Nostalgia & History > Some Do While Some Don't

Two Conrail freights are rolling Westbound thru downtown Altoona, Pennsylvania.
They're both starting the 16 or so miles of "Mountain" railroading to the summit at Cresson.

The heavy mixed manifest has an EMD SD45 / SD40(6083 & 6292) helper set that's cranking it up as it's just about to pass the Amhut(remember those?).

On the lower left, the tail end of an intermodal has just it's caboose (remember those?).

Time is money and the removal of helper sets at Cresson takes time.
You can be sure the piggybacker won't be stopping.

July, 1983.

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Not being familiar with these CR cabooses, what was the reason for each of the four roof vents?  I'm assuming one was for a heater and one for the toilet, but the other two??? Surely not a cooking stove.

That's a great catch showing two cabooses on main line freights along with an SD45.  My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I thought Conrail had phased out cabooses on most main line freights by 1983 and none of the "straight" SD45s were in use after 1982.  (The ex-Erie Lackawanna SDP45s and SD45-2s continued to be used, particularly in helper service).

I not only remember the trailer used as the Altoona's Amtrak Station, I waited for trains there a number of times.  Was glad when the intermodal center opened in 1986.

Thanks for posting.

RuleG Wrote:
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> That's a great catch showing two cabooses on main
> line freights along with an SD45.  My memory is a
> bit fuzzy, but I thought Conrail had phased out
> cabooses on most main line freights by 1983 and
> none of the "straight" SD45s were in use after
> 1982.  (The ex-Erie Lackawanna SDP45s and SD45-2s
> continued to be used, particularly in helper
> service).
>
> I not only remember the trailer used as the
> Altoona's Amtrak Station, I waited for trains
> there a number of times.  Was glad when the
> intermodal center opened in 1986.
>
> Thanks for posting.

Cabooses started going in May of 1984. It took some time for them to be completely phased out. SD45's lasted until the end of 1984.

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