A post relating to Conrail
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Conrail camp car finale
Into the 1970s, camp cars were a railroad tradition. Often converted from old heavyweight passenger cars from the 1920s or 30s, camp cars were used by the railroad maintenance-of-way department for housing track crews (or “gangs”) which moved around the […]
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Photo day—Old and new at Air Line Yard
By 1982, Conrail “patch” units were becoming a rare species. Conrail was finally on top of their motive power woes, and new units coming online meant there was time for attention, including a paint job, for older units. Still, at […]
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CR 5457 and the Clinton Branch
Throughout the first half of the 1970s, standard motive power on the Clinton Branch was a black EMD SW-7/8/9 switcher, leading the Clinton Local down and back the 13.5 miles between Clinton and Lenawee Junction, Michigan. With the arrival of Conrail in […]
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Final freight in Clinton
Conrail’s days as the operator of the Clinton Branch from Lenawee Junction to Clinton, Michigan were coming to a close at the beginning of 1982. The company had already applied to abandon the line, and the only active shippers remaining […]
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Tecumseh southbound
It appears to be a warm day on 13 June 1980, when photographer David J. Mrozek caught the Conrail “Clinton Local” just after leaving Tecumseh. At this time the “Local” would leave Clinton mid-afternoon each day, traveling through Tecumseh and […]
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Conrail vacates Grosvenor
After posting earlier this week about the Lenawee County Railroad (LCRC) at Grosvenor, MI, I ran across this photo, taken 4 days earlier—on 04 December 1982. Here the Conrail local, led by GP15-1 #1638, is returning to Toledo, OH from […]
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The LCRC gets creative at Grosvenor
Between 1980 and 1982, the Lenawee County Railroad Company (LCRC) had trackage rights over Conrail’s Clinton Secondary track between Lenawee Junction and Grosvenor, MI. This allowed the LCRC to access its Morenci Branch, which ran between Grosvenor and Morenci. (In […]
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Photo day—Vickers Crossing
I obtained my driver’s license in the summer of 1982, and it was time to start railfanning! My parents would go to Toledo for shopping most weekends, and soon I was able to talk them into letting me drop […]
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Setting the scene—Part 2
At the dawn of the 80s, I was a high-school student in Tecumseh, and starting to meet other friends interested in trains. The visit of the Michigan Artrain to Tecumseh in Spring 1980 was a key occasion. The train was […]