Oh how the mighty have fallen. The Pennsylvania Railroad, the Standard Railroad of the World, became complacent with old-school tech, just like Baldwin.
Well done video. I loved the Pennsylvania Railroad. I loved their keystone, Tuscan Red, Brunswick Green, and Belpaire fireboxes. So many great locomotives and rolling stock. I sold off my HO models a few years back and the only one I kept is an I-1. The only sleeper train I have taken was on the Pennsy. I got to blow the whistle on a GG1 and the only true dining car I ever ate in was on the PRR. The Penn Central merger and the need for the merger was truly a dark time in my life.
It wasn't just the PRR & NYC management that had a hard time getting along - when the merger was announced to the rank-and-file, employees at both railroads were stunned. They had been "trained" to dislike the other railroad for decades, so the idea of joining forces with their biggest rival was just unconscionable to them. In the grand scheme of things, it probably didn't matter anywhere near as much as the tussle in the board room, but it couldn't have helped.
I'm 76 years old and have lived in the greater New Haven area my entire life. The best thing for the New Haven Railroad was getting some GG-1s in the New Haven yards. The New Haven was electrified from New Haven to New York City.
The Pennsy was a railroad of contrasts, much of their business management was on the conservative side, playing a long game and avoiding big gambles when it came to their routes, but almost obsessively trying things that others were unwilling or uninterested in doing when it came to locomotive engineering, hence why they were one of few American railroads to use belpaire fireboxes, duplex locomotives, a direct-drive steam turbine, the "holy terror" fleet of almost 600 I1 decapod coal haulers, as well as some of the finest streamlining to ever grace the world's rails.
Love it! I always look forward to your videos! Did you know that Charles Carroll, signer of the declaration of independence, was a railway man as well? I believe he helped start the B&O
The Pennsy had some Texas connections. The Texas Eagle of the MoPac/T&P had through sleepers to New York; Philadelphia and Washington,D.C. The Railroad Museum in Frisco has a GG1 on display.😮😊
Would you eventually do documentaries for: New York Central Great Northern Northern Pacific Santa Fe Denver & Rio Grande Southern Virginia & Truckee Rio Grande Southern Colorado & Southern and my favorite (Southern Pacific)
Darkness in your brilliant Penn Central video, you said they devirted maintenance, didnt know if was that bad, rocking wagons, rails sinking into the rail bed full of water, you was right, they may as well set it on fire. Then claim it off the insurance.
@@DiamondKingStudios Have you _seen_ the paint scheme on the boxcars they used for that? It takes real talent to lose one of those, never mind all of them.
You missed that their final management committed a major act of civic desacration by selling the air rights over thei NYC station and allowing that magnificent building to be destroyed.
Among many other aspects which ruined the Pennsy and other major railroads, was the interstate highway system as trucking siphoned away a lot of the freight and both bus and airlines siphoned away the passenger traffic. I had the opportunity growing up in Newark, NJ to ride on Pennsy MU’s and watch many GG-1’s blazing through the landscape.
Great video and part of the intriguing railroad history. I grew up in the PA/WV area in the 60s, My grandfather had been a brakeman for the B&O railroad so I was always intrigued by trains. I find the railroad history interesting, especially 2 or more competing in the same areas such as B&O and Pennsie, which I believe they did through Pittsburgh. I have to assume that the shared tracks (for interstate commerce) were reciprocity agreements. Or they’d have to for example run competing lines on opposite sides of the river. Not such a problem today with only a handful of companies running the whole U.S. but I’m sure it still exists for cross-country freight.
This was a great upload! I’ve really enjoyed your storytelling through your videos. The PRR had some beautifully painted livery. I’m having a bicycle frame repainted soon and I’m going with either Tuscan Red or Brunswick Green with gold pinstripes and the lettering the same type as the PRR. PC Corp sort of still exists as the American Premier Underwriters company. So in essence the Pennsy still “exists”
Growing up in Pittsburgh I was a HUGE Pennsy fan when I was like 8 I Grew out of it but the PRR Is just such a nostalgic thing for me I very well recall watching videos of PRR K4's and GG1's On a rainy day then going down to the old PRR Main in downtown. the P&LE and SOU Took the Pennsy's sport for me but I still got a sweet spot for it.
A very well done documentary on one of the greatest railroads in the history of the nation. I am very curious as to where you got the footage from 14:57 to 15:09; I am a tower operator for Amtrak and instantly recognized it as ZOO, one of the towers I am qualified to work. I have never been able to find footage of the model board when it looked that way. I would LOVE to see the rest of that.
Susquehanna can also be pronounced a bunch of other different ways, most with the "que" pronounced as 'kuh. For example suss-'kuh-HÁ-nuh, suss-'kuh-HÀ-nah, suss-'kuh-HAN-nuh, or suss-'kuh-HAN-uh. Take your pick, it's all good :^)
It's almost like working for a company that never lost profit until after the big kaboom makes people get a giant ego about the shit they do... Also something something yadda yadda British Rail similarities.
I often thought about your question. I don't believe the Pennsy would've survived regardless of the merger because mismanagement just drained them financially. My opinion to survive they needed to modernize much sooner and focused only on the major markets and sold off or just closed the rest. I would like to see how the Union Pacific managed to survive today.
The board of the PRR had tunnel vision about the New York Central. When they Had so much in common with another RR. They Failed to see that they should have been talking merger with Union Pacific !
Ah yes. Pennsy. The basis of one of my old usernames. Specifically, my favorite Pennsy loco, the E6. I L O V E chonky Atlantic types, and paire it with a Bel (see what I did there, firebox), and valve gear attached to the second driver set, and you have a fast, strong little engine.
PRR is overrated and gets more credit than it should. Really, it was a lot worse off prior to the Penn Central merger. I've always been more of a NYC fan, simply because of the fact that they were more progressive.
Executives: “nah we just fly who even takes our trains anyway” That one finance guy: “what if we put a bunch of funding in flying rich people around in private jets?” _Cue shenanigans_
Adolf Hitler was a progressive and JP Morgan (who self proclaimed himself as a god) said in his biography that he is the founding father of the progressive movement. In the case of the Pennsylvania, they weren't conservative, they were just arrogant. Making an entire movement just to create "change and Forward progress" is just a corporate ponzi scheme to make taxpayers pay for private infrastructure and pretend it's social services for the public good, and the majority of people who support it are addicted to meth and can't take care of themselves so they want everyone to drop down to their level, be in extreme poverty and pretend that the government will take care of us. All progressives are Nazis.
My cousin who is a train engineer in Italy for the last 30 years can't even support himself, and even when I make $300 a week, I still make more money than him. The poorest 20% of Americans make more money than the average European, and this is a direct result of social programs bleeding the public sector dry, because the highest wealthiest tax payers get no bid government contracts for "social services equipment" and set whatever price they want. In the meantime only rich American tourists and the wealthy elites of those countries are the only people who can afford to ride on those high speed rail projects because it takes the average person weeks if not months just to afford a ticket to go somewhere because they are living in extreme poverty. This is all the result of neo Nazi progressive policies.
Pennsylvania was a cool railroad from a very rich and fast locomotives and then now it became a big pile of shit and yes im talking about the Penn Central aka Penn Shit.