Conrail bandwagon

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Jason, did you do that? I want to give credit where due.

[wcfn100]

The sheep pic is some USDA deal, but yeah I did coloring and such.


Jason

[3rdrail]

I've heard of a Geep Thirty, guess we now have a Sheep Thirty in CR. Don't suppose one's in the RR Museum of PA as well, do ya??  ;D ;D ;D

[Ed Kapuscinski]

If you guys are tempted to join the flock, DON'T look at this gallery. Certainly don't look here: http://thecrhs.org/?q=node/902

[Dave V]

If you guys are tempted to join the flock, DON'T look at this gallery. Certainly don't look here: http://thecrhs.org/?q=node/902

You've been Con-Rolled.

[DKS]

i dislike passenger trains - dare i say hate?

Strange. I'm the same way. And yet I model a tourist line, hence I must grudgingly include some token passenger equipment.

As for Conrail, been there, fun while it lasted, but will likely go in another direction next time around.

[wcfn100]

And just because somebody had to..



Jason

edit: didn't mean to leave Dave out.

[Puddington]

I don't get it....................

With absolutely no malace a forththought, and with no critique of anyone intended, I have to state that I just don't get the "Conrail affliction"; and I don't understand the attraction, nor it's popularity.

I understand; share the love of, and appreciate the traditional lines, (PRR; C&O, B&O, WM, etc.....) I "get" the attraction of the "second generation" lines that came out of the first round of wholescale mergers ( Chessie (Sorry Lee) PC, etc....)

I don't understand the Conrail craze. I think the colour scheme is vintage 1970's - 1980's simplistic (I'm thinkin Blue Jay's powder blue); the logo as bad as, if not worse than the CP Rail Pacman and the "history" of the line undistinquinshed and , well, "pedestrian." No real "history" of it's own; no passenger operations and a failed ending.... what am I missing ? There has to be something that is dragging so many excellent modelers to the "Conrail pulpit".....

Now; I'm no expert and I sincerely want to understand the attraction; cause I just don't see it.

Can someone enlighten me ?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sure!
For me, it comes down to three things.

The first is that it was what I grew up with, something I'm sure that factors in for many modelers.

The second was that I enjoy the earlier equipment that I didn't get to see: the "rainbow" era, with all those paint outs. They sure had lots of character and visual interest, which is something that I find severely lacking in modern day railroading.

The last (and probably the least) is that to me, Conrail was proof that not EVERYTHING the government does turns out poorly. It was one of the few US government things that actually worked, and worked well. Those examples are few and far between, and I find this one interesting.

But those are just my reasons. I'm sure many others have their own.

[GonzoCRFan]

No real "history" of it's own; no passenger operations and a failed ending.... what am I missing ?

Whoa whoa whoa whoa....a "FAILED" ending? Tons of people didn't want to see Conrail go away, but a business growing to become such a lucrative target that it is purchased for damn near $11 billion can hardly be called a failure...  ???

[Ian MacMillan]

No real "history" of it's own; no passenger operations and a failed ending.... what am I missing ?

Whoa whoa whoa whoa....a "FAILED" ending? Tons of people didn't want to see Conrail go away, but a business growing to become such a lucrative target that it is purchased for damn near $11 billion can hardly be called a failure...  ???

Exactly.... Lot of people think of traditional merger/takeover/split up terms when it comes to Conrail, but it didn't fit Wall Streets definition for those...it was successful and desired. Conrail was taken from us because of that, not because it failed as a businesses. People should read "The Men Who Loved Trains" to get the in depth story behind it.

I love Conrail, because other than Guilford, it is the railroad I grew up with and railfanned. I like big blue trains. 80Macs on the B&A......40-2 helpers in Altoona...what easterner cant love that!?

[lock4244]

Pud, I guess you never knew CR. Several times a year my father would drive us from Toronto to Buffalo starting in 1988 or 1989 for some "MLA" (Main Line Action) as he called it. CN and CP are great, don't get me wrong, but their mainlines in Ontario have ample time to grow moss. Not Big Blue! On the Waterlevel Route we we're treated to train after train after train. New power, lots of GE's (big deal to a Canadian back then with none on CN or CP, 2400's we're not yet on the road), trains were LONG, and they moved at 70mph. Solid lines of pig and double stacks, double and triple track. It was, to quote the noted philosopher Pea Tear Griffin, "Freakin' Sweet"!

I guess there is a natural tendency to hold dear the memories of childhood. For many in their 20's and 30's, CR is their PRR, NYC, B&O, WP, SOU, NKP, WM, or N&W; the road that fed their love of trains and is forever linked to those formative years. CR is the road of their youth that disappeared too soon. It was railroading at it's finest, and did justice to the legacy it inherited from it's fabled forebearers PRR, NYC, EL/Erie/DL&W, LV, RDG, NH, L&HR.

[Greyryder]

I always liked their locomotives. (untill the Quality logos came along, those were just ugly) Maybe it's just my love of blue. Certainly looks better than competition orange, and british racing green.

[DKS]

For me, it comes down to three things.

The first is that it was what I grew up with, something I'm sure that factors in for many modelers.

The second was that I enjoy the earlier equipment that I didn't get to see: the "rainbow" era, with all those paint outs. They sure had lots of character and visual interest, which is something that I find severely lacking in modern day railroading.

The last (and probably the least) is that to me, Conrail was proof that not EVERYTHING the government does turns out poorly. It was one of the few US government things that actually worked, and worked well. Those examples are few and far between, and I find this one interesting.

But those are just my reasons. I'm sure many others have their own.

I like Conrail (still do, but probably not quite enough to stick with it) for similar reasons. But I grew up with some of the lines that Conrail became. Reading was at my back doorstep for nearly three decades, and LV and PC were always in the neighborhood. So, Conrail came to represent an amalgam of the lines I knew and liked. It also said to me: there is still hope for railroads; they aren't going to all just dry up and blow away.

Next time around I may crank the clock back a little further to recapture the last days of Reading et al. Or maybe not. I have no idea at this point where life and modeling will lead.

[Dave V]

Like others here, I never knew Pennsy, but I knew Conrail.  PC became CR when I was 2.  And it stuck with me all the way into adult life.  I was a First Lieutenant stationed in Korea when I learned the Conrail had been bought for an obscene amount of money by not one, but two railroads.

Throughout my entire memory of railfanning in Pennsylvania....  if it wasn't steam, it was blue.

I have some fuzzy memories of chasing early CR rainbows (like an old black Baldwin switcher on the ex-RDG Lancaster branch through East Petersburg, PA, with my dad).  I can also remember a few black Amtrak GG1s.  My father tried to explain to me the "glory" of what was the PRR and the RDG, but it was all stories, photos, and cold steel in a museum.

But for me, Big Blue was what I knew.