In my monthly column for the July 2021 Issue of Trains Magazine, I featured a discussion of Conrail SD40 6281:
“During the 1980s, I made forays to the former Pennsylvania Railroad crossing of the Allegheny Divide, the route famous for its sinuous Horseshoe Curve west of Altoona, Pa. And here I witnessed SD40s . . . Among the locomotives in Conrail’s Cresson, Pennsylvania-based helper pool was former Penn Central 6281, a January 1971 graduate of EMD’s LaGrange, Illinois plant . . . I wonder how many times I crossed paths with this locomotive over the years, both on Horseshoe Curve on New England Central. After Genesee & Wyoming acquired NECR in 2013, old 6281 was sent to Brookville’s Locomotive Division for overhaul and returned to NECR wearing fresh orange, yellow & black paint carrying its road number 3405.”
The other night while scanning slides at my new home in Pennsylvania, I came across this view from November 1986 of 6281, second unit out on Conrail’s BUOI (Buffalo to Oak Island) at Gang Mills Yard on the former Erie Railroad route near Corning, New York.
It was like the younger me had anticipated the question the older me asked. There I was standing on a bridge in the wind to make a photograph of a common SD40 while looking far into the future.
Where is 3405 (nee 6281) today?
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