William Sudol - Conrail OCS Legacy

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In my book, "Conrail Business & Research Trains: The Special Equipment Fleet," I placed particular emphasis on incorporating firsthand accounts from former Conrail employees who had direct involvement with, rode on, or managed the train. Now that the book has been published, it's a priviledge to highlight new stories on my website. In this article, I had the pleasure of interviewing William Sudol, whose fascinating 37-year career in the railroad industry included oversight of the mechanical operation of the Conrail E8A locomotives and cars.

Like many railroad employees, William relocated quite a bit over those 37 years. He began his career painting locomotives on the New York Central Railroad at the Collinwood locomotive shop in Cleveland Ohio in 1963. After being furloughed a few times from the New York Central, Bill continued his career as an electrical apprentice before being promoted to a special apprentice. Each position exposed him to new departments and provided an opportunity to learn more about the operations of the railroad. After working as a diesel inspector in Illinois, he moved back to New York State and began working at the Selkirk Diesel Shop as an electrical foreman. Before working for Conrail though, he spent a year working for Amtrak.

William's involvement with the E8A locomotives commenced following the merger of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad into the Penn Central Railroad on December 31, 1968. The merger prompted yet another relocation for William, sending him to New Haven, Connecticut, where he assumed the role of General Foreman. In this capacity, he oversaw the maintenance and operation of passenger engines servicing Boston, including the Amtrak E8As. Notably, William's mechanical knowledge of these locomotives predates their move to Conrail, as he began working on Amtrak E8A 498 and 499 before they were later traded to Conrail and renumbered as Conrail 4020 and Conrail 4021, respectively.

After the formation of Conrail on April 1, 1976, Charles R. Medovich, Conrail’s General Mechanical Superintendent of Locomotives, formed a team of managers focused on locomotive technical service. William was asked to join the team and after accepting the role, moved back to Selkirk, New York once again, but this time to stay. From this point forward, William was involved in the Conrail business train equipment until the CSX/Norfolk Southern acquisition in 1999.

William’s First Conrail OCS Trip

William’s experience working with the passenger equipment in New Haven, and in particular his familiarity with steam generators, positioned him as the perfect candidate to oversee the mechanical aspect of the Conrail business train. Conrail 4022 was outfitted with a steam generator (and is to this day in 2024) and most of the cars had steam heat. His first trip was on the head end of the OCS from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. Upon arrival, he secured the equipment for the night and was looking forward to some rest at the hotel, but his work wasn’t over yet. He was asked to disconnect the E8A 4022 from the cars, move it away from the rest of the train and connect the cars to a steam line. Tired and perplexed on why this was necessary, he was informed that the occupants of the business cars didn’t want to be disturbed by the locomotive vibrations. He soon realized that his role wasn’t just about the mechanics of the engines and cars, it was also about the comfort and first-class treatment of the guests aboard the train.

On a brighter note, William's first trip on the Conrail business train also introduced him to Ted Nelson, the always-smiling OCS chef known for his signature crab claws. After a long day, Ted generously offered to prepare dinner just for him—a rare treat. That evening marked the first of many shared meals and memorable conversations at an office car table with Ted and Michael Kennedy, another esteemed chef on the Conrail OCS train. Conrail invested in top-tier training for its staff, sending Michael to the Culinary Institute of America for courses in hotel management. This commitment to excellence underscores the railroad's dedication to first-class service aboard its trains.

Memories from the Train

William has lots of stories from the train. When I interviewed UL Fox, “Foxy”, for the book, he told me that many of those stories couldn’t be published. “What happened on the train, stayed on the train.” This holds true for William’s stories as well, so I won’t go into details about alleged candlelight parties that took place! But, he does remember working with Foxy, who he credits as a great tutor for him on the operations of the train. Foxy told me the story about his involvement with transporting the late Richard Sanborn, the CEO who sadly passed after his appointment to the position, in ‘his’ office car “Boston” to his final resting place in Massachusetts. William was also present when the office car was attached to the rear of an Amtrak train and quickly made its way to Boston.

As William was based out of the Selkirk Diesel Shop, he made many airline flights to meet up with the OCS train, answering the call whenever he was needed. Needless to say, William ended up all over the Conrail system, and even off the system, including at least three trips to Montreal, Canada. Most of the time when he arrived at the trains destination, the guests would go out on the town for the evening, leaving him back to perform the daily inspections of the equipment (203 inspections in railroad parlance). In Montreal after the guests departed for downtown, he remembers customs agents looking over the train but completely missing him! William was often assigned a room on the train, with Conrail executive sleeper 8 being his favorite. William never travelled with the train out west, recalling that it rarely went out as far west as St. Louis, often stopping in Indianapolis instead.

Railroading is Dangerous - Even for the OCS Train

During his time on Conrail, William witnessed the OCS train involved in at least six grade crossing accidents, highlighting the inherent dangers of railroad operations. Despite public awareness efforts, such as Operation Lifesaver events hosted aboard the train, accidents occurred. On one trip in West Virginia, the E8A locomotive collided with a motor vehicle, causing it to roll over multiple times. In another incident in Detroit, the train struck a bread truck, fortunately without injuries.

Most accidents resulted in minor damages to the train, such as issues with the HEP cable or dents to the E8A pilots, which were promptly repaired, leaving the train rarely showing signs of these encounters. William recalls one accident involving a pickup truck on the Mohawk Line, which, after being struck at a grade crossing, hit the locomotive's emergency fuel cutoff, immediately shutting down the engines. Another grim incident on the Conemaugh Line involved a tragic incident with an elderly couple walking at a crossing, underscoring the potential hazards of railroading. These incidents serve as a reminder that despite its elegance, the Conrail business train carried risks just like any other piece of railroad equipment.

“Mechanically Speaking”

William’s training on diesel locomotives made him an expert on how to service them. While we ran out of time, his stories on the mechanical aspects of the E8As alone is probably worth another entire article, but I had time to ask him about those screaming HEP units used to power the cars. Each E8A utilized two Detroit Diesel generators that, while easy to start, were connected to a mass circuit breaker that required syncing if you were going to use both. As the lights grew brighter on the panel, you had to start them at just the right time or you would risk tripping the breaker. They generated 60 cycles and in order to do that, they had to run at full RPM, generating an extremely loud noise. Many of the cars also used Detroit Diesel generators, but since most had just one generator, you didn’t have to worry about syncing those.   

The following day, William called me back to tell me a few quick stories about his time at Selkirk that weren’t related to the OCS train. William was involved with the installation of Locomotive Speed Limiter (LSL) equipment on locomotives that ran on Amtrak territory. The LSL device worked with the existing cab signal system to warn crew members when their train speed was about to exceed the LSL cab signal speed limit. He also oversaw the installation of ditch lights on Conrail’s locomotives.

And also equally fascinating to me was his involvement with the joint General Electric / Conrail Locomotive Management Services (LMS) program. LMS provided newly built, high-horsepower C40-8W locomotives to railroads in need through competitive lease options. LMS differentiated themselves by providing all inclusive leases with no hidden costs. The locomotives spent roughly half of their time on the Conrail system and wore a Conrail blue paint scheme sans the Conrail markings, but with Conrail specific options like FRA marker lights, however in order to run on Canadian National, William oversaw the installation of CN style seats, a hot plate, and a conductors desk. Many of these engines, when not working for Conrail, travelled throughout the US and Canada on railroads like the Southern Pacific and Canadian National. William was in charge of the locomotives coming back from their lease service. When one particular LMS engine returned from the Canadian National and arrived at Selkirk, William discovered the locomotive had….a missing traction motor!  He called his contact at the CN and asked if they performed any wheel work on the unit, with the CN contact saying “Oh yeah it had traction motor issues,” to which Bill reminded the guy that he forgot something…the entire traction motor! The LMS program was not that inclusive with their leases! In the end, Canadian National paid the bill and the unit was back on the road.

Other snippets of information William provided me included how much the crews liked the new SD80MACs that found themselves assigned to Selkirk. When asked about why so many GE units gathered at Selkirk (thinking C30-7As in particular), he told me that “EMD wheel slip systems weren’t as good as GE locomotives. The EMD units were great on intermodal trains, but not as good on the grades of the B&A.” The GE locomotives were also assigned to Selkirk for their maintenance needs, while the EMD units were scattered across other Conrail shops. The EMDs did occasionally make their way to Selkirk though, including the FL9 locomotives that were based in Harmon. William remembers when Conrail rebuilt the FL9s with new engines, generators, and third rail systems.

Other project highlights William was involved with include the installation of flange oilers in the GE locomotives (a messy and difficult project). He was also in charge of the renumbering of all Conrail locomotives acquired by CSX during the merger. All of the vinyl numbers were sent to Bill at Selkirk and then dispersed to the appropriate shops across the system.

A Solid, Rewarding Career

William stayed on the railroad until CSX began operations at Selkirk, retiring a year after the end of Conrail. With such a long career with the railroad, we could have spoken for hours more, but I am happy that I get to write another article from the view point of a tenured railroader. If you know of another railroader who might like their stories to be made available on this site, please don’t hesitate to reach out. There are plenty of railfan tales, but the real stories mean so much. Thanks, Bill, for reaching out.

-Wes Reminder