Ex-Conrail Dash 8s: spartan and ’safety’ cab/wide nose versions!

CSXT7307GB_120506

FOR SOME REASON I’d never noticed the spaced out ‘CONRAIL QUALITY’ lettering on the front of the old ‘Big Blue’s’ fleet of Dash 8s. This is a former Conrail C40-8W machine, now owned by CSX Transportation, No. CSXT 7307 leading C40-8 CSXT 7500, SD50 CSXT 8642, SD40-2 BUGX 7523 & SD40M-2 BUGX 3577 and their long manifest freight out of Boyle Yard, Birmingham, Alabama on May 12th, 2006.

NS8207GB_101002

Not the most aesthetically pleasing of locomotive designs, the ‘humpback’ C39-8 (Dash 8-39C) illustrated in this scene is Norfolk Southern No. PRR 8207 (ex-Conrail CR 6012, blt. GE, Erie, PA., 07/86). The big General Electric was recorded at Avondale Yard, North Kansas City, Missouri on October 10th, 2002.