You Can't Stamp Out Cockroaches

Nor, apparently, can you get rid of the New Haven Railroad. Forget the fact that it went out of business on December 31, 1968 (darned near 40 years ago), swallowed up in a horrible merger that was nearly scandalous. No, it *was* scandalous.

Anyway, the New Haven went the way of many “fallen flag” railroads, as the extinct lines are called, with one exception: New Haven-painted locomotives are still hard at work in Connecticut. These are not old relics that were never repainted, but new engines and, new or old, freshly painted in the classic colors.

Th’ heck is going on here? They got rid of the New Haven forty years (that’s four-zero, you know, four decades) ago and the NH rolling stock is still rolling in proud, fresh paint.

Sheesh.

It’s like Conrail. The freight railroad finally bit the dust and was split up between two other railroads. There’s nothing left of Conrail now except for memories and --what? Memories and Conrail. It still exists in two little pockets, the Shared Assets. Switching yards, where two little vestiges have hung on and still function as the original company. Just when you think they have shut down the joint, you poke around and there it is, hanging on quietly in forgotten spots.

The New Haven and Conrail; they just keep on rolling along.