Nostalgia & History > A Chessie System Question

Hello All,
Information on the Chessie System seems to be oddly spread out and is somewhat inaccessible owning to the unique nature of the Chessie System, ie three railroads on paper functioning as a single entity. What I am trying to find out has to do with power sharing on the Chessie System with N&W and Conrail. Would it be unheard of for either (or both) N&W power or Conrail power to appear on a Chessie System train (mixed with Chessie power) in the period 1977-1983? If it was possible when would the earliest such an occurrence might have taken place? I have seen an N&W/Chessie/Conrail powered train in a photo from 1985, but I am hoping before that, as I just got one of the Spring Mills HO I-12 cabooses and I am looking to model late 1970s and I want the motive power to be slightly less blinding then two or three Chessie units, I was also hoping that I might squeeze in some of the odder power these two roads had to make it more interesting.
Cheers,
Nick

Yes- it happened all the time in the 70's. I remember seeing Chessie units on Conrail trains and vice versa. Same with NW units. The Conrail blue units really became common in 1977 as the shops serviced all those locomotives with deferred maintenance. There were also shared lines like the Conrail- B&O Panhandle line in Ohio where both railroads had joint operations. I'm sure one railroad "rescued" the other a time or two.

Chessie units pretty much roamed the country. The Mopac had some leased in the early 70 during the Russian grain rush, and also had some B&O GP-30's leased as well. Chessie units would show from to time if Mopac, and later, UP power was on the Chessie some place and some Chessie units would running out the HP Hours.

Here's a westbound at Mance on Sand Patch Grade; August 1978. This was common at the time.

Chessie System power occasionally showed up on the D&H at Binghamton (there are photos of WM F units in helper service on Belden Hill that have been published) so the answer is yes, you can run Chessie power pretty much anywhere in the mid to late 70s, and you can run pretty much anything on Chessie during that era as well.

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While I worked the Chessie power bureau in the late 1970's, we got RDG and CNJ units mixed into the Jersey City trains, WM power from Hagerstown, plus C&O and B&O. Also leased SP power units at some times. Also leased B&LE engines during the winter months.
I had a vague idea of making up a 5 or 6 unit consist some day, with each unit being off a different road.
Would have made a great photo.
Also had the WM chief make up a consist with B&O 6464 and WM 64, so he could sign up as "2 units -
6464 and 64"

When Chessie shut down the WM west of Hagerstown and moved their trains to the B&O in 1975 they ran what was left of the alpha-jets via the B&O. So as it was common for the WM and N&W to pool power that continued for some time before that traffic died off and became all Chessie (B&O).

Also trains running out of Hagerstown often had N&W or CR power mixed with Chessie engines as those roads shared the WM facilities, especially trains heading to Rutherford.