page_title: Conrail
section_title: Locomotives
hierarchical_section_title: Conrail / Locomotives
caption_attribution_description: Conrail 6114 leads a train westbound out of Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1993.
context_page_description: Conrail, 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, and while it no longer operates trains, 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, agreed in 1997 to acquire the system and split it into two roughly-equal parts, 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.
context_section_description: After Conrail was divided between Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation in 1999, all remaining locomotives have been successively repainted, but ex-CR units can be spotted. CR units had similar features such as "Bright Future" blue paint, flashing ditch lights, and Leslie RS-3L horns. Another key spotting feature is ditchlights mounted under the locomotive's front deck. All of the ex-CR units that have the ditchlights have gone to CSX. This is a preference different from Norfolk Southern, which orders their locomotives with the lights above the deck. Marker lights, or class lights, were also a preference of Conrail. Most Conrail engines still have marker lights on CSX, while NS opted to remove them.
  All Conrail locomotives that went to CSX were re-painted into CSX colors. All of the Conrail units owned by NS have been either repainted or retired, and the last unit in "Conrail Blue", NS 8312, was retired in 2014. Conrail was the only railroad to receive EMD SD80MACs (the Chicago North & Western were originally supposed to receive SD80MACs with marker lights, but when that railroad merged with Union Pacific, the order was rescinded) and were separated evenly between CSX and NS. Conrail had a different paint scheme for these locomotives and also the SD70MAC, with a large white, cone-shaped line on the front, bearing "Conrail Quality" lettering. The SD70MACs weren't fitted with marker lights, as it would be useless when given to NS and CSX. This goes along with the standard-cab SD70, Conrail's final order of locomotives, as they were in Norfolk Southern's preferred numbering (the 2500 series). Contrary to what is stated above, some former Conrail locomotives are still used and still have their original blue color but the name has been removed from the locomotives. They are commonly used as backup locomotives on the CSX lines that run through central Ohio hauling scrap metal, military cargo, coal, and other commodities.
  In early 2015, the remaining 12 ex-Conrail SD80MACs owned by CSX, were purchased by Norfolk Southern, and renumbered 7217-7228. All were repainted and had their marker lights removed. Norfolk Southern sold all 29 of its remaining SD80MACs to Canadian Pacific Railway and Progress Rail in 2020. Six units, 7206, 7215, 7218, 7225, 7226 and 7227 were sold to Canadian Pacific Railway as a parts source for the recent EMD SD70ACU rebuilds. The remainder of the NS fleet went to Progress Rail.
caption: Conrail 6114, a GE Dash 8-40CW, leads a train westbound out of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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