Penn Central, Volume 6

Long after the Consolidated Rail Corporation, Conrail for short, absorbed the Penn Central and six other railroads in the Northeast on April 1, 1976, many locomotives continued to ply the rails in Brunswick Green paint, or in the paint schemes of the Erie Lackawanna, Reading, Lehigh Valley, or other roads. Even as newly painted blue Conrail locomotives appeared here and there, the old power still held sway on the high iron, often with dark flanks after the Penn Central name had been painted over and with the CR initials stenciled on the nose where the interlocking PC emblem had once been.

Freight equipment went through a similar metamorphoses, as the newer cars were slowly repainted and the older rolling stock was replaced. This, then, is a very large railroad in transition, as Emery Gulash filmed the fading Penn Central giant during the late 1970s. Locations include: Junction Yard Branch in Detroit, Interstate 75 bridge, Altoona depot, Ypsilanti, MI., Ann Arbor, MI., Horseshoe Curve, Town Line, MI. Central Depot, Dearborn, MI., Detroit, Wayne Jct. Equipment Includes: GP-40s, Alco’s, GP-38s, F-units, E-units, Amtrak, French Turboliner, GP-9, F-40-PHs.