Conrail around Reading 1

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This is some of the very first video I ever shot with my then-new Canon Video8 camcorder in the autumn of 1988. Locations should be familiar to anyone with knowledge of Reading, PA and its rail network. Some of the camera work is a little rough, but I was learning.

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3 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 49

@rugerkidd2076 6 лет назад

this is the best conrail video i've seen. lots of action and trains!!

@fmnut 6 лет назад

Well, there's 5 more on my RU-vid channel of Reading area scenes, plus other areas too.

@Hobbytrem 9 месяцев назад

Reading is a such charming railroad intersection location.

@maxm2317 9 лет назад

Back in the '70s, Conrail was similar to The Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Conrail went around the Eastern USA and "assimilated" a substantial amount of East Coast railroads such as the Reading, Penn Central, CNJ, Lehigh Valley, Erie Lackawanna, and numerous other railroads that I'm too lazy to list.

@fmnut 9 лет назад

Not quite. The Borg do their assimilating over time and space. Conrail was created with the stroke of a pen, and all the component roads were "assimilated" together in a single moment.

@fmnut 9 лет назад

A better Borg analogy would be CN. who at different times absorbed IC, WC, DMIR, B&LE, NAR, NBEC, BC Rail, etc. These "assimilations" are also all over the map, not just in one region.

@maxm2317 9 лет назад

Good point.

@jmream2618 Год назад

@@fmnut I been n a cab of a Conrail C40-8W

@douglasalan5783 8 лет назад

Great locations! Some are highly worthy of modeling. i went to college in Lancaster, and there was always lots of PC action back then. Reading was certainly a thriving rail hub when these videos were shot. Nice to see Conrail in all its glory.

@CentralPennRailProductions 9 лет назад

All around excellent video with some amazing catches. This brought back good memories-even recent ones, such as catching my last pairs of "Conrail" locomotives at Temple and Blandon in 2009-11. I think the highlights here are the notched out SW's on the ballast train as it approaches Fleetwood and the D&H train at Laurel St. in Reading. I really wish I could repeat the shots at Valley Junction, Center, and Laurel St. today, but the first is off-limits, second is grown in, and the third, well, I value my life and property too much to step foot in that part of town...

@markcinque106 6 лет назад

Central Penn Rail Productions There goes Conrail engine #1974 there in the Middle it's the Heritage engine!,21:11

@TheOilman747 10 лет назад

Awesome video good old Big Blue on the rails I never railfanned Reading PA but I'm like 2 hours away from there.

@njRRtrainer 10 лет назад

really good job nice to see some of these old favorites and the power moves are always a catch! Thanks for sharing...

@thomashunter3336 10 месяцев назад

Total greatness

@MrZeldalove 6 лет назад

Conrail liked SD40-2's. I'd hope that a few of those freight beauties are saved from scrap.

@thedenverrailfan1985 5 лет назад

Great videos I used to railfan Conrail in Ridgefield Park, Little Ferry and Dumont. All in the 90s

@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren 5 лет назад

Dang I was born too late to see such action :(

@tommythomason6187 4 года назад

My second go-round watching the Conrail Around Reading series. Those GE 840-Cs hood units looked cool, but hood units pretty much have left the contemporary railroad scene, and so have 4-axle units. Why did the 4-axle units lose their popularity? I mean, a B30-7 or a GP40-2 had the same prime movers as their 6-axle bretheren, the C30-7 and SD40-2. Are all the axles powered on an SD40-2? That wasn't always the case. It was why Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Santa Fe preferred F units on their passenger trains over the A-1-A arrangement with E units, whose traction motors would burn out on steep terrain. I sure miss the railroad variety we had back in the 70s and 80s. We had Chessie System, Conrail, Southern Railway System, Family Lines, Denver and Rio Grande Western, Southern Pacific, and on and on...

@glennparker4428 9 лет назад

Nice. Video. Good. Old.days. Thanks. For.that.keep.the.good.work

@rwk360 10 лет назад

I, being born Jan 1974, grew up with Conrail since I would have been too young to see the last of the Reading, Lehigh Valley, etc. when they still operated. My earliest memories of trains in my area are the blue diesels. I don't ever remember seeing a patched ex-Reading or LV, or PC unit. By the 1980's most diesels from predecessor railroads were repainted into Conrail blue. I did see ex-Reading hoppers on a freight in the 1980's at the former Basin St. crossing in Allentown, now an overpass. I'm from just west of Allentown. Now, the NS units have basically replaced Conrail units, back then NS units were foreign power on run through trains from Hagerstown, MD which was previously an interchange point between Conrail and N&W, then NS starting in 1982 when the Southern-NW merger occurred. There were steam excursions on Conrail in the 1980's by various groups as you are probably aware, you have a video of 765 on the Reading Line in July, 1988 when they ran excursions to Reading from Bound Brook, NJ. Blue Mountain & Reading 2102 also ran many trips on Conrail as well as the PRR E8's, Reading diesels, and 425 a few times. NS was also running many steam trips in the south through Dec. 1994. But steam excursions on Conrail basically ended after 1988 except for ferry moves. Conrail became like NS and CSX, they started to "hate" steam and steam operators stopped running on Conrail due to their negative attitude toward steam and excursions. NS is the only eastern class 1 now allowing steam excursions again. Between 1995 and summer 2011, there were no steam excursions anywhere on any class 1 in the eastern US until NS started their new program with TVRM Sept. 2011 and later Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. Reading and Northern was also steamless from 1997-2007, and 2011-Aug 2013 when 425 was out of service. Diesels pulled excursions during those years.

@fmnut 10 лет назад

That "negative attitude toward steam" was due to a number of factors. First, a crisis in the insurance industry in the late 1980's drove up the cost of insuring steam (or diesel) trips to the point that it made ticket prices too high, unless trips were run under an existing insurance arrangement. This is why many trips after that time were run with Amtrak or commuter agency equipment under their blanket insurance policies. Second, after the NS excursion derailment in 1986, the equipment requirements became more stringent with tightlock couplers, etc. and much of the existing car fleet did not comply and was too costly to convert (BM&R's ex-Lackawanna MU trailers being a good example). This also led to the use of Amtrak or commuter equipment that was already in compliance. Third, in the latter half of the 1980's traffic on Class 1's mushroomed largely due to after effects of the Staggers Act, thereby causing capacity constraints on many main lines. The Class 1's could no longer afford the traffic disruptions caused by running steam excursions. This is one reason why NS gave up their steam program. Then, with fewer trips being run there was less incentive to keep steam in Main Line running condition, so the number of engines that were in shape to run also dwindled.

@rwk360 10 лет назад

But we are sort of seeing a revival of mainline steam excursions in the eastern US with NS's new program, which took a break this fall due to crew shortages. It will be back next year and 765 might make another PA visit, rumor has it it will be back through the Reading area next year but not set in stone. It could head to Allentown or Philly. I'm from near Allentown. Also, 425 at Reading and Northern is back in service and pulling trips on their railroad this fall. But NS prohibits open windows, due to safety reasons, but tourist lines and railroads like Reading and Northern/Lehigh Gorge and Steamtown are able to use open window coaches on their excursions because they are not class 1 railroads. Only steam excursions in recent history that ran on a class 1 railroad with older steel open window coaches were the Steamtown excursions to Nicholson Viaduct a few years ago all steam powered. They were running on Canadian Pacific ex-DL&W-EL main line. Funny that the new head of CP who came from CN E. hunter Harrison said this: "I hate steam engines". The audience chuckled when he said that. "They are expensive to run; the liability is too high and they serve no useful purpose" So, CP may become another CSX with steam haters in leadership. At least Wick Moorman at NS and Andrew Muller at RBMN support steam excursions. So there will be plenty of steam trains to ride this fall at RBMN, and next year on NS again, and RBMN again. Also, the N&W 611 in Roanoke, VA is returning to service it is being overhauled in NC to be used with future NS excursions.

@Bowfinger10 11 месяцев назад

I hope you've learned since 1988 to get off the ROW/tracks when taking videos, haha. But really though- great footage, this is an amazing time capsule.

@SebisRandomTech 8 месяцев назад

Pre-9/11 was a very different time to be a railfan. Most railroads didn’t care even if you were blatantly trespassing.

@verastaki 4 года назад

I miss GE's older General Electric locomotives such as C40-8's & B23-7's with standard Spartan cabs. Not to mention Conrail Blue locomotives. Those were the days, before Wide cabs started appearing. EMD's SD40-2's and SD50/60 locomotives as well.

@ShawnyNorburn 5 лет назад

Amazing footage!!

@CyberSoldat 10 лет назад

Nice catch on the Delaware & Hudson GP38 in at that time standard Guilford livery.

@CRPULSE300 5 лет назад

D&H 7324 was originally Lehigh Valley 324

@SCOutdoorsProductions 10 лет назад

Great video! I love all the old units, especially the chessie units. This was all before my time, but I wish I was around for it. If I'm correct, those Chessie/Seaboard/CSX would most likely have been on the Allentown-Baltimore or Baltimore-Allentown trains right?

@fmnut 10 лет назад

The trains with CSX units were actually D&H trains NE84 and NE87. These trains were initiated pre-Conrail to run from Portland, ME to Potomac Yard, VA. They ran with D&H crews as far as Philadelphia, then CSX crews to Pot Yard. At this time the D&H was very power-short so some CSX power ran through to Binghamton or beyond. You could also see NS power on these trains after NYSW succeeded Guilford, but not as often. The NS power on this video was run-thru from Roanoke via Hagerstown.

@SCOutdoorsProductions 10 лет назад

***** Oh okay, I figured the NS units probably came from Hagerstown. Very interesting stuff about the D&H. Thanks for all the info!

@timregan1005 4 года назад

wow

@drby0788 10 лет назад

Can anyone tellcme what railroading was like back in the 60s and 70s?? Was it bad? I'm a railfan born in the 80s so I grew up with Chessie and Conrail here in Columbus,Oh

@fmnut 10 лет назад

Too big a subject to deal with thoroughly here, but in general there were more frequent feight trains with smaller, lighter cars running on many more miles of relatively poor quality track. Lots more branch lines and industry sidings, more mixed freight trains, less intermodal and unit train traffic. Lots more "dark territory", train orders, manned interlocking towers and jointed rail. Passenger trains run by the railroads instead of commuter agencies. Try looking at back issues of Trains Magazine from the period to get a feel for it.

@drby0788 10 лет назад

Gotcha. I lice about a half mile down from an old PC branch line than extended all the way to Indiana when it was in service. There's only about 10 miles of track left from Columbus to a little town called Lily Chapel where the Camp Chase Railroad uses it to haul grain in the spring otherwise its not used. There's an old Tressel that goes over Darby Creek. There's a bike trail that has replaced the remaining right of way and the track is torn out past Lily Chapel

@drby0788 10 лет назад

What's "dark territory" a term for?

@fmnut 10 лет назад

drby0788 In simple terms, it is track without signals. It is considered "dark" because the dispatcher or operator can't follow train movements on his board. Movements are made by written or verbal authority. In the old days the written authority was a train order, in today's world they are called track warrants or Form D's (NORAC). Verbal authority is usually for yard or industrial tracks where moves are made at restricted speed.

@drby0788 10 лет назад

Very cool. Wish I could have experienced it railfanning today is fun but I can imagine: back in the day would have been a lot better

@Lilbaby_-zo4pb 6 лет назад

wondering what happened to Conrail

@fmnut 6 лет назад

Taronda Warren it was split between NS and CSX in 1999

@dwayneday1587 4 года назад

In government section any shares of Conrail for when government held conrail CRS RR looking for shares disclose bid one hundred thirty a share

@Lilbaby_-zo4pb 6 лет назад

must have been in a money crisis

@AlexR47x 9 лет назад

Great video! Talk about a small world, that second freight train in your video (with the Southern Caboose) is also in my video that my grandfather took in 1988! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nmHkcbYCM_c.html