Conrail Chicago Line Butler, Indiana to Toledo, Ohio 11/24/1989 

In the early 80'S I was working as a Train Dispatcher for Conrail out of Buffalo, NY. We got the word that then Conrail's Chairman of the Board, L.Stanley Crane, had made the decision to detour as much traffic as possible off of the Fort Wayne Line (X-PRR) at Alliance, Ohio over the Cleveland Line to Cleveland, then west over the Chicago Line (X-NYC) to and from Chicago. Even though the Penn Central (and Conrail) mergers happened years before, The Red (PRR) vs. Green (NYC) Team battles were still in full swing. Being in a NYC Office the feeling was like you won a championship football game when we got the word. It was a major crippling blow to the Red Team. After the change-over occurred, I called the Toledo East Dispatcher one night to get his feel of what was going on. He described it as Wall-To-Wall Trains, having difficulty clearing signals fast enough so as to keep everyone on High Greens. As this video depicts, the vast majority of the traffic ran at night. And since there was a lot of tangent track on the Water Level Route, crews said at night, you'd be going 70 MPH on Clear Signals, seeing the marker of the train 5 miles ahead, and a non-stop stream of headlights coming against you on the other track. It wasn't uncommon to have 90+ trains over this line in a day. That party ended (or at least slowed down) after the CSX/NS split of Conrail. Traffic now coming off of CSX goes west over the former B&O from Greenwich to Chicago, and the NS traffic still goes over the route in the video. You can still get the feel of all the trains today at Berea, Ohio, where all CSX and NS traffic pass through. But the number of trains through Berea, that on Conrail went via the Butler to Toledo section, is still less due to PSR.

Awsome job I wish Conrail was still around

The railroads have impressed me completely since I was a child , I find myself studying them world-wide !

Butler was so great during Conrail, no speed restriction on the diamonds, let em rip!

Oh my gosh! This is so cool! The Conrail footage from the late 80s on the Chicago Line in Butler, Indiana, and Bryan, Pettisville, Delta, Swanton, and Toledo here in Ohio! So awesome! I like those vintage NYC G type signals a lot! My second favorite type of signals with the B&O CPL Signals! I never even knew footage like this even existed! Really really nice! It would have been cool living in the time period this video footage of Conrail was taken in. Too bad I was born 10 years later. Anyways, great video!

Got to love the sound of the wheels going over the diamond

I remember the Conrail era Chicago Line (Toledo West) as a night time railroad. Best action usually after dark. My favorite location was, and still is, at Waterloo Ind. Thanks for bringing back some great memories!

I’m sure most rail fans already know this…that the stretch of dual track from south Toledo to Butler is the longest stretch of due straight track in the world.

Great footage as usual. Always enjoy seeing Toledo footage, especially by the CP-OAK old prr outer yard area with that area being pretty much abandoned.

love those old chessie system colors

Absolutely amazing as always.

i know the railroad route really good,since most of the chewap trucking companys i worked 4 ran those back roads to indiana,chicago area, when n.s. took over the rails out there

At 20:52 there looks to be a former 70ton hopper converted into a scale test car, I cot one on NS 170 in Smithville, OH at the top of Wooster hill.

Awesome!!!

great video!!!!!!!

Conrail 6406 - CSX 8887

It would be interesting to see video from the same locations, today. To see what's changed

Yeah theres isnt conrail again :((

Just subscribed!!! Great video!!!!!!!!!!