Only two of Conrail’s immediate predecessors rostered E8’s, and both contributed examples to the Conrail roster. Many of the Penn Central’s large roster of the EMD passenger units were conveyed to Amtrak when it was formed in 1971. By 1976, most of PC’s 34 surviving E8’s were in commuter service ion the New York & Long Branch in northern New Jersey, where they served well into the 1980’s.
The Erie-Lackawanna, who discontinued its last intercity passenger train in 1970, was not part of Amtrak. Its fleet of E8’s was put to work in suburban commuter service out of Hoboken until they were displaced by new U34CH’s. The EMD’s were placed into freight service, and managed to linger on the roster, with 23 being conveyed to Conrail.
Conrail had no use for the EL passenger units on their roster, and quickly retired most of them. Conrail did, however, covet the two prime movers in each of the units, as donors for the DeWitt Geep program, which was re-engining RS3’s with E8 567’s. The relocation of the program from Dewitt to Juniata resulted in the appearance of many retired RS3’s and E8’s in the Altoona dead line. Here former Erie/EL 821 waits to i up its prime movers before a date with the torch.
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.
