Conrail





Conrail system map with trackage rights in red



CR 6256 and 6469 at former Erie Yard in Gang Mills, New York on October 4, 1987.

Dates of operation: April 1, 1976 (48 years ago)–June 1, 1999 (almost 25 years ago)

Conrail (reporting mark CR), formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.

The federal government created Conrail to take over the potentially-profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. After railroad regulations were lifted by the 4R Act and the Staggers Act, Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was privatized in 1987. The two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), agreed in 1997 to acquire the system and split it into two roughly-equal parts (alongside three residual shared-assets areas), returning rail freight competition to the Northeast by essentially undoing the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad that created Penn Central. Following approval by the Surface Transportation Board, CSX and NS took control in August 1998, and on June 1, 1999, began operating their respective portions of Conrail.

The old company remains a jointly-owned subsidiary, with CSX and NS owning respectively 42% and 58% of its stock, corresponding to how much of Conrail's assets they acquired. Each parent, however, has an equal voting interest. The primary asset retained by Conrail is ownership of the three Shared Assets Areas in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Detroit. Both CSX and NS have the right to serve all shippers in these areas, paying Conrail for the cost of maintaining and improving trackage. They also make use of Conrail to perform switching and terminal services within the areas, but not as a common carrier, since contracts are signed between shippers and CSX or NS. Conrail also retains various support facilities including maintenance-of-way and training, as well as a 51 percent share in the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad.

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Operation: 1976–1986

Conrail was incorporated in Pennsylvania on October 25, 1974, and operations began on April 1, 1976. The government owned 85%, with employees owning the remaining 15%. The theory was that if the service was improved through increased capital investment, the economic basis of the railroad would be improved. During its first seven years, Conrail proved to be highly unprofitable, despite receiving billions of dollars of assistance from Congress. The corporation declared enormous losses on its federal income tax returns from 1976 through 1982, resulting in an accumulated net operating loss of $2.2 billion during that period. Congress once again reacted with support by passing the Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981 (NERSA), which amended portions of the 3R Act by exempting Conrail from liability for any state taxes and requiring the Secretary of Transportation to make arrangements for the sale of the government's interest in Conrail. After NERSA was implemented, Conrail, under the aggressive leadership of L. Stanley Crane began to improve and reported taxable income between $2 million and $314 million each year from 1983 through 1986.

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VINTAGE CONRAIL, The Black & Blue Years, 1978. Series III.

jackmp294.5™
18.5K subscribers

1,399 views Feb 27, 2023
Hope you enjoyed this Early Conrail, Black & Blue Years series III.
I put together these clips from my archives of early Conrail when black and blue units where still the normal.

All clips were shot in 1978.

If you enjoyed this vintage Conrail stuff, please be sure to check out Black & Blue Years, Part I and Part II in my collection, along with Conrail's Colorful Years series.

Hope you enjoyed the sight and sounds of these early Conrail treasures.

Thanks for watching, and hope you enjoyed it.
God Bless

Please do not use without permission
All my videos and images are Copyright protected.

Filmed with a Kodak Super 8mm Ektasound movie camera.
Locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland in 1978.

God Bless our troops, and God Bless the United States of America

Copyright Jack D Kuiphoff © 2/27/2023

John 3:16

Conrail in the 1st year on Horse Shoe Curve. The days of Alco-caboose-4 track main & K4.

jackmp294.5™
18.5K subscribers

91,738 views Oct 4, 2011
We are on the ex-PRR mainline at Horse Shoe Curve just west of Altoona, PA. 14 days after Conrail's first birthday We watch west and east bound trains battle the mountain with a verity of locomotives from Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna. This where the days of shoving on the caboose, the 4 track mainline is still in place, and the Pennsy K4 still makes the curve its home. This clip was made with a Kodak 8mm Sound movie camera, so I'm sorry for the hand shake on these non-tripod days of filming. 4/15/1977. Thanks for watching...

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copyright Jackmp294 © 2011
do not use without permission...

John 3:16

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