Conrail was created from six bankrupt railroads and commenced operations on April 1, 1976, as part of the largest corporate reorganization at the time.

Initial Conrail OCS roster:

CR 1 (1st) office car (PC)

CR 2 office car (PC)

CR 3 office car (PC)

CR 4 (1st) office car (PC)

CR 10 parlor-observation car (PC)

CR 11 10-5 sleeper (EL)

CR 20 research car (PC)

CR 4022 E8A (EL)

Penn Central #7138, a former Pennsylvania Railroad parlor car inherited by Conrail, was renumbered to Conrail 12 in 1979 and entered the Reading Shops for conversion into a meeting room/board car. On February 5, 1980, the completed car emerged in stainless steel, later acquiring a bright blue band around the windows and eventually a full blue paint job. The conversion allowed 40 people to meet at a conference table and even featured audio/visual and motion picture equipment.

Conrail office car 4 (1st) was sold to Raymond Rich, who was Chairman of the Board and CEO of the U.S. Filter Corporation in 1980.

Edward G. Jordan’s rarely-used office car 1 was sold to Railway Associated Services, Inc. in Columbus, Michigan.

The Conrail special equipment was moved to the Conrail Reading Shops, Reading, PA. The shops possessed everything Conrail needed to house the business and research cars. The large brick passenger shop had a concrete floor and was 100 feet wide, accommodating four tracks which were capable of holding the entire fleet.

On September 22, 1982, Conrail purchased Santa Fe office car 55 and contracted Amtrak’s Beech Grove Shops to complete the conversion. Amtrak finished the car and handed it over to Conrail on September 30, 1983 for a final cost of $2,250,000. The Track Geometry Car, CR 21, featured computerized equipment that tested track quality by measuring track gauge, track alignment, and the degree of curvature.

December 20, 1982, Conrail purchased VIA class DLC-82-A dinette car 428. In full VIA paint with a temporary “CR 23” added for shipment and customs clearance, the car made its way to the Reading Shops for preparation to be completely rebuilt over the next three years, becoming Conrail 9, the theater car.

December 20, 1982 (the same date of the VIA car purchase), L. Stanley Crane authorized the purchase of Southern Railway office car #3, a car with which he was very familiar due to his tenure on the Southern. In January of 1983, the car (in full Southern paint, but patched with its new Conrail number “1”) was escorted to Reading. The car was the first of several former Southern cars that would join the fleet.

After riding the Conrail business cars and commenting that the blue was a bit too harsh, Stanley L. Crane directed that the special equipment fleet was to be painted in a more “distinguished” dark green. In early February and March of 1983, E8A 4022 and the passenger cars started to be repainted. The new paint scheme covered the cars in a single color from the roof to the bottom of the trucks. Conrail chose Pullman Green from Valspar Corporation (manufacturer part number AXG0070, Conrail part number 47-656204) for the color. Instead of white logos, a new gold-colored reflective “wheels-on-rails” logo was adhered to the sides. Initially, both the Reading Shops and the paint booth at the Juniata Locomotive Shop performed the paint work.

On March 23, 1983, Conrail 4022 and business cars 1, 2, 12, and 10 made their first public appearance in Conrail Pullman Green paint, arriving at the Pittsburgh Amtrak station in the morning. Notably, the “CONRAIL” lettering on the nose of 4022 was missing and the gold logos on both sides of the locomotive were facing forward. The locomotive received the missing nose lettering fairly quickly, but the forward-facing logos lasted into mid-1984.

Conrail purchased another Southern Railway heavyweight office car, this time SOU 4. By May of 1983, the car (in full Southern 4 paint) was being switched into the Reading Shops by former Penn Central GP38-2 8127. It was painted Conrail Pullman Green by July of 1983 and numbered Conrail 4.

Conrail continued to purchase Southern Railway cars for their business train, and on August 24, 1983 purchased three Southern coaches which were renumbered CR 24, CR 25, and CR 26. The 24 was set aside to become an eight-bedroom sleeper.

With all of the new cars in the fleet, Conrail needed new motive power to supplement the steam generator-equipped E8A 4022. In 1983, a trade was reached with Amtrak to acquire E8As 498 and 499 in exchange for Conrail SW8s 8623, 8625, and 8689, along with SW8M 8681. Both of the new-to Conrail E8As were equipped with head-end power (HEP), which used a supplemental on-board generator to provide 480V electric power for the passenger cars in the train. In 1984 and 1985, the two engines entered the Juniata Locomotive Shop for complete rebuilds and emerged as Conrail 4020 and 4021.

Conrail 24 was set aside to become an eight-bedroom sleeper and was rebuilt and renumbered CR 8 after being released from its rebuild in September of 1984.

To complement the Track Geometry Car, Conrail purchased the former EMD Test Car ET800 (former Southern Pacific 9500) in February of 1985. The car was purchased for conversion to a new rail- head contour measuring car, called the Rail Surface Analyzer Car. The car entered the Reading Shops in mid-August of 1985 and emerged as Conrail 22 in March of 1986. After a shake-down run from Reading to Harrisburg and return, the car was handed over to the Maintenance-of-Way Department on March 27, 1986.

Conrail also purchased several Amtrak coaches in the mid 1980s. One of the coaches, former Amtrak 5667, was converted by the Reading Shop into Conrail coach 27. Another coach, former Amtrak 5671, stayed on Conrail until 1999, but was never converted and was sold by Norfolk Southern.

In June of 1988, CEO Richard Sanborn wanted to purchase an office car for his own use on Conrail. According to John Evans, Mr. Sanborn wanted a car with a wood interior, similar to the CSX business car Baltimore. John met Mr. Sandborn at Roanoke airport to see some business cars that were available, including Norfolk & Western #100 Pocahontas. After seeing the unique Padauk wood that covered the walls, he had it purchased. On December 11, 1988, the car was on its way for painting at the Juniata Shops, where it emerged as Conrail 100 Boston. Later it was renumbered Conrail 5.

Another addition to the fleet, and the second-to-last purchase, was a former Santa Fe full-length dome car in 1988. The dome (Conrail 55) instantly became a hit for both visitors and the Managers of Special Equipment. Both U. L. Fox and Carl Kennedy used the lower-level crew compartment as their personal space when riding the train. Kennedy preferred to stay in the car if an office car was not available.

Conrail coaches 25 and 26 were sold in 1990. Mike Gildea, Conrail’s go-to conductor for the Office Car Special in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, noted that the trucks on these two cars had been limited by Amtrak to 60 mph. Instead of investing more money in the cars, Conrail opted to sell them, and in 1990, both cars departed for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City, North Carolina.

After many years of hard work building, upgrading, and assembling the Conrail business car fleet, the Reading Passenger Shops were closed on May 1, 1991. The entirety of Conrail’s special equipment fleet (including E8As 4020 and 4021, which had been stabled at Enola) was moved to the Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, ten employees from Reading emptied the passenger and freight shops of all materials and tools and sent everything to Altoona in tractor trailers. The trucks were packed over the course of the month of May, with two to three trailers heading west each day. On July 5, 1991, the Reading Shops completely closed down, ending an era. From this point forward, all of the Conrail Business Car equipment was housed at the Miscellaneous Shop 2.

The special equipment fleet stayed largely the same after its move to Altoona. The E8As had been rebuilt and the cars refurbished, so the next few years were mostly dedicated to cosmetic changes and maintenance. However, an exception occurred in December of 1991, when Conrail purchased a former military hospital car for use as a support and storage car for the Track Measurement Train. This car was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1952 and was originally designed to provide care for soldiers injured in the Korean War. Both the Conrail Research and Engineering Departments, plus the business train, all wanted to use the car. In the end, it became Conrail 24, a support car for the Engineering Department. It replaced Conrail 23 after a November of 1991 incident in Altoona’s Rose Yard damaged the car’s draft gear.

After assigning the former hospital car to the Engineering Department, Conrail converted former office car Conrail 2 to Conrail 19 around 1994. The Conrail Technical Services Laboratory obtained the car to replace Conrail 20, which was in rough shape by that time. Conrail 19 had instrumentation installed in it to monitor and record train dynamics, including coupler (drawbar) force.