Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Conrail spent its entire existence installing tri-light signals (using NORAC rules) across much of its system. Many Conrail-installed signaling locations were removed in the 2010s, as railroads upgraded their signals for Positive Train Control compliance.
Conrail history starts with Penn Central’s bankruptcy in 1970, a collapse that upset the entire railroad industry. Something had to be done — Penn Central could not simply be liquidated. It operated one-third of the nation’s passenger trains and was the principal freight carrier in the Northeast.
On June 1, 1999, Conrail began operating as a Switching and Terminal Railroad for its owners, NS and CSX, in the three geographical areas of Northern New Jersey, Southern New Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit, Michigan.
The Conrail Story is integral to the history of railroading in the latter part of the 20th century and helps explain the current state of the railroad world. The CRHS provides a number of ways for you to learn about Conrail’s rich history.
The Conrail Story. Conrail can be seen as the savior of railroading in the Northeastern United States. Railroading in the northeast in the early 1970s was in bad shape. Penn Central was in a record setting bankcruptcy, the anthracite roads were facing sharply declining coal demand and the entire region was suffering from a glut of redundant lines.
After the failure of Penn Central in 1970, the government formed the United States Railway Association in 1973 to develop a plan to save railroading in the Northeast. The result: Consolidated Rail Corp., which on April 1, 1976, took over the properties of PC and six smaller roads.
Conrail, short for the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was a government creation to save the Northeastern rail network in the 1970s.