Trains of the 1970s

124 Pages·2015·53.03 MB·English

by  Robert S. McGonigal

Classic Trains
SPECIAL EDITION NO. 16
TRAINS
1970
of the s
Special 2015
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Crisis and rebirth
for America’s railroads
Conrail’s first year • Streamliner shadows
Steam in the South • Vintage diesels
Piggyback prosperity • and more!
www.ClassicTrainsMag.com
Chicago, July 1978: A Burlington Northern
E9 and former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio F3 back
their suburban consists toward Union Sta-
tion as Amtrak trains make moves in the
background. R. A. Caflisch, Helen Caflisch coll.
2 TRAINS of the 1970s
TRAINS
1970
of the s
Crisis and rebirth for
America’s railroads
Edited by Robert S. McGonigal
www.classictrainsmag.com • TRAINS of the 1970s 3
Contents
IN THE NEWS IN THE NEWS
8 Crisis, Response, 24 CN 6060, Nickel 48 Beyond the
and Rebirth Plate 759, Britain’s Pointless Arrow
Problems that had plagued Flying Scotsman Passenger services on D&H,
America’s railroads for decades Notable steam locomotives Auto-Train, Southern, and VIA
came to a head in the 1970s from three countries roam Rail Canada offer alternatives
BY H. ROGER GRANT North America’s main lines to Amtrak
IN THE NEWS
16 Burlington Northern 26 Canadian Pacific’s 50 Extra-Board
is Born Elusive C-Liners Diary
Four carriers — CB&Q, GN, Three railfans stalk the last Notes from a Penn Central
NP, and SP&S — unite on Fairbanks-Morse cab units engineer on running freights
March 2, 1970, to form the across western Canada across Indiana and Ohio
nation’s longest railroad BY MIKE SCHAFER BY JOHN R. CROSBY
IN THE NEWS IN THE NEWS
18 Canadian (National) 36 EMD, GE Launch 62 Chessie and Its
Contrasts New Diesel Lines Steam Special
Rides on a Turbo, the Ocean, UP SD40-2s and Santa Fe C&O-B&O-Western Maryland
and the Super Continental show C30-7s represent the builders’ debut a striking new yellow,
CN’s passenger department is new emphasis on reliability and vermillion, and blue scheme,
still going through the motions efficiency and put a 4-8-4 on the road for
BY DAVID P. MORGAN B&O’s 150th birthday
38 Only EMD and GE 64 Vanishing Magic of
Left? No! the Zephyr
Alco, Baldwin, and FM still The spirit of the California
supply diesel parts; Canada’s Zephyr lingers on its Amtrak
MLW remains a player and Rio Grande successors
BY J. DAVID INGLES BY TED BENSON
On the cover: Former Reading and
Erie Lackawanna GP35s head a Con-
rail train at Dayton, Ohio, shortly after
CR’s April 1, 1976, birth. Dave Oroszi
4 TRAINS of the 1970s
IN THE NEWS IN THE NEWS
76 Electrics Power 88 Comparing Conrail 110 Classics Return,
Down and Up with Conrail East and West
As the Milwaukee Road pulls Why the motive-power boys in Memorable paint schemes of
the plug on its electrified dis- the Blue Room in Philadelphia the 1950s make a comeback on
tricts, a new Arizona coal line don’t feel so blue anymore a Pennsylvania GG1 and a
suggests a future under wire BY J. DAVID INGLES Western Pacific F7
IN THE NEWS
78 Master Mechanic, 100 Special Liveries, 112 Flight of the
Steam Engines Freedom Train Falcon
Southern’s Bill Purdie works Mark Bicentennial North Western’s hot piggyback
hard to keep 630, 722, 750, and Patriotic diesel paint schemes trains hustle to a handoff with
4501 on the road and the steam-powered Ameri- the Union Pacific
BY DAVID P. MORGAN can Freedom Train help the BY F. K. PLOUS JR.
U.S.A. celebrate 200 years
IN THE NEWS
86 Amtrak Gets New 102 Tacoma Hill, Slugs,
Cars, Locomotives and Mr. Clean
New equipment — Amfleet, How the Milwaukee Road
Turbos, F40s, and two new tackles its steepest grade
electric models — brightens up BY BLAIR KOOISTRA
the Amtrak landscape
In Minneapolis, Soo Line FP7 500-A
and F7A 212-B cross Camden Bridge
over the Mississippi River with a
transfer run in fall 1979. Steve Glischinski
www.classictrainsmag.com • TRAINS of the 1970s 5
TRAINS
of the 1970s
A time of crisis
CLASSIC TRAINS SPECIAL EDITION NO. 16 • 2015
Editor Robert S. McGonigal
and rebirth
Art Director Thomas Danneman
Senior Editor J. David Ingles
Senior Graphic Designer Scott Krall
Graphic Designer Drew Halverson
Editorial Assistant Diane Laska-Swanke
T
his is Trains of the 1970s, the fourth in Classic Trains’ series Contributing Illustrator Bill Metzger
Librarian Thomas E. Hoffmann
of decade-themed publications. Like its predecessors covering the Publisher Diane M. Bacha
1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, this edition is composed mostly of articles from Trains of the 1970s (ISBN 978-1-62700-244-8) is
published by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027
Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI
past issues of Trains magazine. The covers of the issues in which the 53187-1612.
Editorial
stories were originally published appear at the start of each article. Most
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E-mail: [email protected]
of these stories have been completely redesigned, with additional photos Fax: [phone]
Display advertising sales
added, or with color photos in place of the original black-and-whites. Phone: [phone], ext. 625
E-mail: [email protected]
The 1970s were a fraught time for the railroads. Problems that had Fax: [phone]
Customer service
plagued the industry for decades — onerous government regulation, Phone: [phone]
Outside U.S. and Canada: [phone], ext. 421
E-mail: [email protected]
loss of traffic to highways, rising costs, passenger-service deficits, a
Fax: [phone]
changing industrial economy — came to a head. Mergers and other Retail trade orders and inquiries
Phone: [phone], press 3
Outside U.S. and Canada: [phone], ext. 818
measures intended to combat the ills were proving to be ineffective or
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even catastrophic. Yet crisis has a way of focusing the mind, and people
Single copy prices (U.S. funds): $12.99 in U.S.; $13.99
who believed in the inherent soundness of the flanged-wheel-on-steel- in Canada and other foreign counties, payable in U.S.
funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Canadian price includes
GST. BN12271 3209RT Printed in the U.S.A.
rail concept, and who recognized its importance to the nation, devised
©2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. All rights reserved.
some inspired, though often painful, solutions. Any publication, reproduction, or use without express
permission in writing of any text, illustration, or pho-
tographic content in any manner is prohibited except
For railfans it was a bittersweet era. As the wrenching changes took for inclusion of brief quotations when credit is given.
Kalmbach Publishing Co.
place before their eyes, they scrambled to savor passenger trains, once-
President Charles R. Croft
Vice President, Editorial Kevin P. Keefe
proud railroad companies, and classic locomotives before progress Senior V.P., Sales & Marketing Daniel R. Lance
Vice President, Consumer Marketing Nicole McGuire
swept away those beloved symbols of the industry’s halcyon days. Corporate Art Director Maureen M. Schimmel
Art & Production Manager Michael Soliday
Circulation Manager Kathy Steele
The 1970s were a complex time. They were the bad old days, the last Single-Copy Specialist Kim Redmond
Corporate Advertising Director Scott W. Bong
full decade of the “classic era,” and the crisis point that set the stage for Advertising Sales Representative Mike Yuhas
Advertising Sales Representative Todd Schwartz
Advertising Services Representative Christa Burbank
the strong, prosperous industry of today.
Production Coordinator Sue Hollinger-Yustus
6 TRAINS of the 1970s
SD40-2s in various stages of completion
fill the floor at EMD’s La Grange (Ill.) plant.
Introduced in 1972, the SD40-2 was one of
the best selling diesels of all time. EMD
www.classictrainsmag.com • TRAINS of the 1970s 7
RAILROADS IN THE 1970s
CRISIS
,
RESPONSE
,
REBIRTH
CRISIS
,
RESPONSE
,
REBIRTH
Former Penn Central units of three builders
move trains just east of Conrail’s ex-PC/
NYC Maumee River bridge in Toledo on
October 16, 1977. Eighteen-month-old
Conrail has only just begun to clear up the
Northeast railroad mess. John Uckley
Problems that had plagued America’s railroads for decades
came to a head in the 1970s. Though sometimes painful, the
remedies set the stage for a new era of prosperity
BY H. ROGER GRANT
T
here may be truth in the saying Maxwell’s assessment. Jervis Langdon Jr., who 58 percent it had achieved in 1960. There was
that “the darkest hour is just be­ in 1970 became president of Penn Central also a growing fear that nationalization
fore the dawn,” and in some ways Transportation Co. and later senior trustee might be in the offing, a topic that was re­
that characterizes the American for the giant bankrupt road, succinctly peatedly discussed in boardrooms and in the
railroad industry in the 1970s. summed up the decade this way: “Bad things financial and industry trade press.
This would be a decade of struggle — in fact, just kept happening.” Then came the shocker. On June 8, 1970,
a decade of crisis. Gregory Maxwell, who as Maxwell, Langdon, and others were cor­ Penn Central — created only 28 months ear­
Erie Lackawanna president saw his railroad rect. Bad news dominated the railroad indus­ lier by the touted merger of two historic
succumb to bankruptcy, later reflected about try. The decade began with some unfavorable rivals, New York Central and Pennsylvania
the 1970s: “It was one thing after another — reports. The rate of return on investments (with the troubled New Haven added at the
the Penn Central failure, the real threat of was a disheartening 1.73 percent, the lowest beginning of 1969) — filed for bankruptcy.
nationalization, unreasonable state and fed­ since the Great Depression. Even the “profit­ Here was a 19,459­mile railroad that was not
eral regulation, rising fuel costs, runaway in­ ables” suffered. The big coal­carrying Norfolk only one of the largest corporations in Amer­
flation, labor problems, that commuter train & Western — which had been bolstered by its ica but also the primary freight carrier for
drain, deferred maintenance, increasing acquisition of competitor Virginian in 1959 more than half the people in the country,
truck competition, the erosion of heavy in­ and then by more traffic diversity and expan­ serving a dozen of the 20 largest metropoli­
dustries, especially in steel, and even bad sion in the 1964 merger of Nickel Plate, Wa­ tan areas.
weather. Remember Hurricane Agnes in June bash, and two smaller Class 1s — saw its op­ A combination of excessive regulation,
of 1972? I really can’t list them all . . .” erating ratio (costs to revenues) in 1970 stand modal competition, poor (even dishonest)
No informed observer would challenge approximately 10 points above the impressive management, limited pre­merger planning,
10 TRAINS of the 1970s