CSX SD80MAC No. 801 is westbound in Sterling in October 1999. The unit was built for Conrail in February 1996. Later renumbered CSX 4591, it was acquired by NS which numbered it 7218. It was the only Conrail SD80MAC to receive the CSX tri-color livery.
Photograph 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.
Some of the locomotives that Norfolk Southern is seeking to sell are rare birds.
Those include 29 Electro-Motive Division SD80MACs that were unique to Conrail that NS inherited when it and CSX divided Conrail in 1999.
Carrying NS roster numbers 7200-7228, the ex-Conrail units were built between 1995 and 1996 and were among a small fleet of alternating current units.
Conrail also purchased 15 SD70MACs that NS continues to operate in revenue service.
CSX received 13 of the SD80MACs from the Conrail motive power roster. NS later bought 12 of those with one of them having been scrapped.
At NS, the SD80MACs were mainstays in coal train service in central Pennsylvania although they also held down assignments elsewhere in the NS system.
NS idled its SD80MAC about the time it began implementing its TOP21 operating plan last year, the NS version of precision scheduled railroading.
A review by Trains magazine of the list of other locomotives being offered for sale by NS found that other vintage units are on the block, including some that date back to Penn Central ownership.
Several units were originally acquired by NS predecessors Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway or their subsidiaries.
These include RPU6 Slug 879 (a former EMD SD40) and RP-E4 Slugs 912 and 913 (former Norfolk & Western GP9s); MP15E’s 2368 (ex-Southern/Central of Georgia), 2374, and 2381 (both ex-Southern); GP38-2s 5202 (ex-Southern) and 5276 (ex-Penn Central); and GP40-2 3030 (ex-Conrail).
Also being sold are 58 EMD SD40-2s which came from Alabama Great Southern (Southern subsidiary; 1 unit); Burlington Northern (16 units), Canadian Pacific (two units), Central of Georgia (Southern subsidiary, five units), Cincinnati New Orleans & Texas Pacific (Southern subsidiary, two units), Colorado & Southern (BN subsidiary, one unit), Conrail (11 units), Georgia Southern & Florida (Southern subsidiary, one unit), Kennecott Copper Co. (one unit), Missouri Pacific (one unit), Norfolk & Western (nine units), and Union Pacific (two units).
Trains reported that some of the SD40-2 units are 45 years old and some were acquired from locomotive lease firms CEFX, CITX, or FURX.
Some SD40-2s were rebuilt Admiral cabs at the Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
CSX and Norfolk Southern have completed a swap of locomotives that will see 12 SD40-s units go to CSX and 12 SD80MACs go to NS.
As a result, all active former Conrail SD80MACS are now on the NS motive power roster.
NS said it plans to repaints the 80MACs in Chattanooga, Tenn., this spring. Most of the units are expected to need only minor mechanical repairs. The SD80MACs at NS will carry road numbers 7117-7228.
Locomotives involved are CSX SD80MACs Nos. 4590-4593, and 4595-4602; and NS SD40-2s Nos. 3425-3427, 3430, 3432, 3433, 3438, 3439, 3440, 3443, 3446, and 3447.
Conrail ordered 30 SD80MACs in the 1990s and was the sole purchaser of the model.
Initially, CSX received 13 of the units after the Conrail split, but CSX SD80MAC No. 4594 has been retired and scrapped.
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