Nice start up of the Alco. That girl at track side seems uninterested in trains. Too bad, her loss. Also, nice touch with the Railway Express trailers.
to see a PC F7A in 1979,is, pushing it. by 1978, the few remaining F7s were CRd by then. heck, i even rode in a former PC F7A. dec 26,1977, on the IHB, LaGrange,Ill. 4 CR F7As on a transfer from wood yd to elkhart. no. 1693. rode about 200 ft. 1 engine was a FP7A. saw the lowest no. 1639(moraine.ohio,toledo,ohio and the highest 1865(pittsburgh). even saw 1652, 1 of only 2 former PRR F7As to make CR. of them all, no. 1832 was my favorite.
trivia here, what was the first new power delivered to Conrail? the 4 or 5(cant remember how many)U36Bs of which 2971 is shown. these were the only U36Bs CR would aquire. these engines were built to SCL specs and were to be delivered to autotrain. notice the dual lights on the front? and the mars light? i saw several of them through the years.
CONRAIL sucked. WHY? because, well, come to Ohio and Ind. and see first hand the wrought brought by CR. the thousands of miles of torn up rail lines. i saw CR from day 1 and I do not mis it in the least. The EL west end was amazing, it is now nothing. dittos, the pcc&stl,red key line,cn,c&m,sold off the broadway line, and the col-pitts line, and many others. 1979, i was at bethlehem, in the roundhouse was ex LV RS11 no. 7644. the ex LV employees there were hiding it(along with a former LHR C420)from CR mgt. they would hide these engines in the yard when mgt would come around. (much like the EL guys in youngstown,in the 1970s. they had the last ERIE painted engine 520, and they wanted to keep her that way, she would be sent to scrap as ERIE by CR). sadly 7644 would be scrapped months later, what a shame, she was in great shape.
