Conrail Boxcar

Conrail Boxcar. Cumberland Valley Railroad Museum. , This class X67 boxcar was built in April 1970 by the Penn Central Transportation Company to haul automobile parts. It was transferred to the new Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) in 1976 and continued service with CSX until 2020., Conrail boxcar #243880 was one of 154 X67-class boxcars built at the Penn Central's Samuel Rea Shops in Hollidaysburg (the same place our 857B boxcar was reconditioned). These monstrous 86-foot-long cars were some of the largest rolling stock ever built and were designed specifically for auto parts service, carrying large automobile frames and components between car assembly plants. This particular boxcar was constructed in April of 1970 as Penn Central #295633, and it entered service carrying Ford parts out of Brownstown, Michigan., On April 1, 1976, it became Conrail #295633, although records indicate that it wore Penn Central paint for another decade. In the late 1980s, the car was renumbered and repainted as Conrail #243880. This car was assigned to the Chrysler stamping plant at Twinsburg, Ohio in August 1995. Conrail itself was purchased and split up between Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation on June 1, 1999, and this car was conveyed to CSX and restenciled as NYC #243880. It was assigned to autoparts service for General Motors out of Parma, Ohio., In Jauary 2020, CSX graciously pulled the 50-year-old #243880 from active service and donated it to The Conrail Historical Society (The CRHS), a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Conrail's history. Thanks to the generosity of Pennsylvania and Southern Railway, the car was temporarily relocated to a siding near Chambersburg before being moved here to Shippensburg Station by Dave's Truck Repair in 2021. A grant from the Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation enabled the car's restoration and transformation into a state-of-the-art museum and archive that houses The CRHS's extensive collection of manuscripts and artifacts. for more information, visit www.TheCRHS.org., [Captions:] , The #243880 is wearing its original Penn Central paint and number (#295633) on a train in Cajon, California on September 30, 1977. (Ron Hawkins photo), CSX Transportation delivered the #243880 to The CRHS in Chambersburg on January 16, 2020. It was photographed on its final trip! (Jim Stanton photo)