Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: conrail

I took this one in 1993 (Note that the copyright date on the photo is wrong. I fixed it on my own website but on Flickr it's too much trouble.), waiting in Utica, New York for Amtrak's (actually Swedish Railways') X2000 tilt train to visit. It was hours late, and didn't arrive until after dark, so all of my best shots were taken during the day waiting for it, while I still had light. This locomotive, an EMD SD40-2 diesel, was leading a lashup of other locomotives pulling a garbage train. In those days, New York State had so much garbage that it was being shipped west by rail! I mainly like the impression of speed that this photo gives, with the blurred handrails and headlight, even if the train was only going about 50 m.p.h.!!!

I took this on the same day as the 6399 shot, scanned it in 1994, and uploaded it on Oct. 26, 2006, without a rescan!!! That's when I discovered the date on the 6399 shot was wrong. I've corrected it at least on the caption, although the photo remains wrong. In any case, I didn't used to like this photo so much, but looking at the other stuff on Flickr, this one holds up surprisingly well. It's not only, I think, a decent black and white scan, but a very old one. It's only a year newer than the original negative and print!!! I had an Omniscan black and white scanner then, and I haven't gotten around to rescanning this shot. It was originally color, shot with Kodacolor Gold 400, I think, but it's now, for obvious reasons, black and white, and it might be a better shot because of it. It was my first truly successful pan shot, so it's significant to me for that reason, too.

This was on a guided tour of Berea Tower, one of Conrail's last signal towers, during its last days of operation. We saw a tremendous density of traffic by American standards, but of course that was understandable given the rail hub that the Cleveland area is. That is, indeed, why Berea survived for so long. This Conrail freight approaching us is obviously being pulled by EMD SD50s or SD60s, but the scan is unfortunately too blurry to see the numbers and confirm exactly.

I took this while on the same tour as when I took my older Berea Tower photo. I apologize for the poor resolution of the scan, but it's almost as old as the photo!

The location of this photo is at least as obvious as the one above, since it has "Berea" and Berea Tower in the picture!! Actually, the scan isn't good enough to read the sign in this shot. I'm not aware of whether this train was the same manifest as in the previous shot with the water tower, but note that the locomotive is also a G.E. Dash 8-40CW.

This train, as incredible as it may seem, appears to be a reefer express, with a lashup of old 2nd Generation diesels to match (if you count SD50s and SD60s 2nd Generation, it's not very easy to identify all the power in this photo). In actuality, there isn't any evidence that this train was a genuine reefer express, as most of it is out of the picture.

Obviously, it's not possible to get a shot like this except for when you're on an organized tour! I was, however, one of the lucky ones. This train appears to be a UP unit coal train, and it was indeed a unit coal train, but I'm more than 90% certain the power was leased by Conrail, as these were Conrail tracks in 1997. I'm not aware of UP coming this far east...ever, and UP were a common lessor to Conrail in those days. Still it makes a cool title for my photo. :-)

This shot goes with...well..."Union Pacific Coal Train From Berea Tower." This one is shot from the other end of the tower, after the head end passed, and gives us a view of the hoppers, which appear to be 49' 100-ton coal tri-hoppers.

This is a difficult shot to get if you're not a railroad worker, as it's from the tower. I was with a tour group, so I was lucky. The whole place is amazing, as it is (or was at that time) the largest active railroad yard in the Eastern United States. I like the sky on this shot, too.

This is another shot from the Selkirk tour. We had an exceptionally good view of these side tracks, the reasons for which weren't clear to me. I really like the dual-use tunnel on the left for both trains and trucks, made out of a culvert pipe!!!

I'm sure that many of you will recognize this photo from a previous post. As you'll recall, I had always intended to rescan this, so I had a photo lab do it, and here's the result. I hope you all like it. :-)

I took this shot during the aftermath and cleanup of a major wreck in Utica, NY involving a loaded stack train headed by G.E. Dash 8s. The Dash 8s are gone by this point, with the smashed well cars and containers bulldozed to the side, and one track has been reopened, letting these GP40-2s through, rare even by 1993 standards. The wreck, according to the news reports, was deliberately caused by a group of teenagers, who were subsequently arrested for the crime, but the results of the case were kept secret because of their ages. One person, perhaps not the smartest person in the world, blamed it on the railroad, saying something along the lines of "I don't know why they put the railroad so close to the housing development." The housing development where the teenagers came from dated to the 1960s, the railroad to the 1830s.

Mixed power was still a bit rare on the Water Level Route in 2000, but getting more common all the time with the Conrail sale and the subsequent explosion in traffic. This consist, though, was still something special, as it had a G.E. Dash 7 still in Family Lines colors!! I caught this in Little Falls, NY while out train chasing.