CONRAIL TODAY: When it was STILL Conrail Today (Series 2 - Part 1)

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

If it was not for the government mandating to change from coal to oil for electric power generation the anthracite railroad would still have business. The Lehigh and Hudson Rivers main business was concrete so the concrete businesses paid the politicians to let them drive heavy ass trucks on government pay for roads so the Lehigh and Hudson River went out of business. Never mind the attitude of tax until they die liberal spending up North for the welfare state. Lot of companies would pick up and move. Railroads can't do that. They died with the neighborhood. The jobs they provided the incomes all gone. And nobody could give a rat's ass. Nobody gave a damn about anything as long as they made money put the Americans out of work. God Bless America

[@pBIggZz]

I am no great fan of how people in places like coal country and the now dead industrial regions of the northeast have simply been abandoned. The blame for that lies not just on businesses who went overseas, but on the many governments who let them, and who didn't care to make things better for the people who worked in the factories and on the railroads, only to have the rug pulled out from under them. That said, I'm not sure why you think continuing to burn garbage coal would have been a solution. Its dirty and hideously inefficient. The Powder River Basin stuff is even worse, though thanks to the inscrutable vagaries of capitalism, it remains "profitable", so those unit trains keep rolling. The state of railroading in Canada and the USA today is rather a bit laughable; they're as inefficient as they've ever been, and they've been deliberately made more inefficient and unwieldy just because, again, those inscrutable vagaries of capitalism have dictated that by simply improving your operating ratio, and by extracting even more extreme concessions from labour, you can make the line go up *even if it makes you objectively worse at shipping things effectively and quickly*. These firms aren't building themselves to last; hell they barely even want to upgrade their tracks and power anymore. They're entirely captured by investors and the governments they operate under are simply content to let them loot the rail system and the people who work it; maybe when grocery store shelves stop getting stocked because entire shipments are spoiling in yards to make way for coal unit trains, things will change.

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

@@pBIggZz the Germans made coal into liquid fuel for their army we have thousands of years of coal we could use they could have put scrubbers on top of the coal plants and recycled everything that came out of this folk stacks from carbon dioxide to sulfur. We would not have been held over a barrel and raped by the oil companies.

[@b3j8]

Mostly done by greedy Wall Street investors. Nothing new. Today they're out of Railroad's to buy out, so they're trying to constantly wring more work and efficiency out of fewer people.

[@pBIggZz]

@@frankmarkovcijr5459 The coal companies are no more your friend than the oil companies are, and with or without the coal, the railroads would be fucking the workers anyway. BNSF still hauls powder river basin coal and the policies they've been pushing for are some of the worst of all the railroads.

[@pBIggZz]

​@@b3j8 if feeding their staff directly into a woodchipper made them money, class 1 railroad execs would do it.

[@trainbuff3959]

I remember back in 96-97 reading about the new SD80MAC out on my porch. By the time I finished reading the article I heard the sweet sound of a loaded coal train coming up the hill and low and behold, it was powered by 3 brand spanking new SD80MAC's. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, oh the irony. Man I miss big blue and the use of big EMD's.

[@libra3655]

If there's anything the Big 4 have done, it's made me appreciate the class 2 and 3 railroads by me. Southern Railroad of New Jersey pays homage to CNJ, they actually used to operate one of their old F7s. They also have a GP9 on their roster that seems inactive, but it's the old red/white CNJ scheme. Reading and Northern is pretty amazing out in Jim Thorpe, PA as well. Being a class 2 they don't *need* diesel excursions to maintain a steam engine for special excursions, but they do.

[@ChristopherWright-wh8gk]

Conrail is my 4 favorite train especially my favorite color blue nice beautiful blue engine and coobse. I like the Conrail train and coobse too. Let's go Conrail let's go let's go Conrail let's go go Conrail train and coobse too

[@RailfanNetwork]

Always look forward to your videos AC!! Southern Pacific had a lot going for it back in the day like thousands of miles of fiber optic and telephone lines. Few realize that the phone company SPRINT was an acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad International.

[@stretchlimo7275]

@Street Stories very interesting about the SPRINT acronym, didn’t know that

[@Trains21]

I knew that SP was responsible for SPRINT, but didn't know about the acronym. Thanks for sharing!

[@garrettsubproductions8705]

Bring all of the fallen flags we lost in 1990’s, it’s ashamed how we lost so many railroads in under a decade, now I’m 14 and l wish l would have see these locomotives it’s ashamed they did this. BRING THEM ALL BACK

[@toobeast5485]

Me too my friend. I’m 18 and its devastating. I look at old parcel maps and we see these inactive railroads now all across the country. Its scars of our past. Its up to our generation to make the changes in the future! We got this man! Focus on your State and see what you can do. Make an advocacy group or join one. I’m working on North NJ!

[@brandondurka105]

I grew up in the same time era where for me Conrail was modern railroading and I became used to it but at the same time my father and grandfather both worked for the railroads. Grandfather worked for the former Buffalo Creek, Erie, and then Erie Lackawanna. All which were taken over by Conrail. So my grandfather had a very bad taste in his mouth when Conrail took over and it became a hatred in my family, but luckily for him when the takeover happened he was at retirement age so he just hung it up my dad worked for Conrail for many years following. So it's a love-hate relationship. Conrail kept food on the table for many of us but at the same time they ruined many lives. That's when the monopolies and the government started showing their ugly face. But that's all history now, great video Sir.

[@Trains21]

Thank you for your memories, kind words and watching!

[@THEBACKSTER]

2:02, the Conrail Caboose in Millersburg, Pa. My home town, I always go by it when I'm checking signals.

[@shon9kemp]

I was born in the 1970's our property line was a set of double track that was Penn Central then went to Conrail that rolled threw sidney ohio that bridged over a double set of Chessie System B&O/ C&O. Have a couple of HO Scale Conrail and Chessie locomotives and rolling stock

[@larrymcneil8038]

I grew up around that conrail quality here in Philadelphia when I was a kid outside playing I’d stop as soon as I heard a freight train coming just to count the engines those were the best days of my life it’s now csx territory

[@Joeyardmaster40155]

CONRAL may be gone, But will never be Forgoten by Me, I ware my Blue Conrail Jacket all the time when I go out. >>>>>>>>Joetrak, Baltimore MD.

[@taylorbaggarleyunionpacifi3409]

I was in preschool when conrail went away sure miss them they so good miss u big bule I remember when I was little seeing some conrail union pacific so some I always came fan of conrail trains when was 4 years old still to this day thank u for making video of this

[@bhproductions1061]

Miss Conrail the closest we can get to seeing Conrail again is the Ex Conrail SD60’s on the B&P that I see

[@kens.3729]

It was a Sad Day when Conrail got Split into Pieces. I still Enjoy seeing Old Conrail Units and Cars. Thanks AC. 👍

[@Trains21]

Very welcome.

[@shawnfogle6096]

My dad used to work for Conrail. He was a cook on the camp trains that houses the rail gang. Then he moved to the rail gang after NS took over.

[@b3j8]

Conrail, or something similar, had to take over the mess of Eastern Railroading or the Rail Industry may well have ended up nationalized! It was a tough, painful time tho for older fans as so much was changed and lost. Gradually, altho I think some line rationalizing decisions were made in haste, Conrail overall did very well for itself. I got to the point where I again enjoyed watching Chicago Line trains on a regular basis.

[@mattcrowley3075]

Once again you’ve given us another great video! I appreciate it!

[@calvingrondahl1011]

My favorite color💙

[@ChainsawNW1218]

ChainsawN&W1218, I really miss the Conrail units,when My Dad and Me first started filming not counting some when I was a kid in about 2000 there were plenty of Conrail engines that would could be seen in Roanoke VA, Christiansburg, Radford and places We filmed and I really like the Leslie model air horns, I don't know all models ,I know Nathan and Leslie are the two main air horn producers, I know the Leslie S5T and SR3 I think it is and You still hear those occasionally on NS even though there in NS paint!👍🛤🚂

[@ryankruchowski1951]

BRING BACK CONRAIL!!!!

[@iusetano]

So much history from your area. I enjoy learning about it. Thank you AC. Excellent video.

[@Trains21]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@logandetwiler4483]

I miss Conrails Dash 8 Ws. They were really good workhorses. The best Leslie RS3L

[@bhproductions1061]

Best RS3L’s are on the SD60’s on the B&P

[@BlakesTrainsandMore4014]

Agreed, The Dash-8 Locomotives Were Very Good Workhorses, and Thank Goodness a Few of them were Preserved!

[@richardjayroe8922]

There are still a lot of Conrail hoppers coming in and out of Roanoke every day. Not only that but there still is one Conrail Caboose in operation in NC

[@ClarissaPacker]

The line by my house use to be owned by conrail b4 that the line was owned by pen central & the GR & I RR. NS took over the line in 1999 & leased it out to the grand elk in 2009.

[@Trains21]

Yeah. Delay in Block has touched on that line in some of his Michigan Line videos.

[@snowboard20356]

Nothing like hearing an old rs3l

[@photolew]

Welcome to Muncy....

[@trainchaserlouisvilleindia7096]

You should do southern railway in southern Indiana next! Also I saw some original con-rail dashes when I was young!

[@jeffreymcfadden9403]

CR may have spun off the tracks up where you are at,,,but where I am,,,,,CR RIPPED up many,many,many lines. OHIO and Indiana were devastated by CR and it's ability to rip up lines. Without even thinking of selling off said lines. CR didn't want the competition.

[@Trains21]

Yep, they did the same thing in Pennsylvania. The whole scorched earth approach to railroading. Maybe not to the extent of what they did in your area but they did it here in PA too.

[@kelvintorrence5994]

I always said they had the rigth name comrail ,because government and railroads Have always been in bed with each. Other ,the old lines should have just fixed these own problems, without our tax dollars, just like worthless gm,and Chrysler getting bailed out, just go out of business and come back under bankruptcy protection like all bog companies do.

[@maddiekits]

Probably would have happened no matter what tbh, abandonment was common among all the big railroads during this time period.

[@maddiekits]

If anything I wish conrail was more ambitious with changing the industry, but it's clear that the government never had the taste for more heavy handed control and just took the easy path to profitability....

[@pBIggZz]

congress NEVER wanted conrail; the penn central collapse was so bad it forced Nixon, america's greatest social democratic president, to create a government owned railroad and they jumped through so many hoops to not outright nationalize it like they always should have, and cut it up and sold it off as soon as it was profitable. Also, when they were getting ready to sell it off, Conrail's own union offered to buy it outright and the federal government stonewalled them. Now norfolk southern puts a train on the ground *weekly*.

[@0fficialdregs]

Of the ones you named I wish the cnw n sp

[@BCrailguy45]

I dislike conrail corporately but I love it in terms of trains especially early CR with the difference colours But we still have original CR paint today which are the CN blue devils (as of 1-4-2023) and a Heritage unit

[@TheDr.Magnum]

Wish they would break up all of the big roads and raise regional fallen flags

[@DJinNJ08830]

Excellent AC. Question if CSX and NS Bought out Conrail I see signs Conrail yard clearly CSX using this yard in Metuchen NJ. Another yard in Old Bridge NJ CSX and NS work this yard same sign Conrail?????

[@Trains21]

Conrail Shared Assets territory.

[@JessicaKasumi1990]

Because Conrail still exists as a terminal and switching company, the Conrail Shared Assets Operations. CSAO is the remnant of Conrail. They operate for CSX and NS and maintain the trackage that is CSAO and provide the crews.

[@DJinNJ08830]

@@JessicaKasumi1990 thanks

[@DJinNJ08830]

@@Trains21 thanks professor AC

[@Trains21]

@@DJinNJ08830 You're most certainly welcome DJ.

[@dwayneday6439]

Corbin Conrail North Eastern Quality subdivision railroad holder of reading railroad again

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

The Erie Lackawanna unions wanted to keep six men Cruise on trains. Ridiculous amount of feather bedding. The Chesapeake and Ohio was interested in buying the Erie Lackawanna but the Unions would not budge on crew size therefore the railroad went bankrupt

[@dknowles60]

unions also killed the Rock island

[@dwayneday6439]

What was left of Conrail is today Corbin Conrail North Eastern Quality railroad an 1230 locamotives an 30,000 an were not giving up as a railroad assets Corbin Conrail North Eastern Quality, Rittenhouse 20% Billie marsellies 20% an 35,000union workers 20% granite estate 20% as assets of Corbin Conrail Quality railroad as 20% 100 locamotives an 10,600 freight equipment under the break up of Conrail an were now Corbin Conrail North Eastern Quality railroad

[@ohioandnortheastern]

Check out the Ohio Central

[@Dorpmuller]

Strawberry Ridge. We're neighbors. 👍 Still coal fired? Haven't been out for years, how many GE wide cabs can you shoot?? Great vid with loads of memories. I'd take whole weekends to railfan the Middle Division. Does anything, any more, run on the Buffalo line besides the LVRR and N. Shore?

[@kevinluzier799]

CON is the right word for them the messed up Cleafield Pa

[@TPB-OPA]

✋🏻

[@royjennings4781]

Better known as CLOWNRAIL.😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@JAGUAR-GT]

Quality paint design doesn't look as attractive as the regular Conrail design

[@christopherstehn]

merger

[@LimeGlass]

I wouldn't be so attached to this company, it was government created to support densely populated areas where the dying railroads couldn't, and frankly wasn't managed as well as it could have been. NS and CSX knew what needed to be done in order for the rail lines Conrail operated on to be profitable, so in the end, it probably was better to have NS and CSX take over their lines to better the economy and do right with connections to their other lines.