FastFlyingVirginian's video: Patchwork Blue: Conrail Locomotives After The NS-CSX Merger Volume 5: 2010-2012

After the division of Conrail mainline operations between Norfolk Southern and CSX was consummated on June 1, 1999, neither road was in a hurry to repaint their newly-acquired rolling stock. Many Conrail locomotives spent years in postmerger service with their paint largely intact, save for minimal renumbering. For railfans, it was a long goodbye to the paint schemes of 'Big Blue'. Volume 5 of Patchwork Blue wraps up our retrospective with NS and CSX action from 2010 through early 2012, as locomotives still wearing Conrail paint became increasingly rare. 0:00 - April 10, 2010 CSX added their own 'Dash' of color to the springtime scene in Ashland, VA as a northbound rumbled up the street, led by a lashup that included ex-LMS Leasing C40-8W 7921. 3:48 - May 29, 2010 Back to Ashland again, this time at the station as a southbound intermodal passed, led by C40-8W 7919 sandwiched between roster-mates in YN3 and YN2 livery. 6:42 - July 31, 2010 - Enola Yard A visit to the north end of Enola Yard outside of Harrisburg, PA paid off big time in terms of motive power. A lashup displaying CR, BNSF, and NS paint shuffled into position as yard jobs went about their business, one of which included a GP40-2 still wearing blue. 10:37 - July 31, 2010 - Rockville Bridge After spending a little time at Enola, I relocated down the road a bit to the Rockville Bridge. A pair of SD80MACs led a hopper train west, meeting an eastbound intermodal with a blue SD50 in the lashup. 14:20 - August 1, 2010 Back at Enola the following day, it was shades of Conrail's rainbow era as a set of road power shuffled out and back - CEFX SD40-2 3179, patched NS SD38 3805, and CEFX SD40-2 7111, the latter still wearing its original BN paint and number. The 3805 was one of just a handful of surviving SD38s on the roster by this date. 18:03 - August 28, 2010 Blue and blue on blue - a northbound passes the Ashland station on a sunny morning, powered by ES40DC 5398 in YN3 and C40-8 7489 in discreetly patched Conrail Quality paint; the last patched Conrail unit I ever saw on CSX. 20:22 - October 9, 2010 - Horseshoe Curve, Altoona PA SD60M 6773 in blue was teamed with C40-9Ws 9630 and 9142 to move a westbound empty coal train through Horseshoe Curve during my visit to the Pittsburgh Line in October 2010. A manifest followed 25 minutes later, led by C40-9W 9960 and patched C40-8W 8384. 30:30 - October 9, 2010 - Cresson PA We finished out our fall trip to the Pittsburgh Line by moving west to Cresson, where we captured a westbound stack train led by C40-8W 8316 and a heavy eastbound coal train that had SD60Is 6725 and 6731 trailing three units in black on the head end. 37:20 - November 20, 2010 I was lucky enough to visit the Pittsburgh Line again in November, but I was less lucky with blue paint sightings vs. the previous month. My only blue catch was a westbound empty coal train passing through Cassandra behind SD60Is 6717 and 6741, the former having already succumbed to the paint shed. 38:58 - March 25, 2011 The first day of a surprise trip to the Pittsburgh Line netted some blue paint, as an eastbound manifest climbed the grade through Cresson with GP38-2 5297 trailing the head end power. 48:37 - March 26, 2011 The engineer of an eastbound struck a classic pose as he exchanged greetings with a father and son in Cresson the following evening. The train was led by C40-8W 8467 in a cleaner-than-usual patch scheme, with white NS-style numbering on a blue background. 51:22 - March 27, 2011 On the final day of my trip in spring 2011, SD60I 6718 trailed black roster-mates 6739 and 6729 on a westbound empty coal train through Cassandra, PA. 53:22 - July 26, 2011 A week-long summer visit in July 2011 turned out to be my last hurrah for seeing blue paint on the Pittsburgh Line. In light of this, the trip started off in fine fashion on the 26th, as an eastbound climbed the grade through Cresson with blue GP40-2 3026 trailing. 56:04 -July 28, 2011 Blue SD40-2 3417 was partially obscured as it passed behind an eastbound at Lilly, PA, but at this late stage I was grateful for any glimpse of Conrail paint. At least it was timed to an empty cut of well cars. 58:31 - July 29, 2011 The rain in Cresson matched the mood as we watched from the porch of the Station Inn while blue C40-8W 8461 passed behind an eastbound stack train. 1:02:00 - July 30, 2011 We redeemed ourselves from the rainy block the day before as we captured C40-8W 8466 trailing on a westbound through Lilly on the last day of our trip. 1:06:29 - Petersburg, VA A grab shot, but in hindsight it was well worth it. I had to run to get in position and balanced the tripod on one leg as SD50 5415 led a short freight through Petersburg on the former N&W on January 7, 2012 - my last-ever sighting of an ex-Conrail locomotive in original paint. The first NS Heritage unit arrived two months later, wearing a very familiar shade of blue.