Nostalgia & History > Opening the Conrail Mosaic...legacy road number 1

This is Conrail week, so I'll warn you folks that we're staying east for the next five days. I promise next week to head west once again. Conrail is coming up on its 47th birthday, and though it had a relatively short shelf life, its impact on railroading east of the Mississippi is still being felt today. Take Hunter Harrison and the hedge funds out of the picture, and you would probably have a much better functioning CSX and NS if they still followed the Conrail operating plan. That being said, this is a look back on the legacy roads that made big blue eventually show black ink. First road up is still first in my heart, the Erie Lackawanna. Classy to the end, but with insurmountable problems that doomed it. I have said more than enough about EL in previous posts, so, just a photographic tribute on my favorite, to start Big C week.

top...westbound at Sterling Ohio

middle...Hornell shops

bottom...one for Mr. Durfee. Akron Ohio

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...pissing off another eastbound crew. Jumping this guy going east out of Hornell.

middle...crew change for NY99 at Meadville Pa.

bottom...EL's awesome Hulett in Cleveland 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...coming off of the D&H connection in Scranton

middle...Griffith Indiana

bottom...eastbound coming off of Tunkhannock Viaduct

 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...eastbound nearing Wadsworth Ohio

middle...eastbound leaving Scranton

bottom...westbound at Millrift Pa.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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Wonderful EL photos - Thanks for the local (Northeast Ohio) photos included with this set.
Bob

Thanks Bill,enjoyed the look back with you!

I sure hope the Bill Rettburg "well" of photography never runs dry!

:^)

Another outstanding bunch.
JB

Great EL coverage, lots to miss that is all gone now...

JG

A GREAT look at the EL!

Larry

santafe199 Wrote:
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> I sure hope the Bill Rettburg "well" of
> photography never runs dry!
>
> :^)

I keep badgering Bill that he has the contents of many a book at hand, and that numerous publishers would be interested.

Arrt House

ENCORE!!!!  ENCORE!!!!

Matthew

Roadjob Wrote:
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> bottom...EL's awesome Hulett in Cleveland 

Ah, the weekend we met IIRC, the ELHS convention in Cleveland. As for the Huletts, Conrail canned them pretty much on day one, so it was neat to see them up close prior to the big blue transformation. All around nice EL coverage in this series, love them all !

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

I'm not an EL fan but man, those are some GREAT B&W pictures. Outstanding!!

Fantastic shot of Tunkhannock Viaduct. Nice job of climbing and finding a hole in the foliage !

First class tribute for a first class railroad!