Comments on: In the mid-nineties CP was very power shot and leased SD40 and SD40-2s from several sources. Conrail saw an opportunity in the same time frame and created Conrail Leasing. Several Conrail SD40s were repainted solid Conrail-blue and lettered “CRL” 600s. This lasted unit someone realised “CRL” was the reporting mark for Chicago Railink and they were relettered to simply “CR”. There were also SD40s that Conrail renumbered in to the 800s for the lease fleet; other than the renumbering they retained their full Conrail dress. For some reason unknown to me CR 809 was renumbered with an addition “O”. It is seen laying over in Aberdeen Yard with CP 786 and CP 4226. Conrail also purchased ex. ATSF C30-7s via GE for the lease fleet. The C30-7s were also painted solid Conrail-blue and numbered in the 500s, however they were not leased to CP.

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 02:50:17 +0000

LOL you youngin. I found the railways to be quite weedy when I started paying attention in 2001.. took a few years to get them under control, then again, there was a recession in the mid 90′s ending around 2001-2002… likely accounting for the reduction in spending on maintenance of way activities.

Transport Canada won’t have any of it any longer though – if it’s mainline track.

By: Joseph Bishop

Joseph Bishop — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 23:11:55 +0000

I wasn’t even born yet!

I’m impressed at how weedy Aberdeen was!

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 14:32:24 +0000

Awesome Rob! Great background too. Wish I was into it in highschool.

By: Eric May

Eric May — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 00:13:49 +0000

Thanks for sharing this. I saw it on consecutive days on the Mactier sub.

By: thb401

thb401 — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 02:58:27 +0000

Very nice shot and info Rob. Thanks for posting