Started my career in January of 1973 with Penn Central becoming a freight and passenger conductor. Retired in 2014 as a yardmaster with the local commuter rail service in Philadelphia and tri-state area. During my freight years, we mostly operated on the Northeast Corridor with electric power. This included GG1's that were geared for freight. If we ever got diesel power, we considered it a luxury, since they were more comfortable than electric power. One of my wildest rides was deadheading back to Philly , from Newark N.J. on the caboose of Mail No.3. They even had postal employees on that train in cars, sorting mail enroute. The good old days and was certainly blessed to survive my whole career. Would I do it again if I could go back? Absolutely !!
I worked for PennCentral in 1973 and 74. I can remember derailing trains going 2 or 3mph thru the yards. The track would just open and you were on the ground. I also remember very generous pay checks.
Educating. I see the odd Conrail rolling stock periodically but now I know its story. I also didn't know that electric locomotives were being used for freight. Very cool..
“You would think that after 8 years, PC would have had time to plan a smooth merger”. What a great comment, and those same words would apply decades later when Conrail was split. Leading up to day one, supposed extensive studies had been done to guarantee seamless changeover at NS, and much promotion was done declaring that it would be a quick, hiccup-less process. Day one came, the switch was thrown, and instantly the computers crashed! And not in a small way either! Waybills disappeared, entire trains disappeared etc. (electronically speaking of course) and NS’s mainlines, including their part of big blue, turned into linear parking lots! The situation was so dire that NS quickly initiated an incentive program encouraging employees to delay vacations, and rewarding attendance during that period with healthy payments into what they called a twist account, similar to an IRA. It took months to straighten out the mess, and as much as a year later, we’d get cars through the rip track for repair that showed empty in the computer, but had actually been running around loaded for a year or more! Who’s load was it, and where did it come from? Good question, but nobody had any answers because the records vaporized!
Honestly doesn’t surprise me. A friend of mine who started with N&W and recently retired from NS has told me before “merging with Southern was the worst thing that ever happened to the N&W. The whole operation went from hero to zero overnight because of how unintelligent Southern’s operations and management was”. There may have been a little bit of bias there, but NS certainly didn’t operate as smoothly as N&W did.
@@Engine33Truck I can verify that there was a great bias between Sou and NW people, management in particular, and that bias was still very much in play when the Conrail split happened! SR and NW were each masters of the business they did, and although they both were steel wheel on rail companies, they each had a unique customer base. And what worked for one didn’t necessarily work for the other. I started my career with SR, and will always be Southern man, but I have no bias against N&W or their people. As an addendum to that, when Conrail staff started mixing with Norfolk Southern staff, they weren’t, and never became, fans of NW, Sou. or NS! It’s just the nature of the beast!
@@Engine33Truck it as the N&W that mess up the Merger, the N&W was very mean and nasty to its workers, look at what the N&W did to its clerks in the 1978 clerks strike, how young are you, hint i Spent a lot of time at N&W Milan tower mi and at Oak wood yard, the Southern had Better Management, better every thing, hint i did a lot of train watching on the N&W detroit distraic , i i wanted good train watching i went to Con rail Toledo west, Ns destroyed Toledo west, i also did a lot of train watching on the southern rail road, it was better run then the N&W . hint i also did a lot of train watching from ports smith oh to peters burg Va, the N&W was not very good, how young are you
It’s hard to pass up the importance of Conrail in saving the North Eastern Railroad scene from collapse. The “Big Blue “ helped to restore faith in rail…
The gooberment subsidized airports and the gooberment subsidized the highways -- both with our taxpayer funds. The railroads were self pay and they had to put up with the oversight and regulations -- ironic now with Amtrak and the gooberment wanting host railroads to bow and give amtrak priority trackage rights -- sorry, we've bumped crews by lengthing our trains to snub the unions and fatten our dividends and bonuses, and the lengthened trains can't give way due to siding length. Karma
@@charlessmileyvideos Sure, may have saved the "north east",,,,,but OHIO and Indiana (not north east states) were DEVISTATED with torn up rails. CR didn't want the competition. I saw this first hand. Lot's of bicycle paths in these two states. For instance Xenia , OHIO has paths going north, south, east, and west. Xenia (once a very busy RR town) has NO rail service. If you are into biking Xenia is your place. Did I shed a tear when CR bit the dust? NOT AT ALL. (btw, my first train I ever photoed was PC)
Did I miss the mention of the New Haven Railroad that was part of the Penn Central Merger? The Penn Central was originally created by the New York Central and the Pennsylvania but they were required to take on the New Haven which was on life support at the time..
I was born (September 1975) at the end of Penn Central/beginning of Conrail. I barely remember seeing PC rolling stocking, but remember quite well growing up with Conrail.
25:56 2501 was the second loco painted blue. I remember seeing 3091 in May 1976 in blue. 3091 was the first painted blue. CR made an attempt and planned to have all locos renumbered and CR'd by the 1 year anniversary in 1977. In June 1977, I photoed my last pure pre CR (non PC) loco. A EL GP35 on the point ready to leave Sharonville , OHIO. PC locos would turn up still pure PC into 1980.
Did I miss the mention of the New Haven Railroad that was part of the Penn Central Merger? The Penn Central was originally created by the New York Central and the Pennsylvania but they were required to take on the New Haven which was on life support at the time as well. The New Haven was an integral and very important part of Penn Central...
The Book "Wreck of the Penn Central" took a deep dive into the failed merger between NYC and PRR, it was a very interesting read!!! I grew up next to the Big 4 Dow line from Anderson Indiana to Elkhart yards and saw the dramatic changes from NYC to PC to Conrail, with all the problems CSX and NS have had lately maybe it should have been Conrail taking over those two roads instead!!! 😂😂😂
I think Conrail took most all the traffic off of the Erie-Lackawana in Indiana not too long after the takeover. Sad to see it's all gone. A portion of the EL from North Judson, IN to Rochester, IN will be part of The Great American Rail Trail which is a biking trail that will span the continent.
That D&H map is not accurate at all. They had a huge shop in Albany/Colonie NY. Tracks up the hudson River through all the mill towns to Canada, that line became a CN link to the port of albany to get the oil trains coming off the barges, in the 90s. The D also had lines up through Schoharie NY along the river up through Rochester and into Buffalo or north through the mountains into west Quebec. I saw D&H there in the port of Albany growing up in the 80s surrounded by a sea of blue conrail. My great grandfather was an engineer on nyc. My grandfather the D&H and my father and uncle conrail. My dad started in 77 and i was born in 78. By 80 he was on with Amtrak where he stayed. And i grew up in a cab of some dirty old ex nyc alco. Then later in the late 80s they got those ugly turbo liners. That had a locomotive on either end. I hated those but... much quieter when your walking through the thing hauling 80mp. Still loud af but not like the old alcos. They didn't have the whine but the growling of them dual gigantic motors my god. Plus the doors took he man strength to get open, at 7 years old my biggest fear was getting to the cab door to bug my dad abd have it not open and have to turn around and go back through the loco. Your hearts pounding abd your hands over ears. And if the locomotive rocks back n forth while your walking with hands over ears you have to be ready for that otherwise you can get really hurt, burnt, chewed up, dead. Lots of grease and hot things to get burnt on, moving parts and sharp things. No rainings. Good times 😊
The sad part, they should have just let it go bankrupt. Would have saved the taxpayers a boatload of money. The "Mass extinction Event" the narrator claims in the beginning just wouldn't have happened. Penn Central could have re-organized with core trunk lines, and many of the secondaries sold to neighboring railroads to expand their reach. All they did was delay the inevitable conclusion to those lines (partioning between NS and CSX) using tax payers money.
Erie lawawanna is my favorite, then the Milwaukee road,Rock island is next ,I still think conrail had the right name,con ,because that's all it was a big con,just like g.m. and Chrysler going broke and the government bailing then out,your problems not mine.,great video
These are scenes from our full 2 1/2 hour movie "Conrail Hall of Fame" available at www.cspmovies.com
Started my career in January of 1973 with Penn Central becoming a freight and passenger conductor. Retired in 2014 as a yardmaster with the local commuter rail service in Philadelphia and tri-state area. During my freight years, we mostly operated on the Northeast Corridor with electric power. This included GG1's that were geared for freight. If we ever got diesel power, we considered it a luxury, since they were more comfortable than electric power.
One of my wildest rides was deadheading back to Philly , from Newark N.J. on the caboose of Mail No.3. They even had postal employees on that train in cars, sorting mail enroute.
The good old days and was certainly blessed to survive my whole career. Would I do it again if I could go back? Absolutely !!
I worked for PennCentral in 1973 and 74. I can remember derailing trains going 2 or 3mph thru the yards. The track would just open and you were on the ground. I also remember very generous pay checks.
Wow, johnhauser thanks for the classic memories! At least the pay checks were good in a tough time.
Educating. I see the odd Conrail rolling stock periodically but now I know its story. I also didn't know that electric locomotives were being used for freight. Very cool..
“You would think that after 8 years, PC would have had time to plan a smooth merger”. What a great comment, and those same words would apply decades later when Conrail was split. Leading up to day one, supposed extensive studies had been done to guarantee seamless changeover at NS, and much promotion was done declaring that it would be a quick, hiccup-less process. Day one came, the switch was thrown, and instantly the computers crashed! And not in a small way either! Waybills disappeared, entire trains disappeared etc. (electronically speaking of course) and NS’s mainlines, including their part of big blue, turned into linear parking lots! The situation was so dire that NS quickly initiated an incentive program encouraging employees to delay vacations, and rewarding attendance during that period with healthy payments into what they called a twist account, similar to an IRA. It took months to straighten out the mess, and as much as a year later, we’d get cars through the rip track for repair that showed empty in the computer, but had actually been running around loaded for a year or more! Who’s load was it, and where did it come from? Good question, but nobody had any answers because the records vaporized!
They just didn't have it together, doomed from the start really!
Honestly doesn’t surprise me. A friend of mine who started with N&W and recently retired from NS has told me before “merging with Southern was the worst thing that ever happened to the N&W. The whole operation went from hero to zero overnight because of how unintelligent Southern’s operations and management was”. There may have been a little bit of bias there, but NS certainly didn’t operate as smoothly as N&W did.
@@Engine33Truck I can verify that there was a great bias between Sou and NW people, management in particular, and that bias was still very much in play when the Conrail split happened! SR and NW were each masters of the business they did, and although they both were steel wheel on rail companies, they each had a unique customer base. And what worked for one didn’t necessarily work for the other. I started my career with SR, and will always be Southern man, but I have no bias against N&W or their people. As an addendum to that, when Conrail staff started mixing with Norfolk Southern staff, they weren’t, and never became, fans of NW, Sou. or NS! It’s just the nature of the beast!
@@Engine33Truck it as the N&W that mess up the Merger, the N&W was very mean and nasty to its workers, look at what the N&W did to its clerks in the 1978 clerks strike, how young are you, hint i Spent a lot of time at N&W Milan tower mi and at Oak wood yard, the Southern had Better Management, better every thing, hint i did a lot of train watching on the N&W detroit distraic , i i wanted good train watching i went to Con rail Toledo west, Ns destroyed Toledo west, i also did a lot of train watching on the southern rail road, it was better run then the N&W . hint i also did a lot of train watching from ports smith oh to peters burg Va, the N&W was not very good, how young are you
It’s hard to pass up the importance of Conrail in saving the North Eastern Railroad scene from collapse. The “Big Blue “ helped to restore faith in rail…
Absolutely, with out Conrail the NE would have been a huge mess for the whole USA!
The gooberment subsidized airports and the gooberment subsidized the highways -- both with our taxpayer funds. The railroads were self pay and they had to put up with the oversight and regulations -- ironic now with Amtrak and the gooberment wanting host railroads to bow and give amtrak priority trackage rights -- sorry, we've bumped crews by lengthing our trains to snub the unions and fatten our dividends and bonuses, and the lengthened trains can't give way due to siding length.
Karma
@@charlessmileyvideos Sure, may have saved the "north east",,,,,but OHIO and Indiana (not north east states) were DEVISTATED with torn up rails. CR didn't want the competition.
I saw this first hand. Lot's of bicycle paths in these two states. For instance Xenia , OHIO has paths going north, south, east, and west. Xenia (once a very busy RR town) has NO rail service. If you are into biking Xenia is your place.
Did I shed a tear when CR bit the dust? NOT AT ALL. (btw, my first train I ever photoed was PC)
It's too bad no one was there to renew it in 1999
To be fair The ICC was as if not more guilty.
having hired out with PC 4-1-74 I got to live it and breath it ! , 47 years later I finally retired !
Which RR did you go to, NS or CSX?
PC . Conrail >Shortline, my last 12 years with GVT@@roberthagberg5482
Excellent DVD.
Glad you enjoyed it! More at our website www.cspmovies.com
Did I miss the mention of the New Haven Railroad that was part of the Penn Central Merger? The Penn Central was originally created by the New York Central and the Pennsylvania but they were required to take on the New Haven which was on life support at the time..
so was the PRR on life Support
I was born (September 1975) at the end of Penn Central/beginning of Conrail. I barely remember seeing PC rolling stocking, but remember quite well growing up with Conrail.
I still miss big blue to this day!
The history of Penn Central can be summed up in one emoji ... 🥺
25:56 2501 was the second loco painted blue.
I remember seeing 3091 in May 1976 in blue. 3091 was the first painted blue.
CR made an attempt and planned to have all locos renumbered and CR'd by the 1 year anniversary in 1977.
In June 1977, I photoed my last pure pre CR (non PC) loco. A EL GP35 on the point ready to leave Sharonville , OHIO.
PC locos would turn up still pure PC into 1980.
16:50: One of two experimental EMD GM6C/GM6B electrics that never made it into production.
You are right, extremely rare birds!
Scrapping the E44 electrics wasn’t a smart decision.
Yeah wtf
Did I miss the mention of the New Haven Railroad that was part of the Penn Central Merger? The Penn Central was originally created by the New York Central and the Pennsylvania but they were required to take on the New Haven which was on life support at the time as well. The New Haven was an integral and very important part of Penn Central...
You missed the chart and voiceover at 7:58.
@@charlessmileyvideosYou are correct. I have no idea how I missed that. Thank you for the clarification.
The Book "Wreck of the Penn Central" took a deep dive into the failed merger between NYC
and PRR, it was a very interesting read!!! I grew up next to the Big 4 Dow line from
Anderson Indiana to Elkhart yards and saw the dramatic changes from NYC to PC to
Conrail, with all the problems
CSX and NS have had lately
maybe it should have been
Conrail taking over those two
roads instead!!! 😂😂😂
Good history
Thanks that is our "Jam"! Love to cook up the railroad history
I think Conrail took most all the traffic off of the Erie-Lackawana in Indiana not too long after the takeover. Sad to see it's all gone. A portion of the EL from North Judson, IN to Rochester, IN will be part of The Great American Rail Trail which is a biking trail that will span the continent.
They also abandoned the old PRR Panhandle Line and kept the two old NYC Lines west of Cleveland
I do love my alcos
We love Alco's too! Wait until you see our next upload next week!
@@charlessmileyvideos thanks I'll be looking 4 it
i once read ins train about this merger and it was titled the marrage made in hell the merger of pennsavania and New York central
Can we all agree that selling the last 4 PA locos to MEXICO was about the most stupid decision in all American railroading history?
No ..........
That D&H map is not accurate at all. They had a huge shop in Albany/Colonie NY. Tracks up the hudson River through all the mill towns to Canada, that line became a CN link to the port of albany to get the oil trains coming off the barges, in the 90s. The D also had lines up through Schoharie NY along the river up through Rochester and into Buffalo or north through the mountains into west Quebec.
I saw D&H there in the port of Albany growing up in the 80s surrounded by a sea of blue conrail. My great grandfather was an engineer on nyc. My grandfather the D&H and my father and uncle conrail. My dad started in 77 and i was born in 78. By 80 he was on with Amtrak where he stayed. And i grew up in a cab of some dirty old ex nyc alco. Then later in the late 80s they got those ugly turbo liners. That had a locomotive on either end. I hated those but... much quieter when your walking through the thing hauling 80mp. Still loud af but not like the old alcos. They didn't have the whine but the growling of them dual gigantic motors my god. Plus the doors took he man strength to get open, at 7 years old my biggest fear was getting to the cab door to bug my dad abd have it not open and have to turn around and go back through the loco. Your hearts pounding abd your hands over ears. And if the locomotive rocks back n forth while your walking with hands over ears you have to be ready for that otherwise you can get really hurt, burnt, chewed up, dead. Lots of grease and hot things to get burnt on, moving parts and sharp things. No rainings. Good times 😊
The sad part, they should have just let it go bankrupt. Would have saved the taxpayers a boatload of money.
The "Mass extinction Event" the narrator claims in the beginning just wouldn't have happened. Penn Central could have re-organized with core trunk lines, and many of the secondaries sold to neighboring railroads to expand their reach.
All they did was delay the inevitable conclusion to those lines (partioning between NS and CSX) using tax payers money.
Yeah
"A reform school for bad railroads" 😂😂😂
Erie lawawanna is my favorite, then the Milwaukee road,Rock island is next ,I still think conrail had the right name,con ,because that's all it was a big con,just like g.m. and Chrysler going broke and the government bailing then out,your problems not mine.,great video
Hi, Kelvintorrence your list of railroads in epic! We like those guys too!
3:25 penn central or poor crap is what they called it
Thanks, we agree with you!