Conrail Diesel #1644 GP-15-1 Pocket Watch

Conrail Diesel # 1644 , Built By EMD in 1979 Frankford Junction, Philadelphia Pennsylvania The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail (reporting mark CR), was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. The federal government created it to take over the potentially profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. With the benefit of regulatory changes, Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was turned over to private investors in 1987. The two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), agreed in 1997 to split the system approximately equally, 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. Following Surface Transportation Board approval, CSX and NS took control in August 1998, and on June 1, 1999, began operating their portions of Conrail. The GP-15-1 was used in every area of the Conrail System. Conrail ordered 100 GP-15-1's in 1979. They were rated at 1500 HP. There are no longer any in service. PHOTO Copyright © Stan Feldman 8/25/1997.