading Co. Technical & Historical Society and features a comprehensive collection of Reading rolling stock and locomotives as well as an extensive archive of Reading photographs, corporate records, and technical drawings.
Railroading as it Once Was: The Only Day I Got Paid to Take a Ride on a Reading Locomotive
June 9, 2016
No. 2187 as it looked in Conrail paint with my work train.
No. 2187 as it looked when it still wore some of its original Reading Livery. By now it had been patched as it sat in Rutherford, Pennsylvania in September 1978.
In April 2001 I was called for a work train. I took a taxi from Cleveland to Alliance and worked as needed.
Normally, work trains rated older units, often ex-Conrail GP38-2s. This day was no exception to the older unit rule, but imagine my surprise to see this motive power when I arrived in Alliance. It was an Ohio Central GP30, former Conrail and originally Reading Lines. I sure didn’t expect to be working on a Reading GP30 in 2001.
The train was a cable plow train, a machine that dug a trench and dropped fiber optics tubing into the hole.
Note the large spools of plastic conduit both on our train and off to the side. It was certainly a different assignment from the normal road jobs I was working at the time.
The day went smoothly, although it was long, with a taxi ride back to Cleveland once we were done.
It has been the only time I’ve been paid to work with a former RDG GP30.
Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee
Railroading as it Once Was: The Glory and Variety of Early Conrail Locomotive Power in Akron
February 10, 2016
The early years of Conrail were a locomotive watcher’s delight as units of Northeastern railroads regularly made their way westward. For a while, these locomotives remained in their original liveries with the initials “CR” painted over the heralds on their noses and on their flanks.
Conrail No. 3277 waits on the former Erie Lackawanna near Voris Street in Akron as a Chessie freight passes on an adjacent track. No. 3277 is a GP40-2 built in December 1973 for the Reading.
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