Conrail GP38 in Wooster on the Ft. Wayne Line

Conrail GP38-2 No. No. 8178 leads a train in Wooster on the Fort Wayne Line in March 1987. The Geep was built in June 1977 and would later serve on the CSX motive power roster.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

When CSX Still Served Wooster

A CSX local works in Wooster on March 27, 1997, using a wye near the fairgrounds to move the power to the other end of the train. This operation was a legacy of a Baltimore & Ohio line that was largely abandoned by the time this image was made. To serve the remaining shippers on that line, CSX had rights to use the Fort Wayne Line of Conrail between Wooster and Massillon. R.J. Corman has since taken over this operation.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Sanders to be at Buckeye Book Fair on Saturday

Akron Railroad Club President Craig Sanders will be appearing at the 30^th Buckeye Book Fair to be held this Saturday (Nov. 4) at Fisher Auditorium in Wooster, Ohio.

Sanders will be among the 100 authors who will be signing their books and speaking about their work. He will have copies of his most recent book, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, as well as Akron Railroads (2016), Cleveland Mainline Railroads, Canton Area Railroads, and Akron Railroads (2007)

The event opens at 9:30 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m. Admission is $2.

Four author presentations have been planned for the auditorium. Between 11 a.m. and noon, Jeffrey Ebbeler will conduct a draw-along.

Between noon and 1 p.m., author Mary Kay Carson will discuss her book Mission to Pluto. James Willis will talk about Central Ohio Legends & Lore between 1 and 2 p.m., while Ian Adams will discuss his book Ohio in Photographs between 2 and 3 p.m.

More information is available from http://www.buckeyeBookFair.com

Railroading as it Once Was: Mixing The Motive Power Heritage of Conrail’s Many Components

Although in the end it would all homogenize into blue, Conrail’s first few years were interesting with the mixing of power from the component railroads.

With only four on the roster, these Lehigh Valley GP38ACs were always a nice catch.

Two months into Conrail, this westbound is drifting down Wooster hill with one of these Cornell red units leading two Penn Central GE U25Bs over this former Pennsylvania Railroad mainline.

In the distant future, Norfolk Southern’s LV heritage unit would wear a close version of this paint scheme, but would get its nose repainted into the more popular white stripe with large diamond look before the 2012 Spencer (North Carolina) celebration of Norfolk Southern heritage units event.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee