Hello. I've never railfanned in the East or seen a single Conrail engine. The only layout I've ever built was a pathetic attempt at CN in HO. Then, around 1997, I saw some Model Railroader articles on Conrail and instantly fell in love with with Big Blue and its finest engine, the SD80MAC. Whenever I get the chance to build a layout worthy of my dreams, I'll model Conrail in N scale, and set the layout in 1997. I used to think I was an (aspiring) present-day modeller, but I was wrong. I was a 90s modeller (but it happened to be the 90s then). We aren't gone.
Hi to all. Yeah Love those "White Smileys" SD 80 Macs. I wonder how well they would have looked if the White stripe had followed all along the Long Hood & around the back. Then maybe not. They look Unique in their as applied livery. Then again WE ALL LOVE ALL OF BIG BLUE. Right. Thanks.
Big Blue is still alive and well in my train room and we are still here. Just got done with a detail project of CR GP40-2`s...
Conrail is still a very big presence on the rails in my part of Northern Va. Big Blue is sometimes the leader in an NS consist. Sometimes, Big Blue is not. But the CRs I still see are all Quality. I rarely ever see a Conrail without the word Quality anymore.
I saw a couple of NS trains led by the blue units today. For the most part, all I ever see are the GE's, though we do have a GP15 for local duty and occasionally an SD50 or SD60M. Harold
Don, Those are really great photos of a bygone era... I still see a little "blue" on NS, but it is fading fast. Harold
Really nice photos! I've never been able to get used to those speaker/megaphone style horns/bells. They look so out of place. Such as on a Bulldog nose like 2024. Do I see the roof of an interlocking tower behind the train? Boxcab E50
It seems like L&N used some of those... they were actually "electronic bells" that looked like megaphones...
What you are looking at is a Hancock Air Whistle on top of the cab of a Metro North FL9. By-the-way, I am curious as to how this unit managed to appear in a Conrail topic.
The FL-9 doesn't really belong here...I threw it in because I was too lazy to start up a thread in the passenger section. (It was once under Conrail ownership).
I was excited to see some ex-CR locos today: one train had an ex-LMS loco on the point (still in CR blue) and the other train had a pair of CR-Quality painted SD60's: an SD60M and an SD60I. Harold