The Post-Split Conrail Coal Fleet

[High Hood]

Perhaps all the Conrail guys on here can help me out. I'm trying to find out what happened to Conrail's fleet of coal cars after the split. For example, how long did coal trains composed of only Conrail cars last until they were dispersed throughout the NS and CSX fleets? Did Conrail only coal trains make it outside of Conrail territory before being dispersed? Was the arrival of NS and CSX cars immediate in Conrail territory? When were the rebuilt gondolas (G52L,G52H, G52R) scrapped?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Going from memory, I remember coal LOTS of Top Gons on coal trains in former Conrail territory in the early 2000s so I think things got mixed up pretty quickly.

I saw a rebuilt Gon last year, but there was an entire class that got wiped out en masse in the late 2000s when they discovered an issue with, I think, frame cracks. I think it was the G52Rs but I could be wrong.
I apologise that the thumbnails don't work but this might be helpful: http://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/ConrailSurvivors/FreightCars/Coalporters

[Tristan Ashcroft]

I was living in Huntingdon PA that summer.  Things got mixed pretty quickly.  Like, it-seemed-deliberate quickly.  The four consequential CR coal gon classes were the G52H, G52L, G52R, and G52X.  The G52H were the 300 cars that Conrail rebuilt from hoppers as a trial run, with sides that were a good bit lower than the H43/H1.  The G52R and G52L were the mainstays of the rebuilt-from-H43’s-as-coal-gons fleet (they had minor differences, but all looked pretty similar going by at track speed).  The G52X’s were built new from pre-fab kits.  NS got rid of all three rebuilt classes relatively quickly (less than a decade?  I dunno, I moved out west for that decade).  But all three classes probably had the same problem - and those were center sills from PRR or early PC.  The G52X’s hung around, and might still be out there.  Naturally, the rebuilt classes lingered on CSX (observations from CRHS Marion rail-b-ques).  I guess they can’t afford nice things.
       As for hoppers, the 1970’s H1A-H1G classes lasted a little while on NS.  Not sure how long (the same I-lived-out-west decade).  The mid to late-90’s classes like H1M and H1N and the H2, H2B and H2C (4-bays) lasted on NS for about 15 years.  At which point NS rebuilt all the 4-bays they wanted to keep into 3-bay hoppers with new rib spacing (but on the old frame, I assume - will the circle be unbroken -) like the HP28R.  Not sure if the H1M/N are still around or not.  I’m guessing not.  I dunno what CSX is doing.  Probably using all the ones the slope sheets haven’t fallen out of yet.

[High Hood]

@Ed Kapuscinski @Tristan Ashcroft Thanks guys! Any idea on the rough number of G52R and G52L's? The G52X's are still around, and you many see around 2-5 per NS coal gondola train. CSX may have some ex-Cons running around, but I think CSX repainted theirs? There are a few ex-Con 3 bays sitting in the yard downtown right now, but I'm not sure of their class.  Their class markings are a lot smaller than the ones on NS cars!

Now that I think of it, a few weeks back I did see a Conrail 4 bay here in town! So there is at least one that escaped rebuilding.

I am wondering in the run-up to the split, would you see solid trains of NS and CSX bound cars? For example, even though things were still all Conrail you'd see a solid coal train with CSX-bound NYC patch out?

[GonzoCRFan]

I can't speak for Conrail cars leaving that territory, but NS cars seemed to move in pretty quickly where I was. I recall seeing a NS coal train bound for Eddystone, PA circa fall 1999-2000 that was composed entirely of NS Top Gons with one single CR coalporter mixed in. As Tristan said, it seemed to be intentional. After all, we are talking about an outfit that ran a train symbolled as an OCS, but was really a light-engine move of about 2 dozen Dash-9s into Conrail territory the weekend of the takeover to drive home who the new corporate overlords are.

Due to the center sill issues, all of the rebuilt CR coalporters were retired and purged from NS around 2009-2010. A few slipped through the cracks and could be found on CSX for a few years after that.

As for the CR triple hoppers, NS seemed to get rid of theirs fairly quickly. If memory serves me correctly, CSX started repainting some of theirs with the NYC reporting marks. The H2 quad hoppers should still be around on both roads, as they're much newer cars.

[Tristan Ashcroft]

@Ed Kapuscinski @Tristan Ashcroft Thanks guys! Any idea on the rough number of G52R and G52L's?

Ah, sorry, I don’t have a sense of numbers.