Conrail’s Crown Jewel:
The Conrail Office Car Special

What is the Conrail OCS train?

At the Conrail Juniata Shops, hidden inside Miscellaneous Shop 2, was the Conrail exclusive business train equipment. The Conrail OCS (or Conrail office car special) was Conrail’s inspection, marketing, and educational tool used to promote the railroad’s various initiatives. Since the downfall of Conrail as a class one railroad in 1999, the term OCS has carried over to other railroads and can often be heard in reference to Norfolk Southern and CSX business trains. Interestingly enough, the term has no real meaning to those railroads and is used generically to describe those trains. Conrail office car specials are also referred to as Conrail inspection trains, Conrail business trains, Conrail presidential trains, Conrail executive trains, Conrail OLS trains, and on and on. They all basically mean the same thing: the Conrail OCS train.

The term OCS was used by Conrail dispatchers to designate a movement of their office car special, much like they did with their freight trains. For example, train “ENBU” was a designation for a general freight train where “EN” stands for Enola and “BU” stands for Buffalo. The OCS train didn’t run on a regular schedule and was used as needed, much like other special trains on the Conrail system. A good example of another unscheduled train would be their ballast trains; those trains carried the symbol “BAL”.

In the 1990s Conrail was made up of 6 divisions (5 after the consolidation of the Harrisburg Division), and Conrail office car trains were symbolled in the following ways:

OCS-101 = 1 for Philadelphia Division
OCS-201 = 2 for Harrisburg Division
OCS-301 = 3 for Albany Division
OCS-401 = 4 for Pittsburgh Division
OCS-501 = 5 for Dearborn Division
OCS-601 = 6 for Indianapolis Division

Conrail’s track geometry equipment, which was often mistaken for the OCS, had its very own train designation: TES. That equipment was not technically part of the office car specials and was used by the mechanical department for research, track survey, and improvement purposes. There are noted occasions where some of the TES equipment joined the OCS, probably to show off their capability, but this was outside of the norm. TES equipment had silver roofs; whereas, the office cars were green top to bottom. The geometry equipment was all business and no pleasure. Don’t believe me? Check out this great blog post from Don Oltmann on the dynamometer car, Conrail 20.

What is the Conrail OCS train?

At the Conrail Juniata Shops, hidden inside Miscellaneous Shop 2, was the Conrail exclusive business train equipment. The Conrail OCS (or Conrail office car special) was Conrail’s inspection, marketing, and educational tool used to promote the railroad’s various initiatives. Since the downfall of Conrail as a class one railroad in 1999, the term OCS has carried over to other railroads and can often be heard in reference to Norfolk Southern and CSX business trains. Interestingly enough, the term has no real meaning to those railroads and is used generically to describe those trains. Conrail office car specials are also referred to as Conrail inspection trains, Conrail business trains, Conrail presidential trains, Conrail executive trains, Conrail OLS trains, and on and on. They all basically mean the same thing: the Conrail OCS train.

The term OCS was used by Conrail dispatchers to designate a movement of their office car special, much like they did with their freight trains. For example, train “ENBU” was a designation for a general freight train where “EN” stands for Enola and “BU” stands for Buffalo. The OCS train didn’t run on a regular schedule and was used as needed, much like other special trains on the Conrail system. A good example of another unscheduled train would be their ballast trains; those trains carried the symbol “BAL”.

In the 1990s Conrail was made up of 6 divisions (5 after the consolidation of the Harrisburg Division), and Conrail office car trains were symbolled in the following ways:

OCS-101 = 1 for Philadelphia Division
OCS-201 = 2 for Harrisburg Division
OCS-301 = 3 for Albany Division
OCS-401 = 4 for Pittsburgh Division
OCS-501 = 5 for Dearborn Division
OCS-601 = 6 for Indianapolis Division

Conrail’s track geometry equipment, which was often mistaken for the OCS, had its very own train designation: TES. That equipment was not technically part of the office car specials and was used by the mechanical department for research, track survey, and improvement purposes. There are noted occasions where some of the TES equipment joined the OCS, probably to show off their capability, but this was outside of the norm. TES equipment had silver roofs; whereas, the office cars were green top to bottom. The geometry equipment was all business and no pleasure. Don’t believe me? Check out this great blog post from Don Oltmann on the dynamometer car, Conrail 20.

How were Conrail OCS trains operated?

Mr. Fox was the Manager of Special Equipment from 1983 until 1990 and his duties on Conrail included the oversight of the business cars, which meant he rode almost all Conrail OCS trips during that time. He oversaw the building, designing, and maintenance of the business cars during a time when the Conrail office car fleet was undergoing its largest expansion. He oversaw some of the following significant events in the OCS history:

• Acquisition and building of Conrail 9, the theater car.

• Acquisition of three Southern Railway coaches, converting one of them to Conrail 8 bedroom car.

• The switch from steam heat to 480 volts so the business cars would be compatible with Amtrak.

• The acquisition of Conrail 100 (later Conrail 5) for Richard Sanborn and travelled with his body in the car to Boston after his untimely death.

• Worked with Stanley Crane to change the Conrail blue paint scheme to Conrail green. During a conversation with him, he confirmed that the office car fleet was painted green from the top of the roof all the way down to the rails. The gold Conrail logos used were manufactured for Conrail and simply rolled out and stuck to the side of the equipment (they were not hand cut or handmade).

• Conrail 10 truck change out from three axles to two axles (and testing the car on the Northeast Corridor over 120 mph).

• Travelled with the office cars off of the Conrail system, including over the Rocky Mountains.

After 1990, Mr. Fox was replaced by Carl Kennedy when he went on to work at the Conway Diesel Terminal, leading it to its safest and most successful years. The business car fleet was then handled by two gentlemen: Jim Smith, Operations and Carl Kennedy, Mechanical. Jim oversaw the cooks and food, and Carl (whose title was General Foreman, Altoona Passenger Operations) was in charge of the mechanical aspect of the train. Carl replaced Mr. Fox in 1990 and like Mr. Fox, rode most OCS trips and also preferred to stay in the lower master bedroom of the Conrail full length dome car, 55.

Sleeping arrangements on the Conrail office cars were hard to come by. Conrail 1 was assigned to Ron Conway and Gary Spiegel. Conrail 11 was used by the cooks and porters. Conrail 4 had two bedrooms, Conrail 3 and Conrail 5 had three bedrooms, and Conrail 8 had 8 bedrooms. Steve mentioned that Conrail had been considering purchasing two more Pullman cars in 1997, but “along came the takeover and we opted to spend the money elsewhere.”

The food for the Conrail Office Car Specials came from a private club in Philadelphia and was first class. The food was taken to the train in the Altoona Misc Shop in coolers by a van with the porters and chefs. This same process happened when the train was kept in Reading. Conrail’s headquarters was in Philadelphia and the train often originated at Amtrak’s 30th Street Station. If that were the case, the Conrail OCS equipment would deadhead (be taken empty) to Philadelphia with just Carl on board. Jim Smith, the cooks, and porters would load up the train at 30th street.

As part of their education initiatives, Conrail often ran Operation Lifesaver trips. Those trips could have as many as 250 people onboard. If they needed more seating space, Conrail would add a business car or two. A typical Conrail OLS train trip would consist of the following pieces of equipment:

Conrail 4020 E8A and Conrail 4021 E8A

Conrail Observation 10 (platform to head end)

Conrail Bedroom Car 8 or Conrail Crew Sleeper 11

Conrail Coach 27

Conrail Full Length Dome 55

Conrail Conference Car 12 (for serving food)

Conrail Theater Car 9

In contrast, Conrail Inspection trips would have a slightly different consist including the heavyweight Pullman observation cars:

Conrail 4020 E8A and Conrail 4021 E8A (sometimes even Conrail 4022 E8A)

Conrail Observation 3

Conrail Observation 4

Conrail Observation 5

Conrail Observation 1

Conrail Bedroom Car 8

Conrail Crew Sleeper 11

Conrail 55

Conrail Coach 27 (for crew and visitors to sit)

Conrail Conference Car 12 (for serving food)

Conrail Theater Car 9 (for track inspection)

If you were a Conrail employee and were invited to ride the Conrail office car special, you would often receive a letter, boarding pass, name tag, trip booklets, collectibles, and other Conrail related items. Some examples of these items are displayed below, including a Conrail HQ Two Commerce Square magnet and sleeping car arrangement assignments for Conrail 8, the executive sleeper. You can imagine the work that went into each trip.