Conrail in the 1st year on Horse Shoe Curve. The days of Alco-caboose-4 track main & K4. 

Consists like this are why the 70's are my favorite railroading era. Great look in to the past!

Wow, 1977-a year after the formation of CR. Really like the diesel combos of EL, PC and CR! Thanks for posting.

Here's something that I love about classic train videos, you would see a WIDE variety of locomotives from Alco to GE's to EMD's. Today though sadly you don't see a variety of locomotives that much, mostly GE wide cabs and the rare standard cab locomotives by EMD.

Good memories review for those of us who are old enough, trains before wide bodies,when EMD was king of that mountain and a chance for the younger crowd to see what it was like when you could go up them steps for free to view trains. Thanks for sharing

Simply amazing,to be able to see railroading from the good old days in this modern era,thanks jack

Great video.....Brings back good memories visiting horseshoe curve when I was youngster seeing those Penn Central and Conrail engines

That's the Conrail I so fondly remember! I grew up across from the Mingo to Conway "River Line", and still remember those big Centuries lugging coal and iron ore drags to the mills around Pittsburgh. Now the mills and the Alcos are gone, as is the old "Panhandle Line" through Weirton Junction!

That was totally awlsome ,my dad was born and raised in Mt Union Pa and we traveled back to his home town alot ,we visited friends in Mapleton and Hunnington ,we would see these type of trains in our travels.Keep them coming it takes me back . Mark

I'm truly envious.. I wasn't old enough to video record things back in this era, but I'm sure glad you did.. Jack you are a godsend to those of us that love recalling our memories through your films.. Thank you

Awesome video! GPs, SDs, U-Boats and bay window cabooses! Nice.

One dislike, holy shit......don't know how you could possibly dislike this piece of history......

That 636 was truly the star of this vid I remember seeing them out of Mingo Jct an last stand for the old ALCOs haulin coal.

Wow talk about going back in time!

What a great post. I just turned 7 when this was shot. After reading about Horse Shoe Curve in a book it is one place I have yet to visit. It just may be the Spring of 2013. Thanks for sharing your video. Awesome stuff. Liked it for sure.

Awesome!!! My buddy is a big EL fan and he got me hooked on them too. Even though they are patched they are still awesome to see. Thanks for sharing the great footage!!

Boy you can see they were down on units in the early days of CR, I know theirs always pushers but its surprising so many trains are led by just two units ! The incredible strain !!!

I was just there 2 days ago and I had a blast. I also made it on the virtual railfan grab bag

@ma7799 No! It says in the description that this was shot 14 days after Conrails first birthday. Conrail was formed 4/01/1976, and this was shot 4/15/1977. Making it 14 days after their 1st Birthday. Thanks for watching...

Great video. Nice to see Conrail in its early stages.

Nice!!!!! Reminds me of when I was in grammar school and high school, watching the PC and later on the CR frieghts running by my house on the old Panhanandle Line in Chicago near the Rock Island crossing in Beverly neighborhood. Its sad to see the tracks taken up and now just seeing the Metra commuter trains going back and forth on the old RI commuter suburban line.

this is an awsome video especially for being filmed in 1977! the quality is quite good for being 30+years old thanks for posting

Whoa! I have never seen a Conrail ex- Erie Lackawanna

Nice! They didn't mess around when painting! Almost all of them have CR on them!

This is one the best Conrail videos Ive ever seen! Love it!

Amazing all the ties that had been replaced at the time of this ideo.

Wow. Great train history video 👍👍👍

I started filming 94 loyallhana...hillside.. derry.... sandusky....Westfield..ash and Conneaut oh vhs...old school

Original.... Genuine..... A Treasure. ...

That's what I like to here brother. Its just coming back home. Hope everything is going well with you and your boy Take care, and thanks again for all your complements,,,

As the old saying goes, "It was the best of times, and the worst of times..." Sure do miss the EL, and seeing those Alcos on mainline freights! Also, and I hate to admit it, I miss Conrail now too!

love all the old videos you share, thank you again!

Awesome!

When a young supervisor, David Levan, rode around that curve shortly after Conrail was formed, his question was “why the hell do we have FOUR tracks here?!!!” He had one of them ripped up soon enough.

Not a great time for railroading in the Northeast. It was sad to see EL locomotives, far from home, on former Penny tracks, with "CR" quickly slapped on them. All the great railroads we had consolidated into one system, with plenty of abandonments in the process. It wasn't a pleasant sight but there just wasn't enough traffic support all the rail roads. It looks as if lots of ties have recently been replaced at the time you took these movies. Penn Central certainly need that and a lot more. Interesting video. It's nice to see cabooses and the steam locomotive still in place on Horseshoe Curve. Thanks for posting. By the way, there's a good video made by Penn Central on You Tube about the state of the railroad in 1974. It gives you a good idea of how badly the physical plant, motive power and rolling stock had deteriorated at that time. It was a painful era.

Very cool footage!

I love it now

Sorry about that Jack; I Always look for and READ, lol, the notes. Now, whether or not They sink into my So-called Mind, is another matter!! ☺✌Ty Jack!! Have a Great day!!

When Stanley Crane became president in 1981, he rode over Horseshoe and his first response was “what the f*** have we got FOUR tracks here for?!!” Main #2 was gone by year’s end.

AWESOME VID!!! Man do I miss those great blue bulls.

Absolutely beautiful!

love the sd45 s thoes sre great engs of all time

Nice video! Love the old school Conrail EMD’s!

This is nice.

Great video man! Those must have been the days..

What a GREAT shot of the Old Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive @1:10!! 🚂

Yes I did Nickolas. They used a bunch of my early Conrail Clips. He also just released a DVD on the B&O which there are a few clips of mine as well. Thanks for watching...

Love the Conrail SD40-2 RS3L And the Lawkawanna SD45!

Wow. Conrail sure had a eclectic mix of road power between the aling Alco's to the GE's down to EMD's as choices either leading or helper power up the grade around the curve or braking power goin down!

This is awesome great video of the good olde days

Interesting to see 6693 & 6694 together. one still in EL colors & one in CR blue.

That track on Horseshoe is looking rough....CR was probably trying to recover from PC's (and PRR's) deferred maintenance, it took years to overcome that.

Jack, thanks for uploading this. This is a sweet piece of history never to be seen again in the foreseeable future. I enjoyed watching this video, keep cool things like this coming!

Beautiful!

Don't care for the "canopener con" but enjoy those diesels, ALCo's & those big-ol freight of yesteryear!

This is just an all around amazing video! I love seeing the Birth of Conrail in this and you can still see the K4 standing tall up on the curve. Another thing if you notice all the railroad ties on the sides on the tracks. I presume these were old ties in bad need of replacement. Once Conrail took over the funds were available to start rebuilding the poor rail quality that Penn central had.

When I lived in Roebling,NJ a CSX freight would come through every night and it was almost always led by a Conrail unit

Wow that place has changed so much! Awesome video!!!

Great video Jack. I love the raw and gritty video and sound you get with the 8mm.

Loved the video

love your videos

That whole situation with the K4 REALLY upsets me. So many theories on where it is. Chances are it's never going to be finished, at least not for a long time. Really frustrating

Holy Shit. This is amazing.

That classic Pennsy signal bridge.

2:33 Ian "EdwardJSmithTitanic/ConrailFan76" 's favorite engine! still in EL paint too from when it was 3674

Great memories this movie brings ... Thanks jackmp294.5 ...

Great Guns Jack, Thank you for the memories, Great sound too on your film transfer. Keep them coming. I am subscribing. The EL SDP45s were beastlt and always had a door open somewhere. LOL.

Great vid

Wow Jack! Classic stuff! You need to put this stuff on a DVD!

Norfolk Southern's Heritage Units can still be seen on Horseshoe Curve off & on here in 2014.

Excellent footage and sound Jack!

awesome video

@conrailqualityguy Glad you enjoy them. Thanks for watching...

There were still 4 tracks in 1977? I first went in 1981 and there were only 3! I last went in the early 2000s...and still just 3! Shame that K4 isn't there any more-but, then again, they removed it to run it. I have a photo someplace of it on the way to the Herr's plant in Nottingham! Great shots of the westbound movements up the grade! I have shots of some locos with the Conrail logo on the nose...and the PC "worms in love" still on the sides!

With the exception of the NS “horsehead” scheme, has there ever a better basic black paint scheme than Penn Central’s? They had a classic logo with modern Microgramma Bold font for the lettering. It was bold yet subdued at the same time, as if PC was afraid to be more splashy, given the rock-bottom condition of their railroad. Perhaps adding safety striping on the nose and tail to liven it up just a little but not really necessary. PC’s logo was an instant classic on the same plane as Canadian National’s “wet noodle.” If Stanley Crane had not felt there needed to be a clean break, that scheme would have had a good long run. It would have looked perfectly at home on the side of a GEVO or an ACe.

All the old 2nd generation diesels 😊

Beautiful footage Jack!!! We need a time machine!!!

Now there was conrail in former reading lines paint, and former Penn central paint, along with errie Lackawanna

The rock face is still somewhat black from all the years of Pennsy steamers belching smoke going up the curve.

Great shot at 1:06 with the K4 in the foreground.

Giving it all they got!

In the dictionary under "Railroading", it says to see this video. :) Great one! Thanks for sharing!

@RailfanTube I did catch a few "Bee Line" units. SD45, and a few U30C's...

It is now used by Norfolk Southern (Known affectionately as "The Thoroughbred of Transportation").

The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, not like they did back in 1954.

"Ah, Conrail, the government run railroad with their patriotic read white and blue paint scheme" "What? There's no red on their engines!" "Red is the color of their bottom line"

Excellent Jack!! ☺✌Ty for the cool memories!! The "Conrail" loco @ the approx 2:35 min mark, #6659, is that the former "Family Lines Service" (I think that's what the correct name was) paint scheme??

It looks like one of the first things Conrail did was put new ties on the Shoe.

Someday,Plets Express should add these to their Videos.If they got a chance to.

AWESOME! Did you ever catch any Reading Lines "Bee Line Service" SD45's?

I'm more surprised to see SD40-2s already in helper service than anything else. I had always thought the early Dash-2s (the 6300s) didn't arrive in the helper pool until the early 90s. I know most of CR's odd balls (like the SD35s and EL's various SD45 models) and the older SD40s, especially of CNJ heritage, dominated the helper pool in the first 15 years or so. Though I guess this was still the period that, if it ran, put it on a train. GP7s and C636s together were not uncommon in this time frame!

What ever happened to all of erie lackawannas SDP45s?

Jack, the thing I really like about your videos is how you had the knowledge to use real sound. You go watch those Green Frog videos, and all the sound is dubbed in. Not on yours. I really enjoy your footage, and I hope your uploads continue for a long time.

If you dont mind me asking, do you know what exact camera model you used was? I've been interesting in getting into film.

I will never understand why they got rid of the alcos when they did. The Centurys were barley even 12 years old.

Has there been much enhancement with this video? Looks better than the earlier analog video footage. Great upload.

Is that the actual audio for that footage?

Anyone know why they took out the 4th track?

Im sorry I nevet made it to Horeshoe Curve but Ibdo havr. Pentrex DVD Ofvit

you should do dvds

Shouldn't this have been shot on 4/15/76?