The Rise and Fall of the Penn Central
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Howdy! :D
This week, we return to the United States and June 1970, where after years of poor management, stringent regulation and a loss of market to air and motor transport, the Penn Central, a gigantic railroad formed through the merger of two companies with completely different personalities and methods, collapsed into what was the largest bankruptcy in history at the time, but in its fall from grace highlighted how the over-regulation of the system had led to an inability for all of the railroad firms to compete.
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References:
Rush Loving Jr. - Trains Magazine (and his respective sources)
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My dad started as a signalman for the New York Central, through the Penn Central merger,and into the Conrail years before he passed away. I model all three on my model railroad in his honor 🎖
American Viewer here, Its really cool to see you review a fallen American Railroad, I thought you only did the UK and Europe! Great Video!
We in the UK cover a lot besides our our own lines! Last year I covered the Milwaukee Road's Rockies and Cascades Divisions in seven parts! variably.uk/the-milwaukee-road/ Have also written on the proposed changes to the South Shore railroad variably.uk/2020/09/01/south-shore-line-at-michigan-city/
Loved Ruairidh MacVeigh's presentation on the Penn Central! Wont be competing with him though!
He has done quite a few 👌
Given the regulatory environment, this merger never had a chance. There was too much duplication of trackage, too many secondary branches, and too many employees for the tonnage being moved. If deregulation came before the Penn Central, it may have had a chance.
It took the RRs over ten years from the passing of the Staggers Act to fully grasp what it meant. PC never had a chance.
Not to mention the two main railroads merged were furious business rivals.
The NYC had a great chance. it was the Fed gov that made the mess. the New haven and Prr never had a chance. Al pearlman did every thing he could to get the NYC out of the merger.
@@packr72 Not Standy Crane. he move conrail real fast
@@braysfinds7479 The Prr was not much of a business Rival. it was broke since the end of WW2 could not take of its tracks had way to many workers and management people had only 1 hump yard needed 4 tracks to move the same # of trains as the NYC could move with 2 tracks. The Prr needed the NYC more then the NYC needed the PRR
What’s interesting is that the late-1990s Conrail breakup essentially undid the Penn Central merger. Most of the old NYC trackage went to CSX, and most of the old PRR system went to the Norfolk Southern.
Al Pearlman of the NYC had actually wanted a merger of the NYC with the C&O, and suggested that Pennsy merge with the N&W. The Conrail breakup essentially did that.
@@stuartaaron613 only 40% of the x Prr remain. very little left of it west of pittsburg Pa. over 75% of the X NYC remain
@@dknowles60 have any sources on that. just wondering
@@sweetmyth2537 Google . google maps. you had had to been at least 15 years old in 1970 to know that. Prr had been going broke since the End of WW2. The Prr trackage wAS IN VERY POOR shape in 1970. The NCY trackage was in good shape. The Workers at the PRR did the best they could but the Prr had very bad management. Most of the Money Spent went to fix the Prr side up the Prr neeeded 4 tracks from Nyc to pittsburb to move trains. The NYC need 2 tracks to move trains from NYC to Chicage it was CTC push buttion. the Prr was a interlocking tower every 20 miles. their trains needed pushers to get over the horse shoe curve. the NYc only needed 2 GP 40's to move their trains. the Prr needed a lot more. the Prr no longer goes from pittsburg pa to chicago. its a short line from crestline oh to chicago. The prr is gone from dayton oh to terre haute In. to much more to post
@@dknowles60 sorry I thought you where talking about X Prr and NYC equipment thx for the info tho
One correction, N&W steam ended in 1960. Long term steam was not gonna get much better, but N&W locomotives performed well compared to the 1st Gen diesels.
Steam kept going on many short lines throughout the South and Midwest. The last revenue steam locomotive not involving tourist/heritage railroads was finally retired in 1986.
@@OriginalBongoliath Any info about that operation?
The N&W was a highly efficient steam operation. As late as 1950 they introduced streamlined maintenance procedures with rapid turnarounds well in advance of UK practice (A.J.Powell). Given they were based in a coal-producing area, it made sense to carry on with steam a bit longer. Similarly in New Zealand the South Island, with indigenous coal reserves, kept steam well after the North Island had converted steam to oil-burning and then replacement by diesels. However, if these local factors are taken away, diesels' energy conversion ratio from fuel is always much higher than steam engines.
Former n&w employees have claimed that steam ran well into the 60s past 1960
Agreed, N&W operating steam longer than most is not really a slight on N&W. Coal was the primary product they hauled, they owned lots of coal-producing property, and had invested in modern high-efficiency steam engines up through the 1950s. N&W was very profitable and PRR's income from its shares helped to keep it afloat.
Penn Central had the greatest Locomotive Roster of all time (With UP a close 2nd). I count myself blessed to have seen Penn Central in Buffalo, NY as a kid in the 1970's!
As far as railroad videos go and there are not many about the PENN CENTRAL, other than Green Frog Productions which are Excellent, this one is extremely informative. It takes you from the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central merger to the rest, New Haven, B&O just to name a few. This one for being somewhat brief is excellent as well.
The US Gov: We have a free market! We are a free, capitalistic country!
Also the US Gov: intentionally hampered the railroads and their businesses while also providing subsidies to airlines and billions of dollars for the construction of the interstates because Congress was firmly in the oil industry’s pocket.
Congress is always mad that they have to subsidize Amtrak, yet are more than happy to dump money on Airports and Highways
It should be noted that all of the western railroads (UP, SP, etc) and many of the Eastern ones came into existence primarily as the result of government subsidies. What the RRs were complaining about was that their subsidies had ended and the new guy on the block that could compete with them was now getting subsidies instead. All established companies complain about new companies that can compete with them coming into existence, and try any underhanded trick they can to subvert or prevent loss of market share.
The big problem here was not so much the subsidies to the new travel modes, but that the ICC paralyzed the railroads and prevented them making changes that would have allowed them to compete. And the ICC originally came about because of the really nasty cutthroat competition and business practices the early railroads engaged in. So in effect the RRs killed themselves with their unsocial business practices coming back to haunt them.
I mean let’s not ignore the government gave huge amounts of land away for free to the RRs. Not to mention the hugely profitable Mail business that kept passenger trains afloat.
Ah yes, the oil industry wanted to put the railroads that predominantly used diesel powered locomotives out of business. Because that totally makes sense as a decision that a corporation that wants to make as much money as possible would do.
No, it was that the public and governmental perception of the railroads was one decades out of date, that of the monopolistic railroads run by the "robber barons" that had to be cut down to size. And the railroads did a poor job of communicating their plight to the public and Congress, mainly due to their perceived need to save face.
@@nicholasreid5327 Cars and Trucks use more Gasoline and Diesel than Locomotives, and Rubber and Asphalt are more Petroleum products. Road Vehicles consume far more Petrochemicals
👏👏👏 appreciate your efforts to make such amazing less heard mini documentaries.👏👏👏
Really fascinating, a very clear explanation of a situation I didn't really know about. Not sure one can call it the Rise and Fall of the Penn Central - more like Decline and Fall!
When it comes to the rivalry between the Pennsy and the Central, I always point my favorite quote from "The Wreck of the Penn Central" to show just how ingrained it was in each company's culture.
"Before the merger the highest-ranked Jew in the 60,000-employee Pennsylvania Railroad was an accountant. Roman Catholics also were notably absent from its upper echelons. The Central had a broader ethnic mix. An Irish executive at the Central was said to have complained; 'I was brought up to hate Protestants and the Pennsylvania Railroad. After this [merger], I've got to love them both.'" (pages 97-98)
Never thought I'd see an American railroad documentary on this channel! Being a PC fan, I can say that this information is more or less about 95% correct. Keep it up!
6:30 Flash forward 35+ years and CSX and NS split up Conrail, NS taking the old PRR lines and CSX taking the old NYC lines. Better late than never.
Al Perlman was right
Kompakte und verständliche Geschichte vom Anfang bis zum Ende dieser unvergleichlichen Eisenbahn zusammen mit wertvollen Fotos und Filmen. Sehenswert!
There were some items not covered in the video: 1) that commuter RR´s mostly went to the states (with some exceptions) 2) That the NEC track went mostly to Amtrak (and to NY and MA) 3) The track taxation that was unfair, as roads and airports are not taxed.
I think the slowest merger approval was James J Hill trying to get his railroads merged into one company. He owned the Great Northern Railway (of the US), the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Burlington Route (there was also the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle which was jointly owned by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific so we have railroads owning railroads owned by the same guy). The plan to merge these four companies into the one railroad lasted for decades starting in 1901 (before the SP&S was founded in 1905) and ended in 1970 when it was finally approved leading to the Burlington Northern Railroad. It took so long the Hill had been dead for decades and Burlington Northern wasn't even the original name they had planned on.
Dead for decades is an understatement
Don't let a rational transportation idea get in the way of a good grist for populist yakking.
Great Northern Pacific was originally the merger name; somebody got wise and realized that the Burlington and its Zephyrs were so well known to everybody that the more famous Burlington name was included instead. Or at least the story I read.
N& aW stopped using steam well before '65. The last revenue steam operation in the U.S. was the Grand Trunk Detroit commuter service on the fall off 1960.
Fantastic video! The most concise summary of PC’s fall that I’ve seen.
I often wondered how a merger between the New York Central and Milwaukee Road would have worked.
I heard of such a rumor about the Missouri Pacific and the Southern Railroad considering a merger. Must have alarmed some competitor!
it would have failed the NCY was a low cost rail road and the Milwaukee was a high cost rail road
the nyc and atsf merger would have been nuts
For another example of the extreme dysfunction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, consider what happened to the Rock Island Railroad 1965-1974. Union Pacific wanted to buy the Rock and sell off portions to other railroads but the ICC spent 10 years thinking about it and adding untenable conditions while the Rock deteriorated to the point that Union Pacific lost interest, leaving the Rock to ultimately fail completely.
Great video on a truely monumental story. Each of those railroads in themselves could be a 20min video
Is that a hint for a new video from you? lol
Why do I feel like you both throughly enjoyed this video, but also hated it with a burning fury.
Love this. Would like to see the Milwaukee Road covered with the pacific extension
And the Katy Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad
Milwaukee Road never should have built the pacific extension.
Very enjoyable video on this of PENN CENTRAL. I grew up in The Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, New York City. I had the privilege to see the equipment the New Haven had as well. Sorry for the business side that caused the demise that PENN CENTRAL acquired in these other prior railroads. I simply remembered no doubt The New Haven lines & their equipment as well as my all favorite engine The FL 9. My opinion after watching this video: NEW HAVEN (formerly New York, New Haven & Hartford) had it worse with that many bankruptcies I was unaware of in their earlier railroad history, in the 1930's the ill fated BOSTON & WESTCHESTER railroad short lived went bankrupt & later abandoned then to be taken by the IRT Subway at 180th Street, Bronx, New York. I remember Conrail when they came in on 1976 I miss them as well. You narrated so well & I'm a major fan of British rails as well as other railroads in Germany, France, Korea, China,Japan, India & Russia! Awesome video. 👋👋👋👋👋👋
Great video as always. Just one little detail, at 7:13, that's a locomotive of the Delaware & Hudson Railway, not the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western.
I was just about to post the same mistake in the video. The paint scheme and livery of the DL&W RR was carried over to the Erie & Lackawanna RR with Them just keeping the "Star" type logo of the Erie RR. D&H RR was completely different.
Yes, you are right. When the Erie and the Delaware Lackawanna merged, they used the paint scheme of the Lackawanna and the slightly modified logo of the Erie. You can see the Phoebe Snow, the Lackawanna's marquis passenger train here- ua-cam.com/video/xrOHCwodHu4/v-deo.html
@@haiti222 Thanks for the link, I live walking distance from the Lackawanna Cutoff in New Jersey, I have many books on the railroad. Here's another look of Phoebe Snow, showing off the train, not in color as it was made in 1903 by Thomas Edison, it's a modern day advertisment, promoting the Lackawanna RR, but from the past, and possibly the first of it's kind.
www.loc.gov/item/00694288/
im a north american rail fan born and from the uk and noticerd that straiught away and also the leigh high rail road was independent to the end becoming one of the Rail Roads to Form Conrail
The Norfolk & Western was officially dieselized on May 7, 1960.
Except for the Virginian, which N&W had acquired the year before; the VGN electrification lasted until June 30, 1962.
Really well researched and presented. Thanks for this history information that I always wondered about.
WV Rep. Staggers saved a massive amount of RR failures. As a West Virginian and all the Coal coming out of the state at that time, I'm sure King Coal helped push the deregulation through.
2nd to Penn Central, the rock island railroad was the next giant railroad to fall and has just an equal fascinating story to go with it.
I grew up along Conrail lines in Pennsylvania in the mid 80's, and I remember watching the coal trains going by and being able to spot the lone Reading, Eire or Penn Central coal car in the mix that had somehow escaped being repainted... you could still see the occasional lone survivor boxcar or hopper roaming the network until the early 90's, they had a unique teal/green color scheme, stood out even from a mile away.
Excellent video of an interesting time in the railroad industry. ICC always treated railway companies as "robber-barons". Only fault I could see is your file photo of Delaware, Lackawanna and Western when referring to its 1960 merger with the Eire Railroad, (7:14) is of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.
Ruairidh, I have to say, you work is really incredible. Entertaining, but very enlightening. I really appreciate your videos emphasizing the way organizations communicate, react, and work with each other in the industry. They're the elephants in the rooms that not a lot of people seem to know how to articulate talking about, and you sure did a nice job explaining it between the PR and the NYC! Superb work.
Also, whatever happened to your video on the Garratt steam locomotives? That video had great explanations, too!
Great video.
The town I grew up in--Yorktown Heights, NY--was on the "Old Putnam" division of New York Central. (Historical footnote: that line was the first line in the United States to use diesel power for commuter trains, back in the 1920s.)
It took the railroad approximately 20 years (and the merger/bankruptcy of Penn Central and subsequent acquisition by ConRail) for the line to be abandoned.
My Aunt worked for the Pennsey ( PRR) in the reservation department in NYC at the time of the merger. The railroads worked on a seniority system so she lost her job because all Centrals reservation people hand more time then her. She had 25yrs. Of service at the time.
Absolutely spot on. This video was great, I even learned a few details I did not know. You really did your research, which shows your appreciation and dedication to the subject.
My grandfather was a track supervisor for the PRR. He retired shortly before the Penn Central was formed. He declared at the time that the merger would never work, because the PRR and NY Central used incompatible signal systems.
that was because 99% of the Prr signal systems were built befor apx 1920 over 80% of the NYC signal systems were built after 1958
The locomotive at 7:14 is a Delaware & Hudson ALCo C-628. It is not a Delaware, Lackawanna & Western engine.
One thing not often remarked on was deferred maintenance. The track was so bad by PC that you almost couldn't move trains because of slow orders and derailments Conrail put millions into fixing up trackage
they were moving trains on the Ex NYC side. it was the Prr side that was in poor shape
Conrail. Arguably one of the few smart moves made by the US government in the last half century. Great video!
And Conrail should be brought back as a Federal government-owned corporation, not to haul freight like it's 1976-1999 predecessor, but to take ownership of all Class I main line routes (including the electrified Northeast Corridor and Keystone Corridor), in which Conrail would oversee the upgrading and maintenance of the national Class I main line routes (including the electrified Northeast and Keystone Corridors) allowing for simultaneous (and segregated) cross-country electrified Amtrak passenger and dual-powered freight service by the Class I railroad companies, who, along with Amtrak and state-funded transportation agencies, would be tenants to the "New Conrail's" infrastructure.
@@rwboa22 Lol Joe Biden and his gang wouldn't get it done. They can't even tell their asses from their arms, let alone work with Republicans on issues us Americans care about! The two political parties are not there to serve us. They don't care. They'll keep bailing out every corporation as long as they are funneling money to the two major parties. Conrail and the USRA are yesterday's news. It's a miracle Joe hasn't come up with a privatized proposition for Amtrak.
@@rwboa22 That’s pretty optimistic. Knowing how our government is, that project would probably take a bit more than 100 years, and sink us even lower in debt.
ConraiL should never have wound up being hacked up between NS ang CSX! It deserved to transfer to the private sector.
So glad you mentioned workers salaries and pay. I worked for penn central during the early 70's and while the railroad was choking and dying in debt, the union negotiated very very generous pay.
Right, blame the unions and not the comically mismanaged and failed merger of two culturally opposed railroads. You must have been a company officer.
@@michlo3393 it can go both ways with upper mgmt mismanaging and unions asking for too much also. The best orgs have a good relationship and partnership in a sense so success can hit it’s max
@@craigm2520 these days the carriers won't even show up to the negotiating table. And I wholeheartedly agree with you on the need to compromise, the RRs have made it clear that they don't even want to bother trying anymore. Management on both ends could use a good change of personnel these days.
Regarding criticizing the Norfolk and Western for hanging on to steam, A). They made money hand over fist. Dividends from PRR's extensive holdings in N&W kept PRR afloat longer than they would have otherwise; and B). Their steam locomotives were among the most modern ever built featuring 1). Roller bearings on all engine and tender axles, 2). One piece cast steel frames, 3). 300 psi boiler pressure, and 4). Vastly improved counterbalancing.
Another factor not mentioned in this video: the role of ex-PRR CFO David C. Bevan, which rates a chapter in "Wreck of the Penn Central", entitled "A Very Small Affair". Bevan, together with several other officials of his department, had a little "private investment club" called Penphil Inc., which traded mostly PRR and later PC and subsidiaries' stock mostly on inside information. One of its investments was in Executive Jet Aviation, on which PC lost $20M - and that at a time when railroads were forbidden from owning airlines! That too rates a whole chapter. (BTW Penphil was obviously fodder for the "Q-Investments" subplot of Arthur Hailey's 1975 novel "The Moneychangers").
Bevan was known as a loose cannon even in his PRR days; he joined in 1951 and held the CFO position from about 1955 until fired in 1970. In fairness, he was a competent CFO without whom PRR and PC would have been even worse off. In hearings leading up to the merger, he repeatedly mentioned 1970 as a year of heavy debt maturities.
no Al perman would have goten a Better CFO
@@dknowles60 Perlman wasn't even aware of Bevan's shenanigans, nor was CEO Stuart Saunders, also ex-PRR. In PC the ex-NYC Perlman, though nominally President and COO, was reduced to almost total impotence, and was "kicked upstairs" into the non-job of vice-chairman before being fired, along with Saunders and Bevan. Perlman later said PC wasn't a merger, but a PRR takeover. In the end, a shareholder's lawyer's letter to Saunders blew the whistle on Bevan and Penphil. That's how awful communication at the top of PC was.
@@smwca123 Perlman was very good. he went on to become the CEO of the Wprr. John kenerflick who work under perlman went on to become CEO of the Uprr on one From the Prr side ever went on to become ceo of any thing
@@dknowles60 True, but in PC Perlman was never given any kind of a chance. So thick was the bad blood between PRR and NYC that in the end they agreed on only 2 things: Both wanted out of passenger service, and neither wanted anything to do with NH. That last was a condition the ICC threw in.
@@smwca123 Saunders was a great fool and dumbie. that is why John fishwick who knew Saunders push him out of the N&W Rail road. The Prr kept asking the N&W rr to save the Prr. the Icc did the N&W a good job when it told the PRR if you want to merge with the NCY you must sell your N&W stock
One mistake, when you mentioned the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the photo was actually of the Delaware & Hudson, not the DLWR. The D&H would eventually be bought by Canadian Pacific in the 1990s
Really good summary. Thanks
Out of High School in 1973 I worked in the Penn Central Track Dept(and I occassionally was able to hit the spike)in Toledo, Ohio. From what I saw EVERYONE Was STEALING the Company 'Blind'. From 'Top' to 'Bottom'. Feds took over and formed 'ConRail'. I remember that two ConRail 'Hostlers'(engineers) were smoking dope, blew past a red signal, collided with Amtrak, and killed and injured many people on the passenger train. That incident is what created Federally Mandated Alcohol and Drug Testing. I was a conductor at the time and lots of guys lost their job because they couldn't or wouldn't stop smoking weed. Some guys had wild ideas as to how to FOOL the drug test but turns out they were the FOOL and lost their job. Prior to the mandated Alcohol and Drug testing I can say that the issue was 'Rampant' mgnt and labor ON ALL RAILROADS! It really did a good job of getting rid of some Useless Losers ! Many TRUE stories that would scare you but fortunately it's behind us now. Retired after 37 years with BNSF in So Cal.
Wasn't the Eisenhower administration responsible for the harsh regulations that practically killed the golden era of railroading in America? Of course, Carter practically saved Class 1 railroading by signing the Staggers Act.
where do you get that crap from. It was John Fish wick CEO of the N&W. he gave the Clerks a 90 day spanking and show the Rail roads you could stand up to the over paid union workers Carter had no Choice. he was busy with his 444 day spanking
I have great memories of seeing those Penn Central freight trains pass through my Bridgeport, Ct neighborhood as a child. Some old New Haven passenger cars are still in use on the commuter CT Rail line, and Until recently, a New Haven diesel engine was in use on the Metro-North Waterbury commuter line.
9:30 A little correction. That Railyard in Columbus Ohio was actually built in 1970, and was known as Buckeye Yard. It was Penn Centrals most efficient classification yard. It served all the way through to the Conrail Era and the Conrail Breakup years. In 2021, Norfolk Southern abandoned there section of Buckeye Yard, while CSX's half still remains as an intermodal facility. The property has been purchased by United Parcel Service and there is a possibility that it could see UPS Trains.
I thought they were going to possibly build an Amazon warehouse in that area
wrong Elkhart and selkirk were a lot better
Oh my god you madman you made a video of this! I love this!
This is Rodney Katorski
NOBODY NOBODY’S BETTER THAN THE PENN CENTRAL
11:17 - Is this [Budd - built] railcar still being used by NJ Transit, or maybe SEPTA ?
US railroads were in a dire crisis at the end of the 60s and even Amtrak wasn't very promising. Everyone was flying across the States rather than taking flyers from city to city.
Amtrak at 50 this year. $80 billion in loses.
@@johnnyjames7139 funny if it wasnt for Covid19 Amtrak might have made a profit in 2020 or 2021
@@johnnyjames7139 Didn't know YOU were paying Amtraks bills.
One of your best I think. Really enjoyed that. Sad to see yet another business strangled in part by government interference while public servants walk away with a pension and no loss of income. Sounds familiar.
Great video, very informative learnt a lot about the whole new York Central and Penn railway rivalry. Such a shame that only new York Centrals main station is the only one still standing in new York. Penn station as it is today is an abomination to the great station that it replaced.
Are there still plans to convert the look-alike post office building into a station?
@@cris_261 it’s actually taken place. There is a video in UA-cam. Look it up under Moynihan Train Hall.
The only good thing that came from that was, it started the Architecture Preservation Movement. Much in the same way that the Ferrocarriles Nationales de Mexico's 1978 conversion of the last four Alco PA1's to large-scale Modern Art Sculptures of crushed beer cans woke people up to the importance of diesel preservation.
@@emilyadams3228 Two of the four PAs were repatriated to America, albeit as shells. One got restored by Doyle McCormick who gave it a Nickel Plate RR scheme. The other PA is awaiting restoration. The other two PAs wound up as displays in Mexico.
@@cris_261 Yeah, Doyle's NKP PA is gorgeous. She has the 12-251 from a CN M420B.
Excellent video, footage and narration!
Is any of these tracks and bridges and buildings still there today.
Another great episode, very informative and easy to understand, many thanks NZCH
Great Video, professional style gives us the facts and no flannel
Really enjoyable video; brought back a lot of memories. I grew up in the 1960s in a small town west of Philadelphia and used to hang around the local train station watching the passenger and freight trains as they sped through on the main line west to Pittsburgh and Chicago.
Was it Lancaster?
n.w. was in the heart of coal country...that gave it an edge in lower cost coal... but maint. cost on steam was incredibly high!
The N & W operated steam into 1960, not 1965. If they would have operated steam that late I would've known about it because I was 12 and reading railroad magazines. While were on the subject the N & W steam locomotives were home built and of the most modern.
As all can see I'm still a foamer.
I read somewhere that on some branchlines, the N&W kept steam until 1965. I’m unsure on that though.
Extremely well researched and I enjoyed the photos chosen. Very well done!
Although Penn Central was short-lived, it still helped moving freight in the Northeastern United States in the late 60s and the 70s.
Wow. Kudos on a great documentary
love these old documentary's
Very good video, and a good job bringing to light a company that is often overlooked by railfans
The Santa Fe was in the south west but traveled to Chicago but was focused in the south and western region of America . The Midwest railroads were the Milwaukee road, Chicago and northwestern railroad, the Burlington Northern, Illinois central, and the rock island. ( if I missed any let me know)
Excellent reporting.
The underlying reason that caused these companies to merge was never addressed, and only prolonged their deaths. The main money maker for the Pennsy had always been anthracite. And following the Knox Mine disaster, state regulation of the industry increased operating costs to a point that mining ground to a halt. On top of that, federal law required either company to continue operating stations with little or no traffic. Preventing the closure of these stations meant that overhead increased more and more with no profit to show. What’s ironic is after Conrail took over, one of their first actions was closing unprofitable stations,
Were do you get "Pennsy had always been anthracite." NO they had "Bituminous coal". The Pennsy had a very small part in anthracite. (via the Schuylkill Valley Branch.) The RDG, CNJ, LV, Erie, DL&W and L&NE were the anthracite roads.
@@railsaroundsouthjersey I grew up in Schuylkill County. I know what was mined and who hauled it away, guy
@@redram5150 I have a lot of family up that way, but you are still wrong!
@@railsaroundsouthjersey cool story, guy
Pennsy was over with as soon as WW2 ended
Excellent work. Could you do one on the current state of the Canadian railroad system in a similar style?
@7:13 the DL&W did merge with Erie in 1960, but Delaware & Hudson was not part of the deal(picture shown of D&H Alco)
Hate to break it to ya, but the locomotive at 18:32 is representing New England staple Delaware and Hudson. However, the D&H did originally want in on the EL merger, but pulled out last-minute.
Really enjoyed this, could you do a piece on Wisconsin Central please?
Penn Station was at least as, (ahem), grand as Grand Central. Her demise was perhaps the greatest architectual crime of the 20th century.
Very good, while listening to this a CSX local went by on old New Haven territory.
lol at "Merryland" and "St Louie". Great video though.
Hello from Kansas 🇺🇸
Great documentary. Do you have plans for a Rock Island documentary?
Nice archive film and photos.
Damn a nyc and atsf merger? That would have been a mega giant competitor since that would mean it would be a straight shot from new york to Los Angeles on a single company
Interesting video. I had no idea that things were that dire back then for American railroad companies.
It was a mess, particularly the northeast and Great Lakes regions and especially the Pennsylvania Railroad. Years and years of deferred maintenance and the merger resulted in lots of duplicated track. Penn Central made a movie in 1974 to show to Congress and beg for federal funding. I believe it's actually up on youtube.
@@kenshin891 Thanks I will have a look for that. As a brit I always assumed that American railroads were mainly freight operations from the start. I had never realised that there so much bureaucracy involved getting in the way of growth.
@@kungfuwitcher7621 there were a lot of passenger services that disappeared between 1930 and 1971. Some of them could have been saved. And there are two things that the video doesn´t cover: the commuter services went to the states (or dissapeared) and that the NEC track went to Amtrak, MNCRR and MBTA. Previously they were operated by PC and PRR.
@@MarceloBenoit-trenes Thanks for the info 👍
I would not have called it a "rise" of PC, considering it was the desperate merger of two failing companies, forced to take on a third one (New Haven) as an additional boat anchor as a condition for the merger. It was a pretty rapid descent into corporate Hell, which along with Hurricane Agnes in 1972 led directly to the creation of Conrail.
NYC was Not a Failing Company. ONly the PRR and New Haven were the Failing Companys
For a Limey, you sure know a lot about American railroads, my friend! Great job!
I am always amazed at how much great research you put into these video's, if I could click like more than once i definitely would. You deserve so many more subscribers, i will share your videos with everyone I know. Keep up the great work my friend.
Great review on this fallen flag!
Anthracite? (at approx 1:26 and again at approx 10:36) PRR had a very very little anthracite and to the best of my knowledge NYC had none. There were nine major anthracite roads, Reading, Jersey Central, Lackawanna, Erie, Lehigh Valley, Lehigh and New England, Lehigh and Hudson, Delaware and Hudson and the New York Ontario and Western. PRR and NYC were not among them. Interestingly though, the RR's that made up Conrail were the remaining anthracite roads except for D&H (L&NE and NYO&W were both already gone by this time) plus of course PC. The coal that PRR and NYC originated was overwhelmingly bituminous. --- But overall pretty insightful and accurate, especially regarding the ICC and other details of the business of the railroads. And let me enter this disclaimer, I am a huge fan of the largest of the anthracite roads, the Reading, and of the anthracite roads in general. One other little detail, somewhere in the middle there are a lot of scenes of camelback center cab steam engines which were almost exclusively found on the anthracite roads named above and not on any of the PC predecessors, PRR, NYC and NYNH&H. One of these shots does in fact have a large sign saying LEHIGH VALLEY.
One other anthracite road: NYSW.
So that would be why you should start from scratch with a nationalised system and regulate all other transport forms to even things up. Or just nationalise the trucks as well.
Nationalization doesn't mean much if you don't fund the national rail system much.
@@MicahtheDrumCorpsPseudoboomer In practice not really, because nationalisation has so many inherent advantages in terms of getting rid of middlemen and shareholders, to give you more money to reinvest in the service. And nationalisation is so efficient. Here in the UK, we’re subsidising the privatised rail system for more money than the entire cost to previously run the underfunded (but still good) nationalised British Rail (adjusted for inflation) until 1995. Had British Rail continued, and especially if it had been funded properly, it would have been one of the best networks in the world today. And even had it continued to be underfunded, it would have ended up significantly better than today as well. So give me underfunded nationalised service over corrupt privatised one any day.
@@christill What about British Rail's Beeching Axe, or JNR abandoning 83 Local Lines under the 1980 JNR Reconstruction Act? Sure, the destruction of rail lines in the USA was far worse, but the fact that Beeching happened at all under a nationalized RR is very worrisome.
@@MicahtheDrumCorpsPseudoboomer Yeah but then you look at where we are now. The Tories did their worst to initially underfund it, then destroy parts of it and finally privatise the whole thing. We’ve had basically the worst possible management you could have over the last 70 years, and yet the service still works mostly ok. Not amazingly, but considering they threw everything they could at it to destroy it, and it’s still functioning (albeit with some problems on some operators, and with high prices), it shows that the railway is effectively invincible. And so even a right wing incarnation of the Labour Party (I won’t be voting for them now Jezza is gone) coming into power next year almost certainly, will improve things significantly, because they can’t possibly be worse.
What a pity Al Perlman was not allowed to run the railway properly. But in the end Stuart Saunders and the I C C killed PENN CENTRAL.
90% Stuart Sanders
Excellent video content.
Great video, but I have one minor correction.
St. Louis, MO is pronounced locally, and in America in general, as “St. Lewis.” Even though it’s named after King Louis IX of France, the pronunciation has been Americanized.
I’m a local who lives in the nearby Illinois suburbs.
I often mispronounce placenames myself. I even occasionally mispronounce placenames that I’m not familiar with here in Illinois and in nearby Missouri.
Like his Metroliner vid, this study is clearly starting with discriminatory bias and thus loses considerable legitimacy.
Pency went threw St Thomas Ontario Canada too i remember it as a kid
Never thought I’d see another St Thomas local here, a shame about what happened
@@kkhagerty6315 oh yes it was a great time i liked the logo it is on my lap top now a remember when
That was the NYC not the PRR.
Interesting to see the varied locomotives, especially the steam & electric.
Great! Thank you for all the great work! 😀
I would argue the golden age of american railroading ended with the merger, and the post merger era was the slow decline.
Excellent film, thanks for sharing
Great video only one flaw at 7:15 you say that that’s a DL&W locomotive but the picture is a D&H locomotive
Outstanding video. What happen to the rock island line
(I didn't know that railroads had been competing with trucks and airplanes since 1887. Thanks for the enlightenment.)🤣😏
Your videos are awesome man
At least Penn Central got to exist for a bit. Even more hilarious is the story of the SPSF, which got killed before it really even started.
Shouldn't Paint So Fast.
Great show