Back on October 1st, 1987 a pair of SD40-2s were leading a westbound Conrail train along the former New York Central main line through the small town of Rolling Prairie in Northern Indiana. Neither of these locomotives were inherited from predecessor railroads but instead were delivered new to Conrail in the late 1970s. When the split up of Conrail came around just over two decades after this photo was taken the 6471 ended up going to NS while the 6406 went to CSX. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©
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The morning of July 8th, 1998 not far from La Porte, Indiana on the historic former New York Central Chicago mainline - Eastbound Conrail train NPSE-8 with a nice clean Union Pacific SD60M leader is about to pass a westbound with an SD45-2 and SD50 power set which is stopped at a red signal waiting for traffic ahead to start moving again. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©
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July 9th, 1998 – At the hump operation of Conrail’s large Elkhart, Indiana yard facility. - Freight cars are pushed from the receiving yard up over the hump and sorted according to destination into the various tracks that fan out into the classification yard.
Ever since it was built by the New York Central in the late 1950s, this immense complex has been an important gateway throughout the years for the NYC, Penn Central, Conrail and still today for the Norfolk Southern for all types of freight traffic moving to points west.
The power on this Summer day was a nice clean, bright blue set of a Conrail SD38 and MT-6 shoving cars up and over the hump track. - SD38 #6952 is a former Penn Central unit, and MT-6 (for Motor Trailer 6 axle) #1114 was built from a former PRR/PC Alco RSD12. ~~ Jeff Hampton Photographs ©
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A pair of leased Conrail GP35 locomotives – one an ex-New York Central unit and the other ex-Pennsylvania – are leading eastbound Wisconsin Central train T002 through Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on December 27th, 1987. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©
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Just after shooting a westbound Conrail stack train from the Highway 20 overpass in Rolling Prairie, Indiana I was starting back to my truck when I noticed another headlight round the curve in the distance.
And along comes a fast moving freight with a nearly brand new Southern Pacific EMD GP60 leader that was quickly overtaking the stack train.
I found out a short time later that the reason the SP 9787 west was in such a hurry is that the dispatcher wanted to get his train tucked away in the CP466 siding a short distance ahead at Laporte to be able to clear the main for rapidly approaching eastbound traffic. – February 6th, 1994 ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©
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