It's no secret that in order to save money the several bankrupt railroads that formed Conrail in 1976 practiced "deferred maintenance": whatever work that could be put off was put off for as long as possible. While this might have helped some predecessors' bottom line, it didn't exactly help Conrail get its trains running on time!Railroads like the Penn Central pushed off locomotive maintenance to the point where they had few reliable locomotives remaining on their roster. Sure they had some locomotives that worked, but not enough to effectively run their railroad. When Conrail came along in 1976, they inherited these maintenance headaches. Needing to get the railroad up and running, Conrail decided to bite the bullet and order new locomotives.
In 1977, the first order of new GP40-2's arrived on Conrail. These were powerful turbocharged locomotives, using a 16-cylinder 645E3 prime mover to produce 3,000hp. Since they were based on the improvements of the Dash-2 line, they were also extremely reliable compared to their GP40 cousins. Conrail received units from 1977 until 1980, placing them in series CR 3280-3403. But these were not the first GP40-2's to operate on Conrail.
The First GP40-2's:
Only a couple of years prior to the beginning of Conrail, the Reading Company took delivery of five new GP40-2's in December 1973 and assigned them to series RDG 3671-3675. Unlike prior Reading diesels, which had been painted in either the older drab green or the newer cream-and-green scheme, these new units were painted in a more spartan solid green with yellow end-striping and cab-roof numbers. These unit will be the primary focus of this article.Since the units had been purchased to haul high-grade ore out of Bethlehem Steel's mine in Joanna, PA, then down the old Wilmington & Northern Branch to Reading, these units were assigned to Reading, PA. The Reading figured that under usual conditions three GP40-2's would be able to handle a typical train, though a fourth was always kept handy just in case it was needed. According to Jim Hertzog, the Reading calculated that one GP40-2 could handle about 16 loaded ore cars, with the average train consisting of 50 to 70 cars. The spare fifth unit would be available in case one of the regular four were to break down; otherwise, it would be available for daily merchandise trains or for service on other local branches. These green locomotives quickly became the darlings of local railroaders and railfans alike well into Conrail.
The former RDG GP40-2's remained untouched by Conrail stencils or total repaint for quite a while, possibly do their connection with Bethlehem Steel. For example, the last photo I took of RDG 3673 was in August 1978 on the local run down the W&N (it was teamed with GP9 CR 7164 in full CR blue with caboose CR 18712 on the rear.) I still remember the day I took that photo...
A Personal Recollection of the Reading GP40-2's:
Note: What this section is a personal recollection from when I was a young teen living in the Reading area. I've kept this part of the page intact as a memory of when I wrote it 20+ years ago.It had been a long summer that year, 1978. Conrail was finally starting to settle in. More and more locomotives were appearing in fresh blue, while most other locomotives had been stenciled with their new CR numbers. But a few Reading Company GP40-2's still remained in their pristine Reading colors: the fabled Grace Miners. But even these units were soon to be stenciled or repainted blue.
It was one of those hot August evenings, when all a kid could do was lie in bed next to an open window, listening to the sound of crickets and catching a faint breeze blow across his face. And if you were a kid and lucky enough to be a railfan in a railroad town, you could also catch the distant echo of locomotive horns and wheels clacking across track joints. It was one of those evenings.
Then the phone rang. It was my buddy from a couple of blocks away. He was excited. The yard, he said, was getting RDG 3673 ready for the Wilmington Northern run that night. Whoa! That did it for me!
I ran downstairs, grabbed my camera, and then my father. Sometimes it pays to live in a family that loves railroading! He grabbed his keys and away we were, swinging by my buddy's to pick him up. We figured that we would have just enough time to catch the train as it approached Franklin Street Station. With cameras loaded and ready, we blazed across the Penn Street Bridge in our old station wagon, the sun slowly setting behind us.
As we rolled into the station parking lot, we could hear the horns of the approaching train. It was only seconds away and we still stuck looking for a parking space! Oh no, I thought, we're going to miss it! But my dad stopped the car just in time, allowing us to leap out of the car and grab a shot of the passing locomotives.
Of course there just happened to be several monstrous cars parked between us and the station platform, with one car containing a local railfan who just smiled at us.
I snapped a shot of the passing train even though most of it was being blocked by the cars. Back then you never knew if the next day the RDG 3673 would show up still in original paint or stenciled CR 3277. So you took your shots when you could!
My heart still pounding, I ran up along the cars until I got to the end of platform and an unobstructed view. With shaking hands and a second remaining, I grabbed an angled shot of the approaching caboose. Then turned to get a better shot of it passing under the old station sign. Standing on the rear platform, a friendly trainman gave a huge wave as the train slipped into the fading light.
Exhausted and satisfied, my buddy and I made our way back to my waiting father. As we drove back home under the hazy August sunset, we talked about our adventure, about trains, and about being a kid during the crazy days of Conrail's youth. I had no idea back then that one day I would be doing the same thing for my son that my father had done for me that evening. Nor did I imagine that Conrail itself would one day fade under repaints like the Reading Company had. It truly was a special evening...
Looking at the photos Bob Dobrowolski has contributed, I can see that the RDG 3672 and 3674 had been stenciled by at least October 1978 and were far afield in New Jersey. The RDG 3671 had been stenciled by at least April 1979, though it probably got done much earlier than that. The last photo I took of RDG 3675 in full colors was in June 1977. 
The Conrail Years:
Based on the improved electronics of the Dash-2 series, the GP40-2 was a reliable locomotive designed primarily for high-speed intermodal service, though they also found themselves in regular merchandise service. Since all the units were equipped with cab signals, they could be found nearly everywhere on Conrail's system, though at first they tended to appear more regularly in the Eastern section of the system.Due to their reliability, Conrail retained nearly all of their GP40-2's until the final days of the railroad, unlike the GP40's, which were retired in massive numbers during the 1980's. But by the end of the 1990's, Conrail's GP40-2's were beginning to show their age. Having been replaced in intermodal service by newer and larger locomotives, the geeps were assigned mainly to merchandise freight service, except on the joint CR/NS Triple Crown road-railer trains in Pennsylvania, which usually used a solitary GP40-2 to power the train.
Comprehensive EMD GP40-2 Roster
Builder's
CR # Former Built Number Phase Removed Disposition
===========================================================================
3275 RDG 3671 12/73 73624-1 Phase I 05/31/99 NS 3000
3276 RDG 3672 12/73 73624-2 Phase I 05/31/99 CSX 4400
3277 RDG 3673 12/73 73624-3 Phase I 05/31/99 CSX 4401
3278 RDG 3674 12/73 73624-4 Phase I 05/31/99 NS 3001
3279 RDG 3675 12/73 73624-5 Phase I 05/31/99 NS 3002
3280 --- ---- 04/77 766069-1 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3003
3281 --- ---- 04/77 766069-2 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3004
3282 --- ---- 04/77 766069-3 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3005
3283 --- ---- 04/77 766069-4 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3006
3284 --- ---- 05/77 766069-5 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4402
3285 --- ---- 05/77 766069-6 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3007
3286 --- ---- 05/77 766069-7 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4403
3287 --- ---- 05/77 766069-8 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3008
3288 --- ---- 05/77 766069-9 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3009
3289 --- ---- 05/77 766069-10 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3010
3290 --- ---- 05/77 766069-11 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4404
3291 --- ---- 05/77 766069-12 Phase II ??/??/98 MPI (wrecked)(1)
3292 --- ---- 05/77 766069-13 Phase II ??/??/98 MPI (wrecked)(2)
3293 --- ---- 05/77 766069-14 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4405
3294 --- ---- 05/77 766069-15 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3011
3295 --- ---- 05/77 766069-16 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4406
3296 --- ---- 05/77 766069-17 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4407
3297 --- ---- 05/77 766069-18 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4408
3298 --- ---- 05/77 766069-19 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3012
3299 --- ---- 05/77 766069-20 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4409
3300 --- ---- 05/77 766069-21 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3013
3301 --- ---- 05/77 766069-22 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4410
3302 --- ---- 05/77 766069-23 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3014
3303 --- ---- 05/77 766069-24 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4411
3304 --- ---- 05/77 766069-25 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3015
3305 --- ---- 05/77 766069-26 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3016
3306 --- ---- 05/77 766069-27 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4412
3307 --- ---- 05/77 766069-28 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3017
3308 --- ---- 05/77 766069-29 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4413
3309 --- ---- 05/77 766069-30 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4414
3310 --- ---- 05/77 766069-31 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3018
3311 --- ---- 05/77 766069-32 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3019
3312 --- ---- 06/77 766069-33 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3020
3313 --- ---- 05/78 776127-1 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3021
3314 --- ---- 05/78 776127-2 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4415
3315 --- ---- 05/78 776127-3 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3022
3316 --- ---- 05/78 776127-4 Phase II ??/??/?? wrecked
3317 --- ---- 05/78 776127-5 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3023
3318 --- ---- 05/78 776127-6 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4416
3319 --- ---- 05/78 776127-7 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3024
3320 --- ---- 05/78 776127-8 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4417
3321 --- ---- 05/78 776127-9 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4418
3322 --- ---- 05/78 776127-10 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4419
3323 --- ---- 05/78 776127-11 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3025
3324 --- ---- 05/78 776127-12 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3026
3325 --- ---- 05/78 776127-13 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4420
3326 --- ---- 05/78 776127-14 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3027
3327 --- ---- 05/78 776127-15 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3028
3328 --- ---- 05/78 776127-16 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3029
3329 --- ---- 05/78 776127-17 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3030
3330 --- ---- 05/78 776127-18 Phase II 01/31/94 wrecked
3331 --- ---- 06/78 776127-19 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4421
3332 --- ---- 06/78 776127-20 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3031
3333 --- ---- 06/78 776127-21 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3032
3334 --- ---- 06/78 776127-22 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3033
3335 --- ---- 06/78 776127-23 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3034
3336 --- ---- 06/78 776127-24 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4422
3337 --- ---- 06/78 776127-25 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3035
3338 --- ---- 06/78 776127-26 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4423
3339 --- ---- 06/78 776127-27 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4424
3340 --- ---- 06/78 776127-28 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4425
3341 --- ---- 06/78 776127-29 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3036
3342 --- ---- 06/78 776127-30 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4426
3343 --- ---- 06/78 776127-31 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4427
3344 --- ---- 06/78 776127-32 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3037
3345 --- ---- 06/78 776127-33 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4428
3346 --- ---- 02/79 786191-1 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4429
3347 --- ---- 02/79 786191-2 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3038
3348 --- ---- 02/79 786191-3 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3039
3349 --- ---- 02/79 786191-4 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3040
3350 --- ---- 03/79 786191-5 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3041
3351 --- ---- 03/79 786191-6 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3042
3352 --- ---- 03/79 786191-7 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3043
3353 --- ---- 03/79 786191-8 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3044
3354 --- ---- 03/79 786191-9 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4430
3355 --- ---- 03/79 786191-10 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3045
3356 --- ---- 03/79 786191-11 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4431
3357 --- ---- 03/79 786191-12 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4432
3358 --- ---- 03/79 786191-13 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4433
3359 --- ---- 04/79 786191-14 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4434
3360 --- ---- 04/79 786191-15 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3046
3361 --- ---- 04/79 786191-16 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4435
3362 --- ---- 04/79 786191-17 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3047
3363 --- ---- 04/79 786191-18 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4436
3364 --- ---- 04/79 786191-19 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3048
3365 --- ---- 04/79 786191-20 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4437
3366 --- ---- 04/79 786191-21 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4438
3367 --- ---- 04/79 786191-22 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3049
3368 --- ---- 04/79 786191-23 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4439
3369 --- ---- 05/79 786191-24 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4440
3370 --- ---- 05/79 786191-25 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3050
3371 --- ---- 04/79 786191-26 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3051
3372 --- ---- 05/79 786191-27 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3052
3373 --- ---- 05/79 786191-28 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4441
3374 --- ---- 05/79 786191-29 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4442
3375 --- ---- 05/79 786191-30 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4443
3376 --- ---- 05/79 786191-31 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3053
3377 --- ---- 05/79 786191-32 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3054
3378 --- ---- 05/79 786191-33 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3055
3379 --- ---- 05/79 786191-34 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4444
3380 --- ---- 05/79 786191-35 Phase II 05/31/99 CSX 4445
3381 --- ---- 05/79 786191-36 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3056
3382 --- ---- 05/79 786191-37 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3057
3383 --- ---- 05/79 786191-38 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3058
3384 --- ---- 05/79 786191-39 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3059
3385 --- ---- 05/79 786191-40 Phase II 05/31/99 NS 3060
3386 --- ---- 01/80 796339-1 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3061
3387 --- ---- 01/80 796339-2 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4446
3388 --- ---- 01/80 796339-3 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3062
3389 --- ---- 01/80 796339-4 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3063
3390 --- ---- 01/80 796339-5 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4447
3391 --- ---- 01/80 796339-6 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4448
3392 --- ---- 01/80 796339-7 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3064
3393 --- ---- 01/80 796339-8 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4449
3394 --- ---- 02/80 796339-9 Phase III ??/??/?? (wreck, scrap)
3395 --- ---- 02/80 796339-10 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3065
3396 --- ---- 02/80 796339-11 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4450
3397 --- ---- 02/80 796339-12 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3066
3398 --- ---- 02/80 796339-13 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4451
3399 --- ---- 02/80 796339-14 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3067
3400 --- ---- 02/80 796339-15 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3068
3401 --- ---- 02/80 796339-16 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3069
3402 --- ---- 02/80 796339-17 Phase III 05/31/99 NS 3070
3403 --- ---- 02/80 796339-18 Phase III 05/31/99 CSX 4452
Roster Notes:
1. Wrecked in 1998 at Salem, Ohio. Sold to Motive Power Industries and rebuilt in December 1998 as #104, a MP2000D, for Coastal Marine Corporation.
2. CR 3292 rode on GP38-2 Blomberg Type M trucks. Wrecked in 1998 at Salem, Ohio. Sold to Motive Power Industries, rebuilt, and sold to New Orleans Public Belt as #2002.