Conrail is alive & well....

Lately with the pics I’ve shared of my N scale Allegheny & Cumberland, there’s been a lot of CSX involved. I was railfanning earlier today & was treated to Big Blue roaming the mountains. On my layout, time stands still, so it’s a mid July day in 1990. Here’s a big SD peeking around the east end of Coal Fork Jct. …

Here’s the rest of the horsepower hauling black diamonds, gliding thru …

It’s a busy day off the mainline as well with two 4 axels heading to the mine for their loads…

Looks good!! I really like the second shot.

fellar - For present day running, you can always throw in an SD80 in Conrail colors.

Nice layout, thanks for sharing.

Great looking layout. I like the irregular outline to the trees as well, more realistic than puffballs. Talk to us about how you make your forest canopy!

And hey, in the prototype Conrail also is still alive and well today, and living in New Jersey. [:D]

Looks great, any more pics?[bow]

[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto] I’d like to see more of that. On another note, I’m playing hookie today and my darling wife sat with me and put the decals on second GP-9. Whooo, now I have a matching set of Conrail GP’s to run, now if I can just boost my track power to run them both I’ll have some serious pulling power. [:D][tup]

Thanks guys ! Puff balls ?? I call 'em ping pong balls…lol. Too much conformity with those. I use clump foliage & foliage clusters. I want my tree canopy to look just like canopy… it’s like each tree has its own idenity. SD80’s ?? For 1990, wide cab C40-8’s & SD 60’s were pretty much new… I don’t even think SD60 M’s arrived on the scene yet according to my July '90 roster. Here 'ya go ! …

Very inspiring… I’m thinking of adding some CR to my NS layout. By the way, what was your mix for ballast in the third pic?

What a coincidence ! I’m thinking about adding a few of those new Atlas C40-8’s in NS. The ballast you asked about is black cinders in the foreground of that pic, for the mine tracks. Half of the mainline is either gray or brown ballast. Here’s a different angle…

I thought that was just cinders but I just wondered if you mixed with any grey of buff/brown. I’m thinking of getting the CR 8-40C! Do you have any clue as to when they are do out?

Very Tasty!

Very Tasty!

Very Tasty! Go

Very Tasty! Go Big

Very Tasty! Go Big Blue!

hey outdoorsfellar,

that looks really nice! I’m with you on the ping pong balls, I don’t think they look all that great either. If you do decide to run an SD80 (just for the sake of having one) they (kato) run really nice. nicer than my 3 kato SD70s. a guy at our club has 2 of em.

and although conrail is still in NJ, it’s only trackage that didn’t either intrest NS and CSX or just didn’t make sense for them to run. I’m not even sure if conrail is still the leadership. i could find out easily enough tonight though.