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17 unusual facts about Conrail


Ashland Railway

The "original" Ashland mainline, which began operations in 1986, was purchased from Conrail.

Bay Colony Railroad

The Bay Colony railroad was chartered on March 31, 1977, with the intent of taking over freight service on former New Haven lines from Conrail, which was planning to abandon service.

Blairstown, New Jersey

Due to declining revenues, passenger service over the Lackawanna Cut-Off was discontinued on January 5, 1970, and freight service ceased in 1979, just three years after the E-L was absorbed into the Consolidated Railroad Company (Conrail).

Conrail

In mid-1973, under Judge John P. Fullam, the bankrupt Penn Central threatened to end all operations by the end of the year if they did not receive government aid by October 1.

Depew, Lancaster and Western Railroad

The DLWR was formed in 1989 to purchase and operate former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and Lehigh Valley Railroad trackage from Conrail.

Eastern Berks Gateway Railroad

The Colebrookdale Railroad was leased by the Reading Railroad who operated the line until 1976, when it became a part of Conrail.

Falls Road Railroad

The term Falls Road Branch was adopted by New York Central, and later Conrail, to refer to the section of railroad track between Lockport and Rochester, New York.

Gateway Eastern Railway

Ownership passed to the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad, but in 1890 that company sold that segment to the Cairo, Vincennes and Chicago Railway, which became part of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (Big Four) and eventually the New York Central Railroad and Conrail.

Genesee Junction, New York

In the years prior to the Conrail break-up, the LAL was forbidden to interchange directly with the RSR due to a "paper barrier" created by Conrail's ownership of the yard that made direct interchange between the two shortlines all but impossible, allowing Conrail to act as the "middle man".

Lansing Manufacturers Railroad

After Penn Central's bankruptcy in 1970 and subsequent nationalization, the LMR became the property of Conrail.

Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad

LAL ownership begins at the east end of Genesee Junction with the former Conrail non-controlled siding that runs parallel to the West Shore Branch from Genesee Junction Yard to MP 360.

Louisville and Indiana Railroad

The 106-mile (171 km) line was purchased from Conrail in March 1994.

Maryland and Delaware Railroad

These branches were omitted from the system plan for Conrail in 1976 and would have been discontinued without state subsidies.

Massachusetts Central Railroad

Conrail operated the line between Palmer and Ware and applied for abandonment of the remainder of the line.

New York and Lake Erie Railroad

The NYLE was formed in 1978 to operate a portion of former Erie trackage that Conrail no longer wanted.

Ontario Central Railroad

The plan for forming Conrail involved the abandonment of all the trackage that became the ONCT; but several rail customers wanted to keep rail service.

Ontario Midland Railroad

The railroad also operates a line formerly operated by Conrail, Penn Central, Pennsylvania Railroad from Wallington, where it meets the Hojack, to Newark to interchange with CSX's ex-Conrail Chicago Line.


Chemical Coast

Conrail contacted the Carteret Fire Department and the Middlesex County Hazmat Response Team for assistance.

Conrail Shared Assets Operations

The south track at the Delair Lift Bridge (part of the Delair Branch) is used by Conrail; the north track is used by New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line.

Deer Creek Tunnel

Ownership passed to the Pennsylvania, Ohio and Detroit Railroad in January 1926 and the Connecting Railway in May 1956, and remained with the Penn Central Company when Conrail took over that company's profitable rail assets in 1976.

Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad

A few small portions of the line still exist, including a short spur off the Dunkirk mainline of the former Michican & Lake Shore / NYC (Penn Central/Conrail, now Norfolk Southern) to Fredonia to serve the Carriage House Foods manufacturing plant just north of U.S. Route 20 in Fredonia, as well as a small spur less than a mile long to serve a plastics company in Warren, Pennsylvania.

Falls Road Railroad

In 1994, Conrail abandoned twelve miles (19 km) of track between Rochester and Brockport, New York; the Falls Road Branch now terminates in Brockport, east of Owens Rd at Mile Post 16.60.

GE B36-7

One notable exception among Conrail's units was CR 5045, which wwas destroyed in the infamous wreck of the Colonial at Chase, Maryland, on January 4, 1987.

GE U36B

These units, built to Seaboard Coast Line specifications, were originally fitted with Blomberg trucks; when Conrail purchased them, the railroad asked GE to replace the trucks with AAR Type B instead.

Gregory R. Dahlberg

In 1981, he joined the staff of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, a subcommittee of the United States House Committee on Appropriations; there, he worked on the budgets of the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Amtrak, Conrail, and the United States Coast Guard.

Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad

In 1984, after Conrail decided to abandon the line, it became the short line North Shore Railroad, which runs as far as Salem Township in Luzerne County.

Mountain Top Yard

The yard was acquired by Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad in 1996 during the dissolution of Conrail which had acquired the property in 1976 when the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad joined its properties to that ill-fated conglomerate enterprise.

Nicholson, Pennsylvania

Built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in 1915, the bridge has served many owners; DL&W, Erie-Lackawanna, Conrail, Delaware & Hudson also operated by Guilford Transportation, and New York Susquehanna & Western before the current owner, Canadian Pacific Railway.

Orphan bridge

An example of this is the abandoned Conrail bridge which parallels Delaware Avenue and crosses U.S. Route 9W in Kingston, NY.

Perth Amboy Refinery

-- You will notice the asphalt smell when you cross the bridge--> Via rail it is served by Conrail's Chemical Coast and the former Perth Amboy and Woodbridge lines.

Porter Subdivision

To the east, a connection existed at Tolleston to the Fort Wayne Secondary, also acquired in the 1998 Conrail breakup (though from the Norfolk Southern Railway).

PRR 4800

In 1976, Conrail gave 4800 a red, white and blue paint scheme to commemorate the United States Bicentennial.

Robbinsville Industrial Track

The line is serviced by train WPBU-20, which is based out of Conrail's Burlington Yard in Burlington, NJ and travels first on the New Jersey Transit's River Line which is called the Bordentown Secondary before it gets to line.