PC: Silent Rails

["Roger P. Hensley" <rhensley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	Today is Jume 1, 1999 and the Big Four main line east out of Indy is
	silent today as CSX and NS work to assimilate Conrail into their
	computer systems.  These rails have stood silent before, but never
	for a reason such as this. Always before the railroad continued on
	as a part of the larger whole. BeeLine, Big Four, NYC, PC and 
	Conrail. Always the traffic continued to roll even as the names
	changed, but not this time. Conrail became what Penn Central should
	have been. It was alive and vibrant and healthy. It made money, and
	because it did, it became a target for a takeover, a buy-out.

	The rails stand silent today as the new owners try to roll Conrail
	into their fold. Always before the railroad lived on, but not this
	time. The CCC&StL is now truely history and the NS dispatcher
	will no longer say, "The Big Four will run one ahead of you."

	I was out yesterday in spite of the overcast and rain trying to get
	the last moments on film. I caught PRR 8444 on the point leaving 
	South Anderson Yards eastbound late in the afternoon. That was the
	last that I could get. Saturday was clear and bright and the trains
	were rolling frequently. Today, the rails lie silent as Conrail
	passes into history and becomes just another fallen flag...

	Goodbye old friend.

Roger

Roger Hensley
    00rphensley -AT- bsuvc.bsu.edu - rhensley@anderson.cioe.com
                             
== http://bsuvc.bsu.edu/~00rphensley/cidwelco.html =========
== Railroads of Madison County (Indiana) ===================