Prior to the formation of Conrail on April 1, 1976, a visit to Allentown almost always yielded at least one set of Lehigh Valley C628's. When I visited Allentown the first weekend after that, they were all gone, reassigned to Ohio/West Virginia/western Pennsylvania with all of Conrail's big Centuries. Two years later, it was a nice surprise to have former LV 626, one of four C628's that were never painted Cornell Red, show up in Conrail blue. Of course, the rose was hidden behind a thorn.
