Conrail 12 Conference Car

Railroad Office CarsConrail OCSConrail 12
Written By Wes Reminder

Conrail OCS 12 - Amtrak 800390 - Conference Car

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Often called the Conrail Conference Car or Board Room Meeting Car, Conrail 12 joined the Conrail Office Car fleet on April 1, 1976 along with several other Conrail business cars. Conrail 12 was converted to a conference car in February 1980 by the Reading passenger car shop employees. Unlike other special equipment on the Conrail OCS train, it had three different paint schemes. Its first appearances on Conrail were in stainless steel fluting with a blue band around the windows, blue “Conrail” lettering above the windows, a blue “12” under the windows, and a white Conrail can opener facing “forward”. The car also included the smaller PRR style marker lights on the end walls. You can tell that its first paint scheme was a quick and easy effort, closely matching its Penn Central scheme which had a black band above the windows with “Penn Central” lettering, the number 7138 on the end of the sides, “Baron De Kalb” in the center under the windows, and a PC worms logo in the center band.

After rebuilding, the car emerged in its second paint scheme, this time in bright Conrail blue with a similar lettering scheme, black roof, and updated FRA red lens Translite marker lights. After the rest of the Conrail business car fleet began to be repainted green at Stanley Crane’s order, Conrail 12 was also dipped in fresh Conrail green. In a photo provided below by Chip Syme, he remembers seeing Conrail 12, along with Conrail 1 (2nd Conrail 1), Conrail 2, Conrail 10, and Conrail 4022 backing into Pittsburgh during their first trip in Conrail OCS green. Interestingly enough, Conrail 4022 was missing its “Conrail” logo on the front nose and the logo was facing forward, but more details will be provided on the upcoming Conrail 4022 page. Conrail 12 spent the rest of its career in a similar paint scheme.

Here is a quick history of Conrail 12.

Great Smoky Mountain Railroad (11/8/18)

CSX 994012 “Michigan” (6/1/99)

Conrail 12 - (4/1/76)

Penn Central 7138 - (2/1/68)

PRR “Baron De Kalb” - (52)

Conrail 12 was built in 1952 by the Budd Company as a stainless steel, lightweight Parlor/Drawing Car for the Pennsylvania Railroad (Class PP85, PRR 7138) with the name “Baron De Kalb”. The car was part of a series of streamlined cars used on the the New York to Washington “Congressionals” and the Boston-Washington “Senator”.  Conrail documentation notes that the car was “assigned at first to the ‘The Senator’, ‘Baron De Kalb’ eventually was used for first class service on the Boston-New York-Washington corridor.” After its service on the PRR, it became Penn Central 7138 “Baron De Kalb” in 1968. Penn Central rebuilt the car into a Galley Club car. Conrail documentation also notes that “all of the cars in this series were named after Revolutionary War heroes.  Amtrak acquired all of the cars except ‘Baron De Kalb’ on May 1, 1971.” 

Conrail acquired the car on April 1, 1976. As mentioned above, Conrail converted the car to a board/meeting car and numbered it CR 12. Entering the car from the vestibule end, you immediately pass through the stainless steel kitchen with cabinets overhead, a work surface, and cabinets below. The vestibule door had a long rounded corner window. After passing through the kitchen (which was just over 8’ long) you entered the hollow car with two L shaped counters immediately on the right and left sides. These counters were often full of donuts and coffee. On the wall behind those L shaped cabinets were three photos. Facing the vestibule, on the left was a photo of the OCS train in the snow (this same photo was featured in a Conrail wall calendar), on the right was a photo of a freight train going around horseshoe curve, below that a photo of the Office Car chefs and crew, and below that was a small plaque with the Conrail Quality logo and “Engineering Department, Presented to the Office Car Personnel”. I would love to know where that plaque ended up!

Over 53’ of the car was an empty space that could be arranged in any fashion necessary, making it an extremely versatile car. When I visited (and took no photos … grr) Conrail 12 had several tables placed end to end ready for a large 26 seat dinner party.

Conrail 12 could also be set up as buffet for people to take their food to adjoining cars. Browsing through trip booklets of all types you will see lunch served on car 12.

Other interesting elements of Conrail 12 were the Conrail branded desk flags, tablecloths, and riser boxes with the Conrail logo. I would love to have one of those riser boxes! The Conrail desk flags appear occasionally in auctions. If you get one, you might just have one that was used on Conrail 12. The majority of them appeared in the Philadelphia HQ on employees’ desks.

At the end of the 53’ hollow section of the car was a large cabinet and pull-down screen for presentations. Remember, this was the 1990s so there were no 80” flatscreen TVs. There was a TV inside the cabinet, however that projected the image from the E8A cab, showing the tracks ahead. After a slight turn to the left, there was a short hallway with an office (I didn’t go in and I have never seen photos inside of it) and my guess is that it was used for storage. After the office was some safety equipment, the public restrooms and a quick right and left to exit the car. Pretty simple. Its design was smart and was found coupled to Conrail 9 (with its larger kitchen) most often. Conrail 9 also provided electric for Conrail 12 since it had no self-contained generator.

Conrail 12’s appearance changed very little over the years. It did shed its lower fluting around the bottom edge of the car. It also lost its fluted roof. Up until recently I was certain it was removed for some reason. Well, there was a reason, but the fluting was NOT removed. Mr. Fox, who was in charge of all of the business car designs, rebuilds, and maintenance (and rode almost every single Conrail OCS movement) corrected my assumption and provided this insight. The disappearance of the fluting on the roof “was no small task.” While Mr. Fox was out of town, the maintenance force was performing coupler work and had the car lifted off the ground using an equalizer. He describes the incident, saying “the blocking they used sheared away and they dropped that car onto the top of the truck frames.” After Conrail 12 fell it oil-canned (buckled and made uneven) the fluting on the roof. Mr. Fox described it as being similar to stepping on an aluminum can. After that incident, his team had no choice but to COVER over the fluting, placing the rivets carefully on the fluted ridges. If you have a hi-res photo of Conrail 12, look at the vents and you will see exactly what he described. Bet you didn’t know that great story from Mr. Fox!

CSX acquired the car in the 1999 takeover by Norfolk Southern and CSX and numbered it CSX 994012 with the name “Michigan”.  Sometime between 2004 and 2005, CSX removed (OR DID THEY PLATE OVER IT like Mr. Fox’s crew did?) the lower fluting on the car, patched in some roof vents, and removed some windows. CSX continued to use the car in the same fashion as Conrail. The interior was updated with fresh white walls, dark wood blinds, updated dark wood cabinets, and a dark blue floral-patterned carpet. CSX 994012 had two paint schemes during its time on CSX: YN2 and YN3 inspired. On November 8, 2018, the car (and Conrail 8, the executive sleeper) was sold, ending its life as an official railroad conference and meeting car. The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, which also owns former Conrail coaches 25 and 26, will be installing coach seats and will use the car as a first-class coach. I have yet to see any photos of it in service, but hope to visit the GSMR someday in the future for a ride.

Conrail 12, with its hollow interior, had a great life serving the railroad Chairman of the Board and visitors alike from its early 1st class service on the PRR to the CSX business car fleet.

A special thanks to Mr. Fox for his stories about his career and time spent as Conrail’s Manager of Special Equipment.

For those interested in the trucks found on Conrail 12 and many streamlined cars today, here is some technical information found in my copies of the original office car data books.

  • Truck Class - 2E - P15 - 4 wheels - Roller Bearing size - 6”x11”

  • Brake Type - Disc

  • Brake Cylinder - 7 1/2” x 4”

  • Inside Swing Hangers




*Portions of this articles are excerpts from my book “Conrail Business & Research Trains: The Special Equipment Fleet”. Additional details about Conrail 12 are provided in the book.

If you are interested in Conrail passenger operations, read about how Conrail operated their OCS train, including stories from those with first hand knowledge. Check back soon for other Conrail Office Car articles by Wes Reminder.

- sources: Conrail trip booklets, Interview with Mr. Fox, Conrail’s Manager of Special Equipment, Conrail Diagrams of Office and Research Cars, January 15, 1987, first-hand visit to the car.

All images are © copyright 1983-2022 Wes Reminder, Charles Murphy, Jr., Chip Syme, and Reuben Brouse and may not be used in print, web or any other use without permission. Images used with permission from copyright holder and Reuben Brouse’s images used with permission from Reuben’s estate.

Wes Reminder

https://www.the-boring-the-adoring.com/
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