A Conrail Survivor...

In 1999, Conrail was split up between Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation after both railroads fought a bitter bidding war over Conrail which was eventually judged to be pointless. That was almost 10 years ago. So, the chances of catching locomotives still painted in Conrail Blue get smaller every year. In fact, Norfolk Southern has vowed to eradicate all Conrail Blue from its locomotive fleet by the end of this year.

So imagine my surprise when I caught this GP38-2 on the former Durham and Southern line between Cary and Apex, NC on 10 July 2008, with a CSX re-number but still in Conrail blue. Notice the "can-opener" logo. Conrail introduced the Conrail Quality logo (sometimes known to railfans as the Q-logo) in about 1991. So this paint job has to date from about 1991 or early, since it doesn't have the Q-logo. Wow. Still looks pretty good!