Latest Photo Added March 28, 2026
by Jay Gadon

NS 7228 on the Perini Siding in Bow
In 2016, the original "Conrail Cadillac" made it to Bow as power for the loaded coal trains on two separate runs. 2016 was the last year for Norfolk Southern based coal trains. Coal deliveries by rail to Bow would not resume until late November 2019 with coal originating from CSX. Those coal trains would run in spurts until the end of March 2023.The Bow Coal plant has since been shuttered.

NS 7228 was the original SD80MAC demonstrator model built in July 1995 as EDMX 8000. Conrail was the only buyer of the 5000 hp, 20 cylinder, SD80MAC and wound up purchasing 30 of them. When both NS and CSX acquired Conrail, the Big Mac fleet were split up with NS getting 17 of them, and CSX with 13. 7228 went to CSX, first as their 812, then 4622. In 2015. the surviving 12 CSX SD80MAC's were traded to NS for 12 SD40-2's. NS wound up owning all 29 SD80MACs.(1 SD80MAC was wrecked on CSX). NS was planning on rebuilding the SD80MAC's similar to how they rebuilt the SD9043MACs into SD70ACU's, but it never happened. The SD80MAC fleet was retired around 2020, with 6 being sold to CP as part sources for their SD90 rebuilding program and the rest sold to Progress Rail and were eventually harvested for parts, and scrapped. Not sure what remains of the 6 that went to CP.

It was great to see these Conrail Cadillacs in Bow with 7228 twice, and 7218 once during the final year of NS originated loaded coal trains. This was the 17th of 18 loaded coal trains to Bow in 2016. The rest of this lineup featured NS 1101n (SD70ACe) NS 8995 (C44-9W) NS 8114 (C40-8W).

April 1, 2026 marks the 50th anniversary since the official start to Conrail.