CONRAIL TRAINMAN HAT BADGE, NEW OLD STOCK

Description

CONRAIL TRAINMAN hat badge.  New Old Stock.  Sold with two fasteners.  Please see photographs. Carefully shipped via USPS with tracking information.
Conrail was incorporated in Pennsylvania on February 10, 1976, and began operations on April 1, 1976. The Company's mandate was to revitalize rail service in the Northeast and Midwest and to operate as a for-profit company. Conrail’s economic recovery and turnaround began in 1980 when the Staggers Rail Act was signed into law. The Staggers Act largely deregulated railroads, the rates for which had been fixed since the turn of the century when railroads represented virtually the only mode of transcontinental transportation. The Staggers Act made railroads more competitive with trucks by allowing them to price services, adjust rail rates, react to market conditions, and provide special contracts. Conrail’s first year of profitability came in 1981. By 1983 Conrail was the fourth largest freight hauler in the United States. In 1985, Conrail management proposed a plan for the public offering of Conrail stock. By the fall of 1986, the Conrail Privatization Act was signed, authorizing a public stock offering to return Conrail to the private sector. In 1987 Conrail was returned to the private sector in what was then the largest initial public offering in U.S. history, raising .9 billion.
In the spring of 1997, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS) and CSX Corporation (CSX) agreed to acquire Conrail through a joint stock purchase. CSX and NS split most of the Company’s assets between them. The Surface Transportation Board (STB) officially approved the acquisition and restructuring of Conrail on July 23, 1998. NS and CSX took administrative control of Conrail on August 22, 1998.