Heres an interesting film about the Penn Central railroad you might like, runs about 28 minutes.
http://www.lubetkin.net/blog/2008/12/penn-central-1974-movie.html
http://www.lubetkin.net/blog/2008/12/penn-central-1974-movie.html
Penn Cental railroad film
- Thread starter ozark
- Start date
titaniclover
TS2010EE SP3; Build 49933
Wow, that is bad.
Heard some areas of interest. Utica for example is where my dad first started work with Conrail. Who would of thought it was that bad where he first started working.
Really gives you a scope of what was happening and why.
Cheers,
Adam
Heard some areas of interest. Utica for example is where my dad first started work with Conrail. Who would of thought it was that bad where he first started working.
Really gives you a scope of what was happening and why.
Cheers,
Adam
cascaderailroad
New member
Super Film
Great old film ! Takes one back to the days of the delapidated Penn Central-The Standing Derailment-just waiting to happen. Seems that it all started before Eisenhower (who conspired with Ford & General Motors to puposely bankrupt and tear up the public transit systems in the US, so they could fund the roadbuilding and auto industries)...then Kennedy, Nixon, those that neglected the US RR's into total disrepair. And Reagan, Carter, Clinton, and finally the 16 year reign of Daddy Bush & Baby Bush haven't done much for the RR's either. And now handing over the country in shambles...to the next batter up. But that's enough about politics.
Great old film ! Takes one back to the days of the delapidated Penn Central-The Standing Derailment-just waiting to happen. Seems that it all started before Eisenhower (who conspired with Ford & General Motors to puposely bankrupt and tear up the public transit systems in the US, so they could fund the roadbuilding and auto industries)...then Kennedy, Nixon, those that neglected the US RR's into total disrepair. And Reagan, Carter, Clinton, and finally the 16 year reign of Daddy Bush & Baby Bush haven't done much for the RR's either. And now handing over the country in shambles...to the next batter up. But that's enough about politics.
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The deferred maintenance happened too because the railroads had no incentive to keep up their property. When the system was operational, states such as NY and NJ taxed them to the hilt. So rather than pay a lot of high taxes, based on the value of the property, the company let things go down. This of course became a vicious cycle.
I wonder today what would have happened if the PC was never formed. Would the Poukippsee bridge still be open and the New Haven still be around in a better shape than they left them? Once the bridge burned suspiciously in the 1973, this put an end to the New Haven (Under PC ownership since 1968), the Lehigh and Hudson River and much of the business for the CNJ and other railroads in the Northeast.
Anyway the PC was a sad time in US rail history and to me Conrail was made things worse with the abandonments, and foolish closings of many lines around. The local state governments are probably kicking themselves now because many of the closed lines could become transit routes if they were still available.
John
The New Haven was dead even before PC got to it...
Between corruption in the management, some experiments that turned out only to be a loss of money, confusion over whether electric trains or diesel trains should be run, decaying equipment, loss of service, the highways, the airlines, decaying track conditions... the New Haven was forced into the Penn Central merger by the ICC because even though it was a little rough around the edges, there were still essential parts of the railroad that would cripple interstate trade and hurt other passenger and freight industries if it were to just give up and die. In fact, the PC never wanted the NH, the only reason the NH merged with it was because the ICC demanded it. Service was slow over the Maybrook Line and the Poughkeepsie Bridge had been reduced to one track anyways so when the bridge burned in the 70's under the PC, it didn't really make a difference. The NH had minimal traffic over the bridge as did the PC when it took over. The fact is, the bridge wasn't really a big loss for the PC. The PC let it fall into disrepair and simply neglected it. Some people will even say that the bridge was purposely left neglected but that is open to debate.
The fact is, the New Haven was going to die anyway, so even if the PC never got their slimy paws on it, it still wouldn't have been around today. Don't get me wrong, I love the New Haven and in my opinion it was one of the most interesting and influential railroads in history, but the fact remains that it was too hurt in the end to carry on.
Ironically, however, there are a few shortlines that carry the names that to the shortlines that New York, New Haven, and Hartford originally gobbled up to form the "Little Giant of New England". The funny thing is, if you're ever in the state, the New Haven lingers like a ghost. Shortlines, tourist lines, mainlines, museums, artifacts, old stations, almost every bit of railroad-history in the state of Connecticut still keep the New Haven alive. You can feel it everywhere... if you were to walk along the Housatonic Railroad's tracks, you can even find the original rails of the New Haven's Berkshire Division, or, if you don't like to stray far from the mainline, next time you're on the NEC look at that triangular catenary...
-Jesse D.-:wave:
Between corruption in the management, some experiments that turned out only to be a loss of money, confusion over whether electric trains or diesel trains should be run, decaying equipment, loss of service, the highways, the airlines, decaying track conditions... the New Haven was forced into the Penn Central merger by the ICC because even though it was a little rough around the edges, there were still essential parts of the railroad that would cripple interstate trade and hurt other passenger and freight industries if it were to just give up and die. In fact, the PC never wanted the NH, the only reason the NH merged with it was because the ICC demanded it. Service was slow over the Maybrook Line and the Poughkeepsie Bridge had been reduced to one track anyways so when the bridge burned in the 70's under the PC, it didn't really make a difference. The NH had minimal traffic over the bridge as did the PC when it took over. The fact is, the bridge wasn't really a big loss for the PC. The PC let it fall into disrepair and simply neglected it. Some people will even say that the bridge was purposely left neglected but that is open to debate.
The fact is, the New Haven was going to die anyway, so even if the PC never got their slimy paws on it, it still wouldn't have been around today. Don't get me wrong, I love the New Haven and in my opinion it was one of the most interesting and influential railroads in history, but the fact remains that it was too hurt in the end to carry on.
Ironically, however, there are a few shortlines that carry the names that to the shortlines that New York, New Haven, and Hartford originally gobbled up to form the "Little Giant of New England". The funny thing is, if you're ever in the state, the New Haven lingers like a ghost. Shortlines, tourist lines, mainlines, museums, artifacts, old stations, almost every bit of railroad-history in the state of Connecticut still keep the New Haven alive. You can feel it everywhere... if you were to walk along the Housatonic Railroad's tracks, you can even find the original rails of the New Haven's Berkshire Division, or, if you don't like to stray far from the mainline, next time you're on the NEC look at that triangular catenary...
-Jesse D.-:wave: