Conrail at 40: An experiment that worked

April 1, 1976 was a watershed day in U.S. railroading history. On that day, Consolidated Rail Corp., better known as Conrail, began operating under the auspices of the U.S. government a new railroad cobbled together from six bankrupt Northeastern carriers: Penn Central, Erie-Lackawanna, Jersey Central, Lehigh Valley, Reading, and Lehigh & Hudson River. Conrail, now 40, continues to thrive, albeit in a very different form from when it first turned a wheel.