The Big Blue Conrail | The Hero of the American Railroad Industry

The Big Blue Conrail | The Hero of the American Railroad Industry | History in the Dark

Рет қаралды 40,435

Күн бұрын

Footage source: • Video
When Penn Central collapsed in the beginning of the 1970's, the future of the northeastern United State's rail industry was uncertain at best. The government responded by forming the Consolidated Rail Corporation: better known as Conrail, to clean up the mess. It took some time, pay cuts, layoffs, and branch line abandonment, but by 1981 Conrail was generating a profit and would continue to do so right up until the end.
0:00 - Intro
0:55 - The Backstory
10:16 - Formation
15:54 - Righting the Wrongs
21:42 - Final Act
"Conrail (reporting mark CR), formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway."
🚂 Further reading 🚂
www.american-rails.com/conrai...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrail
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#history #truestory #documentary

Пікірлер: 226

@noahdavidson8733 Жыл бұрын

My stepfather put in 30 years at Conrail/NS Conway Yard, how far the bar has fallen today. Was at a Halloween party with my family a few years ago and one of his old buddies happened to be around. I was wearing a Conrail shirt, he commented on it and said "You can't wear that around me, it makes me think of better times and makes me sad."

@therailfanman2078 Жыл бұрын

Conrail: the railroad that was surprisingly good, still underrated to this day

@Interestingenough4 Жыл бұрын

The funny thing about Penn Central was how in the late 1990s, the merger ended up essentially being undone when Conrail was split between CSX and NS.

@93greenstrat Жыл бұрын

Yes. And in addition, the split ended up being mostly what the planners had proposed if N&W and Chessie had stepped in decades earlier.

@DanTDMJace 5 ай бұрын

@@93greenstrat I never noticed that!

@Engine33Truck Жыл бұрын

Conrail was the best, and should’ve stayed around to this day. It should’ve been sold in a way that prevented CSX and NS to gain control of it so that it would allow for more competition. A few friends of mine work in a steel mill in various departments that interface with the railroad. Some deal with the raw materials coming in and some deal with product going out. Because of the old Virginian interchanges in the area, the mill actually dealt with all 3 railroads (and others like PC and obviously VGN, but before their time). They’ve all said that Conrail was by far the best and easiest to work with. Their railroad-customer interface was the smoothest to navigate, and if they promised 8 trains at 1 hour intervals between 8am and 4pm, unless something major happened those trains arrived as scheduled on schedule. NS was not that good, but not really bad. They’ve said several times that CSX was by far the worst to deal with. One said he remembered finished product that was supposed to be hauled by CSX laying around for almost 2 weeks without getting the promised train. Finally they ended up asking Conrail if there was any way they could get that product to its destination. Naturally Conrail pulled a train out of its ass for them, and the mill called CSX and told them to get lost.

@midmichiganrr24gp9 Жыл бұрын

Csx is one of the worst to work with. I'm at a regional railroad and we interchange with csx, and they never show up on time. Meanwhile our customers are wondering where there cars are.

@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis Жыл бұрын

Technically, Conrail still exists as a subsidiary of CSX and Norfolk Southern (which ironically is the direct descendant of a former subsidiary, Norfolk and Western), to handle certain industrial trackage to preserve competition.

@110_Octane 6 ай бұрын

Shoulda been given to the NYSW to keep 3 railroads in the area.

@zyancuerdo1615 5 ай бұрын

Well that definitely says something about the reliability of conrail

@NationalGuard5 Жыл бұрын

Surprised you didn't mention the Chase collision back in 1987. That wreck prompted all rail networks to perform random drug checks on crew members.

@gamerfan8445 Жыл бұрын

To be fair it been talk to death.

@michaelimbesi2314 Жыл бұрын

It wasn’t what initially drove the push for random drug tests, although it did give it a big boost. The FRA had made a rule requiring it, but a group representing the unions sued to stop the rule. As that case (Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives) was being decided by the Supreme Court, the collision happened. Unsurprisingly, the Court then ruled that it was OK to randomly drug test people in safety sensitive positions and did not violate the 4th Amendment’s rules against unreasonable search and seizure.

@SantaFe19484 Жыл бұрын

Where was this at?

@NationalGuard5 Жыл бұрын

@@SantaFe19484 Chase, Maryland

@rustyshackleford6637 Жыл бұрын

What does that mean, railroaders could smoke weed before 1987?

@DEBOK3RI Жыл бұрын

My grandfather was a employee of Conrail, he worked there for many years. He retired when Norfolk Southern bought them out. He sadly passed away years ago but seeing a video on them gets a like from both me n him.

@Winternight11 Жыл бұрын

Rest in pese 😢

@Winternight11 Жыл бұрын

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

@fanofeverything30465 Жыл бұрын

So sorry for your loss 😢

@SR_superior_1000 Жыл бұрын

Rest in peace 😥😥

@fanofeverything30465 Жыл бұрын

@@Winternight11 *Peace

@wildcatindustries8030 Жыл бұрын

When I was growing up I remember seeing Conrail SD40s everywhere and Conrail Quality on just about every coal car, even to this day those cars are still in service and lined up at the coke ovens and tipples. Some part of it still lives on but I have to say, the Big Blue paint scheme is definitely top of my list for best looking. There’s just something refreshing about seeing a color rarely used in the rail industry anymore

@e-train765 Жыл бұрын

Also one of my favorite railroads (Nickel Plate Road is my number 1) I was born in 1990 so I was fortunate enough to see some Conrail action; I'm VERY fond of their early GE locomotives.

@JessicaKasumi1990 Жыл бұрын

I often call Conrail the Gentle Blue Giant. Say what you will about some of the decisions made by CR, but, they were a good employer according to many crews I know and they were good with Amtrak too. CR is in my top 5 railroad fallen flags list. Here they are: 5. Norfolk & Western Railway 4. Boston and Maine Railroad 3. Southern Pacific Railroad 2. Conrail 1. Pennsylvania Railroad Note: CR and PRR are tied for No. 1.

@GregGigglego0p Жыл бұрын

I also miss the Pennsylvania Railroad I was born long after they vanished😢

@jamesgarrison8066 Жыл бұрын

It’s not completely gone. Juniata Shops is still live and well under NS ownership and the former NYC routes have replaced some of the old B&O in CSX’s modern route structure. The PRR is perhaps most alive though, under Amtrak. The PRR’s Harrisburg line, not to mention the NEC is a major part of Amtrak’s network. :)

@dknowles60 10 ай бұрын

Con rail was way better then the PRR. the PRR had been losing money since the end of WW2, Only 40% of the Prr is around and most of it is east of Pittsburg, Now i like the Ex Prr from east Saint louis to Terre Haute, it was well done with very long passing sidings Very well rebuilt by Con Rail Trash by CSX

@user-mr3ct1dm9p Ай бұрын

RR exec. EXTRAORDINAIRE DKNOWLES-- well, if he says it, it MUST be true, because he knows EVERYTHING about certain RR's !!!!! NEVER. WRONG!!!!! ALWAYS. CORRECT!!!!! BUT----hates black and orange locos. Wonder why that is ???

@williamloeber6253 3 ай бұрын

33 years on the job, started with PC, most of the time was CR, and ended with NS. I still miss CR to this day. Thanks for the memories. 😊

@Evilgraph775 Жыл бұрын

Okay not a lot of people know that conrail is actually still around it just doesn’t do train’s anymore. There was a museum on them that has just opened in Shippensburg PA, but the best part is it’s all inside 2 rail cars from not only Conrail, they also have an old Penn Central car as well

@m301 11 ай бұрын

Conrail still runs from N.J. to Chicago Monday to Friday.

@SouthJerseyRailfan 9 ай бұрын

Conrail still exists and they are still an active railroad. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, they have different routes throughout those areas. They're a "paper railroad" jointly owned by NS and CSX to mitigate a monopoly in either of those regions.

@ESchillertiger444444 Жыл бұрын

These long form videos are always a treat. The way u have setup this story through multiple videos makes it so much easier to follow. Hopefully the future has plenty more videos in this style

@mityace Жыл бұрын

A good, even handed summary of the life of Conrail. I'm old enough to see the creation of the company.

@thenekom Жыл бұрын

I grew up seeing Conrail Cadillacs, SD80MACs on the old MGA line. Still saw them NS patched but still in blue well into the 2000s. They're all up North for parts now I think.

@tacticalcalebgaming7264 Жыл бұрын

You mean in Windber? I grew up seeing those engines in Windber dragging coal

@thenekom Жыл бұрын

@@tacticalcalebgaming7264 I saw them on the Monongahela river lines but I believe they were used in coal drags anywhere in the Conrail system. Last time I saw any was on a branch line that went to Eighty Four mine before it closed but by then they were in full NS paint.

@ChessieSystem2101 Жыл бұрын

I actually live next to where a former line that was part of the Delaware Lackawanna & Western which I believe was closed down by Conrail. The railbed is now called the Plainfield township trail, but I would have loved it to see a RR line right next to my house (even though it would most likely be owned by Norfolk Southern.)

@iannarita9816 Жыл бұрын

One person you miss in all this Jim Hagen. Jim Hagen was the person who sold the Conrail monopoly in the Northeast, by pretending that the Delaware and Hudson(D&H) would provide competition with only track age rights to Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Alexandria, Va. Eventually D&H would be sold to Canadian Pacific and then split in two. With Albany to Wilkes-Barre being sold to Norfolk and Southern. The North end to Montreal CP uses to move bulk oil trains to the Port of Albany. In fifty years northeast railroading has had so much change. From the complete loss of coal traffic to intermodal. One of Stan Crane's first acts as head of Conrail was the changes he made on the ex Pennsylvania RR from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. He ripped out one of the tracks thru Altoona and around Horseshoe Curve. Making it three instead of four tracks. He also installed continuous welded rail and concrete ties. These items saved 100's of millions of dollars. He also abandoned the ex Pennsylvania main line to Chicago (the Central line thru Elkhart has a major classification yard that NS uses today). One other major player gone unremarked, Ed Jordan. Jordan was the first major voice to say deregulation. He saw that Conrail could not exist in its political and regulatory environment. Jordan said as much and then departed for Cornell. Stan Crane came in and built on what Jordan had started. Jim McClellan gets a lot of notice because he was there and telling people about it, over goodly doses of bourbon.

@dknowles60 10 ай бұрын

3 tracking Horse shoe curve was a very good idea the ex NYC was moving the same amount of trains with 2 tracks as the ex prr was moving with 4 tracks, the Ex Prr had no traffic or shipers west of pittsburg. Stan Crane made it Happen Jim Mc Clellan was Ex NYC and made a lot of things happen, lot of people from the Ex NYC went on to become CEO's of other Rail roads. No one from the prr side went on to become CEO's of other Rain roads

@user-mr3ct1dm9p Ай бұрын

@@dknowles60Your source for this statement?????

@CNYRF97 Жыл бұрын

I've always loved Conrail, I may've came into being around back when CSX was starting to take over, but I always loved seeing trains being hauled by the big blue locomotives up front. ^_^

@93greenstrat Жыл бұрын

Interestingly, it was NS that initially made a move on CR, but CSX fought it saying that such a merger would force them to abandon most of the B&O. Years later, here comes CSX with an offer.

@johntitterton4840 Жыл бұрын

Comment at time mark 21:11. Having spent 14 years working at Conrail until the split between NS and CSX, there were no corrupt managers at the company.

@robertsiebenrock3997 6 ай бұрын

This video should be put out fot sale as it is very detailed and most enjoyable. I worked for NYC/PC and with the B@O.

@paulboger3101 Жыл бұрын

This video is absolutely brilliant!! Thanks from an Aussie Conrail fan 🖖

@adventureseeker9800 Жыл бұрын

Totally addictive channel. Loads of fun! _Subbed!_

@buckeyfan7623 10 ай бұрын

Great videos man!!

@SP4449Railfan Жыл бұрын

I wish I could have seen Conrail when it was running, I love the paint scheme and locomotives they ran 💙🤍

@derekthelehighvalleyfoamer4427 Жыл бұрын

You should do a video on Pam Am World Airways. I’m just saying, if you like doing videos on fallen flag railroads, then you’re gonna LOVE what happened to Pan Am. Arguably a lost icon in the aviation industry.

@therailfanman2078 Жыл бұрын

Went from a good airway to a shitty railroad.

@paulboger3101 Жыл бұрын

Good idea!! I second that proposal.

@qdogccfc8258 Жыл бұрын

There’s actually 2 abandoned Conrail cabooses 0.29 miles from my house They’re actually owned by someone who’s owned them for the past 20 years with hopes to restore them but hasn’t happened I offered that if he wants to start work on restoration, I’m willing to help

@kelvintorrence5994 Жыл бұрын

Do they want 2 sell them

@qdogccfc8258 Жыл бұрын

@@kelvintorrence5994 For I believe 40k, I talked to the owner once But he has seen how much work I have put in Clearing the brush I have been working on them since December of last year So I probably have at least 100 hours of work into them The N5B is 22919, the N5C is 23184

@leehuff2330 Жыл бұрын

Talk about things going in circles, given the current dumpster fire that is Norfolk Southern and CSX.

@NarodowyPolski1864 Жыл бұрын

Finally darkness has listened to me about my favorite railroad Conrail.

@jamesgarrison8066 Жыл бұрын

Have you thought about doing a video on Conrail’s companion railroad Amtrak? For better or for worse, the US rail industry would not be what it is today without Amtrak. Also, it would be nice to have someone like you discuss Amtrak, because it gets shit on a lot for not being “profitable” or “well ran”, when in reality it’s surprising how well Amtrak has managed to operate, considering how little money they get from congress each year and how many times congress has threatened to cut its funding all together.

@93greenstrat Жыл бұрын

PC was such a mess that it basically took itself to court when subsidiary P&LE filed suit due to its parent's "questionable" accounting practices.

@D-Rick_ Жыл бұрын

In my hometown we have three railroads, Canadian National, Norfolk Southern, and a short line Kankakee Beaverville and Southern. Norfolk Southern is ex Cornail, Canadian National is ex Illinois Central, and KB&S is ex New York Central. New York Central used to have there own station and roundhouse were the big four were stored, and then later used for diesel engines. When Conrail was formed they saw no need for the branch line which was now badly maintained, and so they cut it from the main railroad. The branch line later became part of the short line KB&S

@Ray.Tompkins.02 6 ай бұрын

I love the KBS. I live in Kankakee, I remember seeing it a lot. Now I rarely see it, mostly because I’m not in a position where I can see it.

@bagoquarks 5 ай бұрын

You illustrate a principle for naming railroads: "The longer the name, the shorter the short line." One example still in business is the COER, the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad in southern Illinois.

@oldclip70 Жыл бұрын

Jarvis Langdon was the president of the Rock Island too. He did some things to improve their fortunes, but the ICC dragged their feet.

@johnclement5903 Жыл бұрын

Sadly, the American freight railroads would probably have avoided all those nasty bankruptcies if the damn ICC stopped choking the life out of them. The Staggers Act came about 10 years too late. How the Federal Government Works: If it moves, tax it. If it still moves, regulate it. When it stops moving, subsidize it.

@TheGs4_4449 Жыл бұрын

You know it’s a good day when Darkness uploads a train video.

@MarceloBenoit-trenes Жыл бұрын

One of the issues not addressed in the video is that Conrail sold a lot of trackage to Amtrak (NEC, Harrisburg and other lines) and commuter RRs. Also ended the electric operation of freight trains, one issue that, for me, was a wrong action.

@ww32 Жыл бұрын

It's funny because now with these PSR trains you almost need a 5 man crew again to run them safely.

@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis Жыл бұрын

The Chicago Great Western was already running these enormous trains back in the 1960s, with as many as 9 EMD F-units for power! (However, 4-6 was more common on many trains.)

@SantaFe19484 Жыл бұрын

Awesome video! The scene at 21:34 is at my hometown of Duncannon, PA.

@AaronMark-ns8df 6 ай бұрын

Well Done .. Big Blue .. A+ ..

@jamesinman1198 Жыл бұрын

I miss Conrail. It was a great railroad company! I remember seeing Conrail locomotives hauling very long freight trains!🙂

@TravelingRailfan501 9 ай бұрын

and an April fools' prank

@donnie2832 Жыл бұрын

Railroads and trucking companies have very interesting histories. 👍

@m.a.mehalick0910 5 ай бұрын

Ahh... I grew up watching Big Blue on the move. Seeing it again brings back some good memories

@CindyHarris-rd4gb 5 ай бұрын

Crq was my second favorite railroad. I do miss seeing them in order with NS coming through Asheville.

@cmphighpower Жыл бұрын

Good old tear up the rails. Never seen a branch line they didn’t want to tear up

@pinecone01 Жыл бұрын

I miss big blue too, nice documentary though 👍

@stevenplyler6306 Жыл бұрын

I have 4 Big Blue Conrail Locomotives in 3 rail O-Gauge ! A Dash-8, ( a Dash-7 and or a U-Boat due to the basically similar car body design ), a SD-60M, and SD-70MAC !

@AngryCatMan1982 Жыл бұрын

@11:56 you mentioned & pictured the Mid-Atlantic Railroad. The MRR was a shortline that ran from Mullins, SC to Conway, SC from 1987 to 1995. It was a privately owned successor to the very short lived Duval Transportation of the Carolinas DUVT. Of which purchased the line from SBD shortly before the Chessie merger. Carolina Southern Railroad CALA purchased the MRR in 1995. By the 2000's conditions mimicked the Penn Central, and by 2012 were forced to shutter all operations. RJ Corman would eventually purchase the line in 2015.

@lawrencejones1517 7 ай бұрын

I have such fond memories of in the 80s and 90s. Most of the time, it was GP40s all over where I lived in Northern Jersey, although there was a yard right next to the Turnpike south of Newark airport that switched to several refineries that had a bucket load of SW1500. That was probably my favorite bit of railfanning, those switchers shuffling around flocks of big black tank cars, with the occasional GP38/40 pulling off a string. There was also the monster hump yard next to the 'Pike, too. The 90s brought in the first wide cab units, GE 40CW-8s, pulling double stacks. Yep, good memories!

@ejdsndnj 26 күн бұрын

what about GP40-2s?

@sirrliv Жыл бұрын

Funny little sidebar to this story: By the mid-1990's Conrail was doing so well that when the government offered the railroad up for sale to the public the highest bidder was actually the workers themselves! Conrail's workers wanted to buy their own railroad so that they would be the ones in control. Congress obviously shot this down, seeing it as, well, communism, which it kinda was, the workers seizing the literal machinery of production. But again, they were willing to pay for it, and pay more than anyone else. But no, because Communism. Conrail's assets were instead awarded to the second highest bidders, which went on to become parts of CSX and Norfolk Southern as stated here. And we're all seeing what a bang up job private corporations are doing at learning from the mistakes made by Penn Central, and no I can't even finish that thought with a straight face.

@wargamz9051 10 ай бұрын

Speaking of Conrail, I think you should do the logansport cluster and kokomo indiana. I live in the area and they had like 5 or 6 different railroads come and go in 30 years. It was nuts, very exciting to do research on!

@graphtonix6607 Жыл бұрын

U23B unit 2786 is my favorite EX CONRAIL locomotive ever!!!!!

@spencerfesing4145 Жыл бұрын

Like a phoenix from the ashes of Penn Central came the mighty Conrail.

@steamrailwilly Жыл бұрын

There are some Conrail boxcars near a city close to my home town. If they are being used or not is unknown to me, since they are sitting the end of a siding.

@jollyjohnthepirate3168 Жыл бұрын

Please do a video covering the Santa Fe.

@larkinproductions971 5 ай бұрын

My great uncles worked for Conrail in the Juniata shops in Altoona

@matthewwolff3729 Жыл бұрын

Your next video should be about the Staggers rail act!

@tommythomason6187 Жыл бұрын

I don't recall which railroad wanted to merge with which, but maybe if New York Central had been allowed to join up with Norfolk and Western (or whichever line it was) that would have been a better option. There should have never been a Penn Central. The ICC made it hard for railroads to get anything done in a practical manner.

@dknowles60 10 ай бұрын

it was the NYC that wanted to merge with the B&O, the PRR owen a lot of N&W stock but the N&W did not want the PRR, no Body Wanted the PRR

@fanofeverything30465 10 ай бұрын

Wonder what Alfred E Perlman would have thought of Norfolk and Western keeping their steam engines long after most other American railways had gotten rid of theirs

@dknowles60 10 ай бұрын

@@fanofeverything30465 nOTHING. THE N&W was Making Big money. Perlman was busy rebuilding the NCY and needed Every penny he could get,

@thebigstink7472 8 ай бұрын

NS has a conrail heritage unit it runs. You can somewhat track it as well

@trainfan4449 8 ай бұрын

so the big thing missed, is the financial issues that the company had at its end. CR had billions in loans that would be coming due through the 2000's into the 2010's. the company wasnt making enough to cover the loans, and they knew it. along with the coming need to replace the bulk of its rolling stock fleet(as outside of a small set of orders through its time, existed mostly off of leased, pool, and/or predecessor equipment. the locomotive roster was also behind on replacements as many of its units were nearing 25+ years at the end. CR also didnt have the reach that NS and CSX did, which had cut a significant amount of traffic due to no longer needing to interchange, and thus money on those shipments. CR saw the writing on the wall and noped out before the whole thing imploded like the PC before them. had they stayed independent, there is a over 90% chance the company would have imploded between 2008 and 2012 during that massive recession.

@fanofeverything30465 Жыл бұрын

I was wondering when you would do a video on Conrail

@Zach_Bloomquist 9 ай бұрын

Conrail will always be my favorite railroad for many reasons but most because the employees were always very friendly, kind and great workers. As a kid I lived very close to one of their secondary lines and would walk down when I could and wave and say hi when they went thru town. I miss the railroad dearly. Railroading in the northeast is nothing like it was 25 years ago. Very much in contraction with empty siding in the weeds everywhere and fewer trains. NS and CSX ain't the same even if I like parts of their business. Conrail had people who loved railroading because they saved railroading from extinction. They loved railroading because they came from bankrupt roads who were proud but fallen. But they got back up day after day and made Conrail a massive success.

@SimonTekConley Жыл бұрын

I would've appreciated a video pertaining to the raiload itself versus how it got that way. Also have consider doing a top 5 speeder video?

@candycrushhater5828 Жыл бұрын

🎶I'm blue Da ba dee da ba di Da ba dee da ba di Da ba dee da ba di I’m blue Da ba dee da ba di Da ba dee da ba di Da ba dee da ba di 🎶 I just had to, seeing how that was part of your community post from last week.

@bluecollarden Жыл бұрын

Hello HITD, I wonder what you think about the recent merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern. If you decide to make a video about it, you know I'll be watching it.

@paulboger3101 Жыл бұрын

I'll second this one too!!

@solarflare623 Жыл бұрын

Happy 4-20 everyone!

@haraldisdead 8 ай бұрын

Conrail just gifted us at the PA Railroad Museum a locomotive from 1838. Come check it out.

@ghostrider1455 Жыл бұрын

Yes a 4/20 miracle I will enjoy it

@Doll.The.Solver 11 ай бұрын

You should have retrenched the chase Marilyn train collision in this video, when 2 Amtrak aem7’s crashed into the back of an conrail train, and In the conrail train, they were smoking marawanna.

@Doll.The.Solver 11 ай бұрын

Also ment to say refrence

@ErikVince 15 күн бұрын

And technically there is still a Conrail locomotive left but it's considered a heritage unit it's number is NS 8098

@ethanb.3342 5 ай бұрын

Possible hot take, NS should be exhanged out for Conrail... It was beautiful.. It was so beautiful.. 🥺

@Sacto1654 10 ай бұрын

Conrail essentially was a beneficiary of the Steggers Act and the arrival of an executive from the Southern Railway, at that time arguably the best-run railroad in the USA. (Southern Railway pioneered many of the operational aspects of modern railroading, when D. William Brosnan took on the Interstate Commerce Commission and made them look like fools.)

@bluntone2273 8 ай бұрын

You nailed it. The railroads were prevented from making changes to be profitable. They couldn’t raise prices, they couldn’t eliminate underused track. Staggers changed everything

@PantherLineProductionsofOhio 3 ай бұрын

Happy Conrail Day!!!!

@graphtonix6607 Жыл бұрын

I'm still very sad that U23B unit 2786 was scrapped on August 10th 2008.😢😢😢😢😢

@hambonethegreat9547 Жыл бұрын

Nicce I got the 500th thumbs up

@BNSF-2050 Жыл бұрын

Surprised he didn’t mention the NS Conrail heritage unit

@TheTexasTrainMaster Жыл бұрын

I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact that Norfolk Southern painted one of their locomotives to be a Conrail heritage unit

@michaelcurrie6008 10 ай бұрын

Here's an idea, let's do a story about railroads. That did not file bankruptcy at any time during their existence.

@Duececoupe Жыл бұрын

How about Great Northern, Northern Pacific or Southern Pacific next? 😉👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻

@jonathanng2390 Жыл бұрын

Most of the hate towards Conrail was about the amount of lines they abandoned. Conrail did what it had to do.

@dknowles60 2 ай бұрын

the NYC side had CTC in 1966. it was the PRR side that did not have CTC

@Conrailfan8098 Жыл бұрын

Does anyone know how to identify ex-Conrail and ex-Penn Central locomotives on CSX and NS? I want to identify them because I love 1970s and 1980s era railroading and want to keep it alive, partly through starting this channel.

@K8thebest_Gaming Жыл бұрын

If i was the head of Penn Central when it started blowing up id've begged Perlmen to come back

@dknowles60 10 ай бұрын

the the Problem was the Penn Central Rail road was run by the Ex PRR lossers

@user-mr3ct1dm9p Ай бұрын

@@dknowles60YES--- PRR losers. And how many years did PRR pay dividends to its shareholders?????? Maybe they should have had DKNOWLES as CEO-- then everything would have been perfect!!!! RIGHT??????????

@Bload72productions Жыл бұрын

Conrail is a good railroad, but I don't really like why it had to be created, in a sense the government created their own problem and fixed it, so I've never been a huge fan, I wish PRR, EL, and NYC could have survived so we didn't have just two class 1s on the Eastern US.

@johnclement5903 Жыл бұрын

See my comment above re: the ICC

@dknowles60 Жыл бұрын

the Prr was never going to Survived. the only One that had a Chance was the NYC

@Bload72productions Жыл бұрын

@@dknowles60 PRR had a rough time with the US government and that honestly was what did them in to join NYC in the first place, that and an over investment in steam power in the 40s put them slightly behind when dieselization occurred.

@dknowles60 Жыл бұрын

@@Bload72productions it was a lot more then that. they had a big miss management Problem. they also live off from N&W rr Stock divends, that money kept them from making the Hard Choices the time for Change to start would have been 1948. the Prr was a very costly rail road to run

@Bload72productions Жыл бұрын

@@dknowles60 to be fair the problems with the prr could stretch to a 30 minute documentary, they just had nothing go right from ww2 till they merged with NYC, with things both in and out of their control.

@tacticalcalebgaming7264 Жыл бұрын

Ah yes my dad’s favorite railroad company also his favorite one is SD80MACs

@redtowlie9 8 ай бұрын

I absolutely hait contrail for what they did in New Jersey with ripping up tracks that should have been left. They even went as far as trying to sell the right of way in pieces to private developers so trains could never run the line again. for that conrail gets a F-

@coolawesomeepicman4513 2 ай бұрын

I never got to live through this decade, but seeing this unfold and learning about it, as an ex-political science major in college, it's just depressing. The Penn Central collapse was avoidable, a LOT of those railroads could've been around today, government flatfooting on issues before they snowball is just like what the government would've done. They did nothing to stop the rising competition with car travel and especially air travel cross country. I am a little shocked that the ICC was using laws and regulations that had not been modified since the 1800s, like how did they not see the disaster? Commerce is massive in the USA so why do they not at least stay in touch with conditions with it's major rail services? I understand the creation of Conrail was not a bad thing, but it was a good thing that came from a bad thing that was totally avoidable. I also carry a bias against the ICC because they refused to let Southern Pacific Santa Fe exist and then let both railroads literally dissolve into the larger merger railroads around it. I hate that the situations for railroads in the 1970s got to that point, but people before me lived through it, and now it's history.

@andrewbowen4544 Жыл бұрын

CSX next please Darkness.

@southern207hobbies Жыл бұрын

Ah crash spill explode terminate =csxt

@markpalaszewski9712 Жыл бұрын

I wished thst they still existed. They were needed to keep competition in the north east.

@evangaines2303 Жыл бұрын

Conrail, the Phoenix of the Northeastern railroad's. Not even British Rail could compete.

@MK-of7qw 11 ай бұрын

Conrail needs to come back

@milindajageacks4440 8 ай бұрын

Erie pa most likely to be known for Erie lake wanna train. Always reminds of marajuanna trafficing

@kevinthecat6176 7 ай бұрын

Sadly, All Ex Conrail units as of 2023 were retired or rebuilt. The only Ex Conrail stuff you can see is the Sd40-2s on NS in horsehead scheme :(

@amtrakproductions-mx9ib 6 ай бұрын

However one ex conrail unit that was not rebuilt nor repainted was preserved that being GP30 2233 on display at the railroad museum of Pennsylvania

@joshatterberry2887 8 ай бұрын

Do the Missouri Kansas Texas railroad also known as the Katy

@TheFarix2723 Жыл бұрын

Conrails succeeded because they could do something that other RRs were not allowed to do: adapt to the changing market. Of course, if you listen to people like Alan Fisher, he would insist that Conrail's succeeded because it was nationalized and thus nationalizing industries is good.

@packr72 Жыл бұрын

Nationalization of industry like the railroads is good. Railroads are too important to the economy to be left to Wall Street to gut, like what’s happening now.

@sweetmyth2537 Жыл бұрын

I mean railroad aren’t exactly doing that today if fact they are actively destroying our rail infrastructure

@davidty2006 Жыл бұрын

Hmmm. US can atleast start with nationalising the track allowing for better control and regulation since if companies don't comply then they can't run.

@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis Жыл бұрын

Ironically, his video on that topic is one of the suggestions I see after this video (I’ve already seen it previously).

@dknowles60 10 ай бұрын

wrong i can tell you are very young and dont know history, your Idea was tryed in 1918. it was very big failure @@packr72

@zyancuerdo1615 5 ай бұрын

Remember working in a steel mill many times we had called conrail to spare an engine since csx coundt get their shit together and take a steel train that been sitting around for 2 weeks and 6 days now

@lucasquintanilla1673 Жыл бұрын

Darkness the curse was wondering what Congress had been doing up until the formation of conrail, but didn’t know. Let me hazard a guess, the mid-1970s would have been about the time that there would still have been issues surrounding the Watergate affair and issues such as the oil crisis and inflation. It’s potentially possible that it is these things that Congress has been hung up on, rather than fulfilling their duties of preventing a infrastructure collapse in the north eastern United States. That being said, I do think that Congress should have acted sooner with the disaster going on with the Northeast railroads potentially as soon as about the time that Amtrak was passed.

@joneades1364 Жыл бұрын

Video 2 of asking for an L&N video

@qdogccfc8258 Жыл бұрын

Both are Ex PRR Ones a N5C and the other an N5B

@davidhollfelder9940 11 ай бұрын

Railroad’s “hey day” was the 1st half of the 20th century, after that, we mostly saw a neglected, aging/run down system, milked into the ground .. that with a few exceptions, continues to this day .. the railroads seem to be an unwanted necessity.

@alanabyss9246 4 ай бұрын

Pen central walked so Conrail could Run

@GeneralJackRipper Жыл бұрын

The government solution to the government problem.

@MrVideoman777 Жыл бұрын

Nice video, but where the hell did you get all this footage? Some of it looks very familiar. I recognize stuff that came out of my camera even 36 years ago. You are a Pirate sir!