24 Facts About Conrail

The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name.

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.

The primary asset retained by Conrail is ownership of the three Shared Assets Areas in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Detroit.

Conrail retains various support facilities including maintenance-of-way and training, as well as a 51 percent share in the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad.

However, fundamental economic regulatory issues remained, and Conrail continued to post losses of as much as $1 million a day.

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Conrail management, recognizing the need for more regulatory freedoms to address the economic issues, were among the parties lobbying for what became the Staggers Act of 1980, which significantly loosened the Interstate Commerce Commission's rigid economic control of the rail industry.

Under the Staggers Act, railroads, including Conrail, were freed from the requirement to continue money-losing services.

Conrail began turning a profit by 1981, the result of the Staggers Act freedoms and its own managerial improvements under the leadership of L Stanley Crane, who had been chief executive officer of the Southern Railway.

Conrail inherited the commuter rail operations of its predecessor lines.

Pursuant to the Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981, Conrail operated the remainder until 1983 when these services were transferred to state or metropolitan transit authorities.

CSX's bid for Conrail drew the attention of Norfolk Southern Railway which, fearing that CSX would come to dominate rail traffic in the eastern US, made a bid of its own leading to a takeover battle between the two railroads.

Under the control of lawyer-turned-CEO Tim O'Toole, the lines were transferred to two newly formed limited liability companies, to be subsidiaries of Conrail but leased to CSX and Norfolk Southern, respectively New York Central Lines and Pennsylvania Lines .

The NYC and PRR reporting marks, which had passed to Conrail, were transferred to the new companies, and NS acquired the CR reporting mark.

Since Conrail was divided between Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation in 1999, all remaining locomotives have been successively repainted, and many remain in service.

Conrail was the only railroad to receive EMD SD80MACs and were separated evenly between CSX and NS.

Conrail had a different paint scheme for these locomotives and 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 they were ordered after the Conrail breakup was agreed upon, and neither NS or CSX wanted 'their' locomotives to be equipped with markers.

When Conrail was formed, it acquired many different railways, and as typical in the North American rail industry, signaling was not standardized between these railways.

Conrail installed CTC across much of the former PRR multi-track mainline, which had relied on local towers to operate signals and control track.

Conrail spent it entire existence installing tri-light signals 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.

Today, most Northeastern railroads associated with former Conrail lines have maintained standardization of all systems as vertical color light signals using NORAC rules.

Conrail Shared Assets Operations continues to use the tri-light as its standard signal type.

Conrail Historical Society, Inc, is a 501 non-profit organization based in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.