In volume 12 of Railfanning with the Bednars, we view lost footage captured by the Bednar boys of early Conrail and Delaware and Hudson from December 1976 to March of 1978. 

The first few years of Conrail was a challenging time and everyone was still finding their place in the organization. The change of operations, along with the beginning of rebuilding equipment and infrastructure and the dedicated hard work of employees, kept the freight moving. During this period, you could still see a wide mix of power from all the railroads as well as foreign power on run through freights. 

Although regarded as the competition, the D&H was still running enough trains that their movements remained largely unhindered on Conrail infrastructure, but that would change in the next few years as Conrail’s focus on operations changed.  

While filmed mostly in the Lehigh Valley area, the gang made their usual trip to capture the action in western PA as well. Let’s go back and let Big Mike tell the story of the lost Conrail and D&H footage as only he can with his usual colloquial humor.

Narrated with commentary by Mike Bednar

Color; approximately 63 minutes runtime