The Philadelphia Chapter of the

National Railway Historical Society

Established in 1936

Before NS became famous among modelers for their use of "undecorated" engines, the only grey units in official company livery that wandered around the Philadelphia area were those assigned to Conrail's Ballast Express (CP had a couple of beat SD40-2's in primer). Of the GE's selected, the C32-8's were painted and lettered for that service, while two of the C36-7's, 6620 and 6621, remained blue but were lettered on the cab. Here is one of the C32-8's after NS got a hold of it, having been renumbered 8547 with the PRR sublettering on the cab. The Ballast Express concept was now only a memory, and this unit was returned to regular service. However, that would not last long as the C32-8's were one of the first classes of Conrail units to be retired by NS. The blue units in the first picture are sitting on the Fairless Branch while 8547 does some shifting in Morrisville "B" yard. "A" yard to the east is where NJT has built its new terminal facility for operations on the NEC, and "C" yard to the west is now NS's intermodal facility.