Railroad Forums 

  • Conrail SD80MAC "white face" scheme question

  • Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.
Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.

Moderators: TAMR213, keeper1616

 #1522262  by Benjamin Maggi
 
My favorite Conrail engines were the SD80MAC locomotives, and I am sure part of that is because of their snappy "white face" paint scheme on the hoods. It was a nice departure from the regular all-blue Conrail locomotives that I saw in the 1980s and 1990s. It looks as though their SD70MACs, which were originally part of the SD80MAC order, also received the white face scheme.

Who designed this scheme? Was it proposed by EMD, or did Conrail come up with it. I thought it looked great and was surprised that it was never adopted to any other Conrail wide-cab engines, but perhaps it came out right at the end of Conrail's life and it was dropped.

Thanks.
 #1522293  by RMB357
 
“The different paint job was done to make sure both the train crews and repair forces knew the locomotives were different,” explains Samuels, who was vice president of mechanical when Conrail placed the order with EMD. “The SD80MACs were Conrail’s first A.C. units, first 5,000-hp, 20-cylinder engines, and they had EMD’s radial truck design. Conrail used them primarily in coal service on routes that had tight curvature.”
 #1522633  by RMB357
 
More than welcome. These were also my favorite locomotives and I remember fondly watching them being tested on the Pittsburgh line and today they still have a presence around Altoona which says something for how they were built
 #1526269  by GOLDEN-ARM
 
they still have a presence in altoona alright. they are all stored, out of service. :P