Eastern Railroad Discussion > Geometry and More Conrail

Tuesday October 4, 2022
Vermilion, OH

Well the heritage units just seem to be cycling through and today was no different with the return of Conrail. We also had an FRA geometry train.

1. - 3. As the sun went under the biggest cloud in the sky and all but caused a total eclipse here, this Train 953 came over the river bridge on the Chicago Line pulled by NS 4563,
DOTX 223 and DOTX 219 follow. I believe the 223 is a 1953 St. Louis Car built U.S. Army Hospital Kitchen Car, ex USAX 89630. It later went to Amtrak as a baggage car. In this use I think it is some sort of support car. DOTX 219 went into service in 2007 and is equipped with a Track Geometry Measurement System that measures gage, alignment and surface conditions. It is also equipped with a Ride Quality Management System (RQMS) to measure truck and carbody forces, GPS locator for specific tagging of where defects are located, and a Rail Profile Measurement Sytem. I do not think it does loaded gage, but if anyone knows more, please chime in. Loaded gage vs. static gage measurements can be very helpful in assessing track conditions and capital programs, as are the other things this equipment does. I'd guess he was doing about 25 mph as he went past.

 

---

---

---

4. The Conrail heritage unit shows up again leading ! Thank God the total eclipse was over from when the above geometry train went past. Old Blue (NS 8098) is looking pretty good here today coupled with NS 4546 and 4308 eastbound on Train 22X.  It doesn't get much better than this ... But back in the day, other than bagging my first Conrail blue unit in September 1976, I was sad to see all the pre-Conrail units turn this color although it did make those junky Penn Central wrecks look pretty sharp.

5. - 6. Another train that showed up this afternoon was the 11Q with NS 4495, UP 2763 and NS 6353. He also had a UP mid-train DPU, but it was the NS 6353 that got my attention.
This unit is now an SD40E, but started life as Conrail SD50 # 6774 back in May 1984. And back then it was painted blue, just like that Conrail heritage unit above. So a real ex- Conrail and a Conrail heritge were captured today.

* btw the book on the bench in photo #5 is John Signor's Santa Fe Los Angeles Division book and it is excellent ! I am doing my second read of it and enjoying the amazing photos and maps. Hey, you have to have some good reading material in between trains.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/22 14:17 by train1275.

---

---

---