When you hear the term office car special, OCS, or business train, you immediately think of the Board of Directors touring the rails. While this certainly happened on Conrail, there are some other uses of the business cars that invited the community to ride along. In this article, I will highlight three separate types of OCS trips as described by Conrail employees themselves.

Employees of Conrail were often glad to have the chance to ride the Conrail business train and show off the equipment to local government officials and customers. My article on the Conrail OCS train operations outlines how the train was used and shares some great first hand stories. Conrail employee magazines provide another source of historical information on how the train was used. Let’s get started!

1. Political and Community Awareness

“Conrail Means Business”

In an article that appeared in the Pittsburgh Divisions Information Station Magazine, a March 20, 1996 office car special that toured the Pittsburgh area is highlighted. According to the article, the train set off at 9:30 AM from the Pittsburgh Amtrak Station with 120 city officials. The purpose of the trip was to show off Pittsburgh from Conrail’s view. The Division Road Foreman, Joe Bishop, was in charge of the Conrail E8As 4020 and 4021. The trip took the attendees to Conway Yard to see Conrail’s new SD80MACs 4101 and 4103 up close. Bill Faulhaber, Manager of Locomotive Engineer Training, gave the Conrail OCS attendees a rundown of the benefits of the new locomotives.

OCS trip attendees were also able to see work being done on the “OC” bridge and the double stack improvements being made to accommodate modern intermodal trains over the Pennsylvania mountains. The train arrived back in Pittsburgh at 2:30 PM. According to the article “Many were awe-struck by the fact that Conrail thought enough of them to invite them on this train. They were grateful indeed, and kept telling us so.” Sounds like a successful public relations event for Conrail that wouldn’t have been possible without the Conrail business train. It is hard to tell what the consist was from the article, but the photos show Conrail E8A 4020 and 4021, Conrail 9 theater car, Conrail 55 full length dome, Conrail 27 coach, and Conrail 12 conference car. Featured in the article are some excellent interior views of the cars including the updated Conrail 55 bar with Continuous Quality Improvement logos covering the original Santa Fe artwork. It is also great to see the cooks and attendants called out in the article.

This article is a great reference and highlights the excellent usage of the Conrail OCS train for a public relations and community awareness purpose.

Conrail 4020 OCS Train 3/20/96

Conrail Business Train for PR

Conrail OCS visits the SD80MACs

Article © Conrail: Patrick Maher, Pittsburgh Division Information Station, Summer 1996, Conrail Means Business

2. Conrail Labor / Management Relations

Conrail business train visits Cleveland, OH

In the June issue of Conrail’s Mechanically Speaking, the Conrail Office Car Special visits the Cleveland area for management to discuss safety issues and talk with employees in the area. The OCS train was based at Collinwood Yard on March 28, 1995 during Conrail’s safety lunch, having arrived a few days earlier. The consist for this train isn’t known, but we do know the Conrail 4020 was leading the train. Conrail management visited many of the locations in the area and were impressed with the region’s safety record. Employees said “We look forward to their next visit.”

This is a great example of Conrail using the train to reach out to their employees. With any labor/management relationship, you can assume some probably weren’t thrilled to see the OCS train pull into town, but it seems this trip was well accepted. Looking through other issues of Conrail employee magazines, there are lots of examples of management using the business cars to visit with employees. For this issue of Mechanically Speaking, the Conrail 4021 in front of the Conrail Miscellaneous Shop 2 made the front cover.

Conrail 4021 at Misc Shop 2

Conrail 4020 in Collinwood Yard

Conrail OCS Safety Visit

Article © Conrail: Pat Bryan, Mechanically Speaking, June 1995, News from Cleveland

3. Conrail Operation Lifesaver Trains

“Conrail Delivers Operation Lifesaver Message” (using the business train)

And in my last example of ways Conrail used their Office Car Specials, this time it was for spreading the word about railroad safety across the Conrail system. From the current Operation Lifesaver website, OLI are “committed to preventing collisions, injuries and fatalities on and around railroad tracks and highway-rail grade crossings, with the support of public education programs in states across the U.S.” I’m sure that commitment was true back in the Conrail days.

When the Conrail OLS train was touring a Conrail division, it was sometimes featured in their employee magazine, like these articles from the Pittsburgh Divisions, Information Station Winter 1997 - 98 issue. In 1997, Conrail visited the New York State Fair in Syracuse and featured public officials, New York Operation Lifesaver representatives and employees from the Conrail Safety Department. A similar train also visited the Ohio State Fair.

On an October 17, 1997 Conrail Operation Lifesaver train, the office cars made a round trip from Pittsburgh to Altoona. Apparently the trip went off without a hitch; according to the article “Carl Kennedy and his staff were most gracious and I am still hearing compliments on the fantastic lunch that they served.” The article has some fun with an employee named Max Solomon. “But no Office Car Special on the Pittsburgh Division would be complete if it were not under the operating control of our own Max Solomon. Rumors have it that Max has already made an offer to the CSX and NS to buy the train.” It appears Max didn’t get the train after all!

These articles highlight yet another great use of the Conrail Office Car equipment. For those who think the CR OCS was just for the managers at Conrail, take a look at the images in the articles below! Keep checking back as I’ll be adding more Conrail OCS articles over time.

Conrail OLS train 10/17/98

Conrail OLS train contest 10/17/98

Conrail delivers OLS message

Conrail’s New Website Promotes the Conrail OLS Train

Added: September 1, 2020:

On March 21, 1996, Conrail announced to their employees via the “Conrail Newswire” that they had taken their website live. Conrail was at the beginning days of corporations appearing on the Internet. The usage of the Conrail website was very limited when compared to today’s standard, but they did use their site to promote their Operation Lifesaver business car movements. Below are some screengrabs from Conrail’s website in 1996 and 1997. First you will see their homepage and then some of the Conrail OLS trains and their schedules. Publishing of train schedules is so rare these days, that it is cool to see Conrail making this information public back in the day. If you wanted to catch the Conrail OCS train, this was a good way to do it.

Conrail website, logo, and content Copyright © 1996 By Consolidated Rail Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Screen grabs from the Conrail website are provided for historical and educational reasons only.

Conrail.com 1996 Homepage

Conrail May 10, 1996 OLS Train

Conrail June 13, 1996 OLS Train

Conrail August 26, 1996 OLS Train

Conrail June 16, 1997 OLS Train

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.

Three ways Conrail used their Office Car Special