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- Railroads of NJ, NY, & PhillyWe're talking Conrail Shared Assets today. Tune in! https://rumble.com/v4mofa3-all-aboard-episode-034-conrail-today.html
- Railroads of NJ, NY, & PhillySo, Conrail's 48th Birthday is coming up and this time of year always makes me think about that railroad way more than April Fool's Day. I spent a big chunk of my life in North Jersey and Conrail wasn't just omnipresent, it was the rule. One day in the early '90s my mother and I were at the Whippany Railway Museum and someone there told us that we could catch a lot of action at both Roselle Park and Ridgefield Park. Mother wouldn't drive to Roselle Park, but Ridgefield Park was near where we lived in Hackensack, so that was the first visit to CP-5 on the River Line. I always thought I was pretty knowledgeable about trains, but realizing the former New York Central was a (long) bike ride away was something. And Conrail didn't disappoint as long as you didn't try to visit in the mid-day when train volume was non-existent. But the blue GP40-2s and SD40-2s, that were quickly joined by C40-8Ws, SD60Ms, and SD60Is made for a great parade of trains that never seemed to get boring. And that was during the era when the New York Susquehanna & Western was providing competing intermodal service...with Conrail's help in the form of track access to its Southern Tier Line...in conjunction with Canadian Pacific, CSX, and Norfolk Southern. So, on one hand, we would see big, "establishment" Conrail on one side, and the scrappy Susie-Q right next door. For a growing teenager...and any railfan for that matter...it was lit, as the kids say today. Not only that, but I would see Conrail's North Bergen-based locals on the NJ Transit Pascack Valley Line, frequently with GP38-2s on each end, given the need to switch a variety of industries as they made their way up-and-down one of my two "local" railroads. But the neatest memory was the one long-distance ride I took over Conrail when it was still Big Conrail and that came in 1996 when my Aunt Phyllis & I took the Lake Shore Limited from New York to Chicago for a vacation that included the Illinois Railway Museum and a visit to Wrigley Field. Conrail's Water Level Route (the Chicago Line in their parlance) was glass smooth, and the passing freight trains were frequent. This. Was. Railroading. As God and David M. LeVan had intended it to be. There was no thought to the idea of any of this not being there...in fact, to my youthful eyes, that should have been expanded, not destroyed. To be clear, I harbored some animus against Conrail for tearing up large portions of the Erie Lackawanna and being unwilling to entertain any of my requests to discuss buying parts of it (but I was a teenager who hadn't yet learned how to raise capital). Also, their increasingly cool attitude toward steam excursions...except for Ross Rowland's 1990s-era moves with the 614, which I sadly missed...didn't help. But it was still a shock to read in the Tallahassee Democrat--which served the Florida Capital where I attended high school--that CSX would be buying Conrail! We all know how that ended up, but my coda to Conrail started when I matriculated at Boston University in 1999. I hate to admit, but I was lonely after I saw my mother and grandmother pull away from the campus apartment where I would be living. I was a little less lonely when I returned to my room and saw the now CSX-owned Beacon Park Yard's diesel facility, complete with the massive, Blue Conrail logo proudly displayed on one of the fuel tanks. Each day looking over, my loneliness declined a bit when I saw the blue diesels saying "Conrail Quality" and occasionally just "Conrail" moving about along with CSX's YN2-painted units that were gradually becoming more prevalent. The picture below...even though it doesn't have any Conrail in it...is one of my favorite CR memories, as it's me standing outside of the Lake Shore Limited after the westbound run over the Chicago Line. I was impressed with Chicago Union Station, but more so with the Big Blue railroad that brought me there.
- Mid-Atlantic RailroadsIn this week's column, I talk about why Amtrak is a structural failure. In future columns, I'll share some solutions, but for now, let's start the conversation! https://www.allthingstrains.com/post/from-the-e-hunter-harrison-chair-where-is-amtrak-going