Conrail No. 8687 (also known as Lehigh Valley No. 273) is an EMD SW8 diesel locomotive that was built by the Electro-Motive Division originally for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in September 1951.
History[]
Conrail No. 8687 was constructed on September 1951 and it was delivered to the Lehigh Valley Railroad that same year along with its other 28 EMD SW8 units, where the Lehigh Valley had nicknamed their EMD SW8 units "The Pups" and had operated their EMD SW8 units for switching duties within the Lehigh Valley's system. Upon being delivered to the Lehigh Valley Railroad, it was originally numbered as 273.
No. 273 had lasted into the days of Consolidated Rail Corporation (or better known as Conrail) after Lehigh Valley Railroad had declared bankruptcy after Penn Central's bankruptcy, where it was renumbered by Conrail as 8687 and eventually receiving Conrail's blue paint scheme, Conrail would later rebuild the locomotive into an SW8n which resulted in the side cooling grates being removed and leaving the iconic hump on the hood, however, its service with Conrail was cut short as Conrail began to retire its predecessor locomotives at around the 1980s with No. 8687 being one of them, its unknown on what year it was retired and is a complete mystery.
After the locomotive was retired it would go under the radar for many years until the early 2000s when a group of railfans had spotted the locomotive at the Maryland pig iron of Illinois, it was confirmed that the unit operated for the iron facility picking up interchanged gondolas from the south Shoreline and bringing them to be loaded on weekdays.
The unit has been renumbered to 780, but its still carrying its original Conrail livery, the single chime horn and showing its Lehigh Valley roots within its rust, as well as having a lack of ditch lights.
As of today, the locomotive still operates there even to this day.
Trivia[]
- Conrail No. 8687 is one of four surviving Lehigh Valley SW8 units operating today, as the Reading and Northern Railroad operates three ex-Lehigh Valley SW8 units in service.