After the formation of Conrail, it was not unusual to see former Erie-Lackawanna units at Allentown, or in the Bethlehem engine terminal, but they were almost always GP35’s or SD45/SDP45/SD45-2’s. In July of 1979, a quite unique grey, yellow, and maroon visitor mixed it up with the usual black and blue EMD assortment at the Bethlehem roundhouse. Built in 1951 as Erie 1027, the RS3 retained the same number after the Erie-Lackawanna merger, and was re-engined by the road’s Hornell shops in 1975, the only such example. Similar to but different from the Penn Central’s “DeWitt Geep” RS3 re-engine program, the unit was renumbered 9998, the last available number in the block reserved for these rebuilds, and the second-highest number of the Conrail roster. A DeWitt rebuild eventually filled the highest number slot on the roster, replacing an ex-PRR 44-tonner that was sold a few weeks after the merger.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
