Conrail 22 Rail Analyzer Car

Railroad Office CarsConrail OCSConrail 27
Written By Wes Reminder

Conrail 22, the Rail Analyzer Car, and Conrail 23, the Track Geometry Support Car, on the River Line in November 1986.

Conrail 22 - Rail Analyzer Car - Track Geometry Train - Amtrak 800408

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Conrail purchased this car to complement Track Geometry Car 21 for use on the Track Measurement Train (sometimes called the Track Geometry Train). Conrail 22, the Rail Analyzer Car, recorded data on rail head wear, rail cant (angle of rotation), and the location of each defect event, including milepost, line code, and turnouts.

The car had a very interesting history and was built in November of 1939 by Pullman-Standard as a four-bedroom buffet rounded end lounge car for Pullman service on the Southern Pacific. Conrail described it as being built “specifically for exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. A nationwide contest was held to name the car, with American Milemaster being chosen.” After its display at the World’s Fair as a “Lightweight Room-Observation Sleeping Car”, the car was repainted on February 8, 1940 to Union Pacific yellow and assigned to the new trainset for the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific-Chicago & North Western City of San Francisco. It was at this time that the name American Milemaster was finally applied to the car.

It was repainted again on July 2, 1940 to Southern Pacific two-tone gray for service on that road’s Treasure Island, and it also operated briefly on the short-lived Rock Island-Southern Pacific winter only, Chicago-Phoenix Arizona Limited. Southern Pacific acquired the car outright and repainted it “Lark” gray on December 23, 1941, removing the name and applying the 400. According to Conrail, “it was assigned as the tail car on the all-Pullman luxury overnight San Francisco-Sacramento-Los Angeles Lark,” and it was assigned to the Sacramento-Los Angeles portion of the operation (the Oakland Lark) until 1960, operated under lease by Pullman. The car was renumbered 9500 in 1949, and its observation end was squared off to permit mid-train operation in December of 1957. The rooms were all designated double bedrooms, making it a four double bedroom-buffet-lounge. The 9500 was removed from its Pullman lease by SP on January 28, 1963 and effectively retired. It was sold to EMD in October of 1965 for use as a Locomotive Test Car (EMD ET800).

Conrail purchased the former EMD test car in February of 1985 and was purchased for conversion to a new rail-head contour measuring car, called the Rail Surface Analyzer Car, numbered Conrail 22. The car entered the Reading Shops in mid-August of 1985 and was completed in March of 1986. After a shake-down run from Reading to Harrisburg and return, the 152,000-pound car was handed over to the Maintenance-of-Way Department on March 27, 1986. After 6,500 man-hours of labor, the car passed final testing and touch-up the second week of April of 1986. The car featured Lite-Slice technology that used strobe-lit photos of each rail that was then digitized for examination on a screen or plotter.

Below is a brief history of Conrail 22:

Delaware-Lackawanna 100 - (5/17/2005)

Norfolk Southern (as CR 22) - (6/1/99)

Conrail 22 - (2/1985)

EMD ET-800 - (10/1965)

Southern Pacific 9500 - (1949)

Southern Pacific 400 - (12/23/1941)

Pullman American Milemaster - (10/1939)

Since Conrail 22 was part of the Track Geometry Train, it is important to define what the train was and how it was used. Conrail best describes the details about the train in an outtake from the trains operating manual below:

“The purpose of the Track Measurement Train is to collect track geometry and rail wear data over the Consolidated Rail Corporation system by the operation of the Track Geometry Car (TGC) CR21 and Rail Analyzer Car (RAC) CR22. The information obtained during the survey will be used to Identify existing track deficiencies. In addition, the information will be used to update the physical plant database, to determine rail replacement needs, and to develop Track Quality Indices to assist in intermediate and long-range track maintenance planning.

The Track Measurement Train will be operated and maintained by a survey team consisting of a Survey Director(Assistant Engineer-Track Analysis) and two Electronic Engineers. If the test cars operate independently, the survey team will consist of a Survey Director and one Electronic Engineer. The TGC and RAC will operate under the authority of the Survey Director. All activities relating to the train or its operation should be directed to the Survey Director.

The testing train will be a 4-axle locomotive, (CR1933 is assigned to Track Analysis), CR24 4-axle Support Car, CR22 4-axle Rail Analyzer Car, and CR21 4-axle, 265,000 pound Track Geometry Car. Depending upon requirements, the CR50 4-axle Power Car may also be part of the train. If the CR1933 is not available, a locomotive should be used that will not foul passenger car buffers and diaphragms with either the uncoupling mechanism or crosswalk when pushing the cars. The train itself is assigned a symbol of TES and is operated by a locomotive engineer and a conductor (and in some situations a brakeman). The Survey Director should direct all communications concerning train movements to the conductor. The train will be operated at authorized track speed (passenger or TV train speed where applicable) up to 70 mph. Since the locomotive limits the speed, the cars themselves may be operated up to 90 mph.”

The car also had a hot box simulator and was able to initiate wayside hot box detector alarms and was so successful that Conrail sold several of the systems to Quest Corporation in Cleveland as well as to other railroads. Conrail 22 was also equipped with two Detroit diesel generators, which allowed the car to power Conrail support cars 23 and 24.

Conrail employee, Jim Beyerl, Engineer - Track Analysis, remembers that the car was nicknamed by the Survey Directors as the “spacer car,” because the data it collected (rail profile and corrugation) was not acted upon in real time. It was processed later back in Philadelphia for maintenance planning such as grinding and rail replacement. The only exception was any erroneous reports from the Hot Bearing Simulator, which would be acted upon immediately.

Conrail documentation states that the Lite-Slice technology uses strobe-lit photos of each rail that were then digitized for examining on screen or plotter. The digitized picture showed vertical and horizontal wear on the rail. The technology helped Conrail determine the amount of life remaining in every foot of rail. Conrail found that the Lite-Slice didn’t work well unless it was night time, and the car was eventually updated to a much more accurate laser rail system.

The car served in track measurement service until 1999, when it was acquired by Norfolk Southern in the Conrail split. The car was never renamed or repainted and was stored in Roanoke, Virginia, until May 17, 2005, when it was sold at auction. Fun fact: Norfolk Southern linked to my old website that also featured CR22 in its bid request when the car was listed for sale. The listing mentioned that pieces had been salvaged from the car and that one of the doors had been spot-welded shut.

As of 2026, the car was still in Conrail Rail Analyzer paint, with “DLWR 100” painted over the Conrail names and logos. Its new owner, the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, had the car stored in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The car was in rough shape, with most of the interior removed. Hopefully, it will continue to ride the rails in the future, although most likely never as a test car again.

The future of Geometry Trains is also evolving. While Norfolk Southern recently converted another observation car (NS99 Belford) for research and test purposes, they have also begun deploying Automated Track Geometry Measurement Systems (ATGMS) on a few of their locomotives to measure track geometry. Could this type of system be the beginning of the end for these specialized historical rail cars?

EMD ET-800 Test Car

Conrail personnel responsible for the car’s purchase and conversion conducted a thorough walk-around inspection on January 17, 1985, at EMD’s facility in LaGrange, Illinois.

EMD ET-800 Conversion to Conrail 22, the Rail Analyzer Car

At Conrail’s Reading, Pennsylvania, Shops, EMD ET-800 was completely stripped of all car components except for the superstructure and outside skin. The observation end windows were enlarged, and the entire interior was rebuilt. Thankfully, Conrail documented the progress of the rebuild, as shown in the photos below.

The first set of photos, dated 2/13/85, shows the car in the shop before the rebuild began. The second set, dated 8/11/85, also shows the car in the shop, documenting the progress of the rebuild. These photos show the extent of the work, with the entire interior stripped down to the frame.

Conrail Rail Analyzer Car 22 Through The Years

The Future of Track Geometry Trains? ATGMS on Norfolk Southern 8184

Conrail Track Geometry Car Pen

Conrail issued green and gold “Track Geometry Car” pens with the slogan “Engineering Excellence” and the Conrail Quality logo.

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 April 1996 Track Measurement Train Operating Manual

  • September 1993 Track Measurement Train 10th Anniversary Documentation

  • Bill Maier - Conrail Track Geometry Electronics Engineer

Special thanks to the photographer contributions on this page:

Casey Thomason · Charlie Murphy, Jr. · Chip Syme · Frank Rovder · Rich Frey

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© Wes Reminder 2026. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be copied, reproduced, distributed, or used in any form without explicit written permission from Wes Reminder. This includes, but is not limited to, use in AI models, digital databases, and electronic formats.

Wes Reminder

https://www.the-boring-the-adoring.com/
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Conrail 21 Track Geometry Car