A Gift For Conrail Day on Conrail. On April 1, 1976, the Reading Railroad, which had been founded as the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road in 1833, became part of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). Conrail was created to rescue the bankrupt northeast railroading industry, and was later privatized and taken over, but April 1 is still celebrated as "Conrail Day". Norfolk Southern Corporation perhaps coincided the re-release of the Reading Railroad Heritage Unit 1067 (SD70ACe, EMD) after rehabilitation and repainting at the Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania for this day, sending it east on Train 22X the previous night. On April 1, 2023, it traveled over the trackage of the current day descendant of that company, Conrail Shared Assets, arriving and leaving on the same day with its "Bee Line Service" paint scheme restored to its bright yellow and green.
After arriving on that morning on Train 22X, it turned for Train 253 along with NS 9575 (C40-9W, GE) and BNSF 6346 (ES44AC, GE). Under a foreboding sky, the train departed E-Rail Intermodal Terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey just before nominal sunset.
