Conrail 1 Office Car

Conrail 1Railroad Office Cars
Written By Wes Reminder

Conrail OCS 1 - Amtrak 800221 - Observation Car

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Conrail 1, and its sister Conrail 4, were probably my favorite looking office cars. When I think of office cars, these former Southern cars come to mind. Most of the Southern cars had an identical outside and inside. From rear to front, there was a kitchen, crew quarter, dining room, ‘public’ bathroom, two staterooms, and an observation room. Conrail 1 has had a colorful history and now lives on as Norfolk Southern 5 “Maryland”, although it went through quite the transition in 2014. It seems fitting to have returned to its southern heritage, but I’m glad it spent 17 years in Conrail OCS green.

Let’s take a look at a brief history for Conrail 1:

Norfolk Southern 5 “Maryland” - (6/1/99)

Conrail 1 - (12/20/82)

Southern 3 - (5/18/70)

Southern 10 - (2/18/64)

Southern 3102 - (7/8/48)

Pullman 1816 - (4/4/41)

Pullman “Shannon" - (10/21/20)

Conrail 1 was built in October of 1920 by Pullman as part of Lot #4591. It was a Plan #2410F 12 section, 1 drawing room sleeper and named the Shannon. Early Conrail documentation incorrectly lists the build date as 1927; however, this was later corrected to 1920. In April of 1941, the car was converted to a 13-section sleeper for use in troop train service and renumbered #1816. Southern Railway bought the car on July 8, 1948, and it was converted into one of four unique dinette/coaches and renumbered SOU #3102. Conrail documents note that the dinette/coaches “provided comfortable coach seating for African-Americans in an era of segregation, plus basic food service for all passengers.

Serving on many secondary trains, SOU #3102 last saw regular service on the Carolina Special between Asheville, North Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee.” On February 18, 1964, the car became office car SOU #10 for the Southern Railway. On May 18, 1970, the car was renumbered to Southern #3.

There are differing build dates listed on Conrail documentation for this heavyweight Pullman, but a Conrail business car roster from January 1, 1996 correctly labels the car as being built in 1920. In fact, the equipment diagram books (pictured below) from Conrail also provide the history for each car in the fleet. In those documents, the car is listed with a build date of 1927. Later versions of the histories provided in Conrail OCS trip booklets, as well as a Norfolk Southern published booklet on their office cars, correct this error and lists it with a 1920 build date. If you reference nothing other than railroad provided documents or internet searches, you can find errors, so be careful and always cross reference against several railroad documents.

On December 4, 1982 Conrail purchased the car for use on its Office Car Specials. Early photos show the former Southern Railway car with the “Southern” lettering painted out and it’s new number “1” patched over the Southern number. Also in the photo were Conrail 3 and Conrail 2, in bright blue paint, which were escorting the newly purchased car.

Conrail 1 (like some other Conrail business cars) had a 30KW generator making the car completely self-contained, meaning it could operate without the need to be connected to an HEP power source. In early photos, like the one from Chip Syme below, Conrail 1 could be seen with Conrail 4022 E8A (which was not HEP equipped), because it powered itself and didn’t need the locomotive to power it. Mr. Fox, Manager of Special Equipment for Conrail, oversaw the change from steam heat to 480-volts on all Conrail business cars. This change meant the generator didn’t have to be used, as Amtrak or the Conrail 4020 and Conrail 4021 could power the car. The car also had a 240 gallon fuel oil tank to keep that generator up and running. From the interior of the car the hum of the generator running was louder in the dining room and quieter when passing through the bedroom hallway. At some point I may post my video where you can hear the difference when walking through the car.

Conrail 1’s interior was very simple (like many Southern office cars were) with bright white walls, red carpet, and striped upholstery in the observation room. The observation platform featured an awning for its first few years on Conrail, and was eventually removed. Unlike Conrail 4 which had its marker lights moved to the observation platform roof edge, Conrail 1 kept its Translite 4491 marker lights all the way through to the NS years. There was a small switch on the light, allowing you to turn them on, one at a time. See the photo below.

According to Norfolk Southern documentation (pictured above), Conrail 1 received “new furniture in the observation room, new curtains and bedspreads, dining room chairs, and flooring covering”. I believe that was when the walls were covered with a green wallpaper as seen in these undated photos from the Conrail Historical Society Archive. Pictured are Conrail 1’s observation room, observation room rear wall, dining room, and dining room rear wall.

Before the end of Conrail in June of 1999, the car again had white walls, but retained the other updates, including the green carpet, photographs on the dining room fold down beds, wall sconces, large mirror, and TV cabinet. Remember that the decor was updated in the 1990s and looks a bit dated by today’s standards. In my visit to NS 5 “Maryland” the car retained most of its Conrail appearances.

The two photographs in the dining room were by H.M. Swope. One was of Goose Creek Point in Suffolk County, New York. I can’t find any information on this photographer outside of the fact that he appears to have been a nature photographer in the 1950s. Don’t quote me on that. If anyone has an idea who he was or why those photos were chosen, I’d love to hear as there were not many photos hanging in the Conrail office cars (none in Conrail 3, 4, or 5).

I was always curious about the circles on the windows in the rear of the car. Those two windows were both in the kitchen and the circles were metal vents placed in the middle of the glass panes. To open the vents you simply rotated the latch and it opened just enough to let out any smoke from the kitchen. See my photo below. Of course, I had to open it. I can’t imagine that those pieces of glass were replaceable without considerable cost. Ultimately they were removed during the NS rebuild of NS 5. Conrail 4 had the same vents in its kitchen as Conrail 1.

Conrail 1 and Conrail 4 both had roof hatches over the kitchen and porter rooms. Conrail 1 had three hatches, compared to Conrail 4 with only one. I have added a photo that shows a closeup of the bolts that kept the hatch secure. Otherwise, Conrail 1 and Conrail 4 had similar exterior appearances with the other differences being the TV antennas and marker light placement on the observation end.

Ron Conway, Conrail’s Senior Vice President of Operations, often used this car, and while it wasn’t assigned to him, he always used it when he was out on the road.

In the rear of the car, directly behind the dining room cabinets, there was a crew quarter for the staff. Conrail did not use these crew quarters as the room was too small.

In 1999, Norfolk Southern acquired the car and renumbered it NS 5 with the name “Maryland”.

The car vanished from service during the mid to late 2014 period. According to Dennis Pennabaker, NS 5 was undergoing an extensive renovation, scheduled for completion by the end of 2015. The redesign transformed the car into a three-bedroom observation car. This overhaul made significant changes, such as the addition of three large side windows at the observation end, updates to markers, replacement of observation platform railings, and the removal of the rear side door, among other changes. With these enhancements, the car bid farewell to its long-standing Southern and Conrail configuration. These improvements are expected to extend the car's operational lifespan for the foreseeable future.

For those interested in those heavyweight trucks found on Conrail 1 and many private cars today, here is some technical information found in my copies of the original office car data books.

  • Truck Class - K11XRSOU - 6 wheels - Roller Bearing size 5-1/2” x 10”

  • Brake Type - Clasp 2-1/2” Comp. Shoes

  • Brake Cylinder - Bushed 7” x 9”

  • Outside Swing Hangers

Former Conrail 1, now Norfolk Southern NS5 “Maryland”, still in it’s Conrail interior.

After the OCS equipment moved to the Miscellaneous Shop #2 in Altoona, Carl Kennedy had jackets made for those who worked on the train. This is the front of that jacket.

Collection of Wes Reminder

The rear of the jacket featured an image of a Conrail E8A.

Collection of Wes Reminder

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, Steve Timko, Conrail Diagrams of Office and Research Cars, Norfolk Southern business train booklet. Special thanks to the Conrail Historical Society for providing the images from Rob Palmer.

All images are © copyright Wes Reminder, Chip Syme, Charlie Murphy, Jr., Rob Palmer, Steve Sullivan, Rich Frey, and Ken Houghton and may not be used in print, web or any other use without permission.

Wes Reminder

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