This has to be one of the most honest corporate films ever made. It's like they filmed their own funeral.

@AmericanOdyssey91

8 ай бұрын

They wanted the government to bail them out. Gotta be honest to get that government cheese. In the beginning at least ;-)

@douglasskaalrud6865

7 ай бұрын

They were trying to get money; they had to show things in the worst possible light.

@nicholascarlino4828

5 ай бұрын

😊😊😊😊😊😊

"Its destination could be disaster." From the looks of this video, the Penn Central had already arrived and disembarked.

@ohioandnortheastern

2 жыл бұрын

Nah, it rolled through the station and didn't notice

@ERICTOTE

Жыл бұрын

@@ohioandnortheastern oooòiiìó8⁹

25:15 - There was a man who cared about "his" railroad. Undoubtedly he could remember when it was in first class condition. It had to be painful for those fellows to watch what PC had become. One can hope he lived to see Conrail's success.

@oddjobz9858

2 жыл бұрын

I worked with many men like that on guilford who remember what railroading was on the B&M. Time isn’t always on our side

I worked for PennCentral on the Detroit division starting in 1971. On the Vassar-Caro local (Bay City branch -- Michigan), we didn't dare travel over 5 mph on most of the track, with some rail so bad that I could get out and walk faster than the locomotive. You could watch the far end of the rail describe a figure 8 when the engine set foot on the other end. That job was a 6 day, 12 hr job to service a half dozen sugar beet farms and a couple very small industries ... our glory was usually less than a dozen cars. It's where I learned the practical application of manual block signal territory rules. Although there was never anything out on the rail behind us, I still had to drop a fusee every 5 minutes. We went through a LOT of fusees on that job. And we died for time nearly every day. (I was working the extra list and in two weeks, IIRC, we died every day save one. We would cheat ourselves out of time in order for our rest to clear for the next day. Good money for us (the equivalent of 84 hours a week worth of straight time), a real loser for the company.

@mikeytrains1

6 жыл бұрын

Blame the management. What should have been done was every member from the Central and Pennsy (which was then in charge of the PC) should have been sacked and a fresher, newer management come in.

@rogerrobertson2958

4 жыл бұрын

Bill, when I worked for Conrail at Sterling, Mi., we would serve a Ford plant on the secondary. The main line PC /NYC north was abandoned. Most NYC men told me the track was in disrepair. My run to Toledo, Oh. , was on welded rail.

@traintalkproductions5934

3 жыл бұрын

It's amazing seeing trains on the jointed track on that stretch of line going 30 mph now. It's unfortunate that the Detroit-Bay City line was abandoned, if I recall correctly, that was a very vital line.

@Boypogikami132

3 жыл бұрын

You staged the first and last scene so that you can get government funding!

@tackywhale5664

2 жыл бұрын

If anything, a railroad today should be good money for employees and a real winner for the company, and not any other way around.

The main reason pc went belly up is after the merger they did not invest in the railroad, they went into the the real estate business and purchased land and buildings all over the east coast, read the book called the wreck of the penn central it tells it all in there.

@1978garfield

7 жыл бұрын

IC had a similar problem. Management used the railroad as a cash cow to fund their other business. Very little profit was reinvested in to the railroad. That is part of the reason the merger with the GM&O did not work out.

@warrenash5370

3 жыл бұрын

However, the railroad was shot after the wear and tear of the increased military traffic of WWII.

@leoross5777

3 жыл бұрын

saunders was more interested in banging his friends wives , than running a railroad

@dknowles60

3 жыл бұрын

@@warrenash5370 not the Nyc

@thegamingrhino5864

3 жыл бұрын

also operating cultures and general fraud by the NYC's CEO whatshisname

and this is the result of when the Pennsy left our eyes.

@mikeytrains1

4 жыл бұрын

Thunderbolt 1000 Siren Productions I prefer to note it as “when the NYC left our eyes.” Never been much a fan of the PRR, but I have my respect for if I guess.

@alexandergrube6437

4 жыл бұрын

Both railroads were just as shit in the end

@railroadhistoryarchives

2 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately

An incredibly insightful video, with input straight from the employees. This illustrates perfectly WHY it's so important to listen to the people who work for your company. They don't complain just because they have nothing better to do.

@jonfromstearns

4 жыл бұрын

They're definitely not complaining. The working conditions put their personal safety at risk. I'd say that the employees were once proud of the Penn Central system.

@leoross5777

3 жыл бұрын

listening to these ungrateful assholes bitch about their 'clothes getting dirty' was symptomatic of why it went broke. 'id never work for a railroad' says one ungrateful shitbag.. you have NO idea how bad it was really gonna get. the seventies were the real golden years of do-nothing railroad jobs

@rockkicker5527

2 жыл бұрын

Problem is..page 7 section 3 in the Liquidation of America handbook it clearly states never listen to the people doing the work just cut their position and lay them off. Socialization of all losses Privatize all profits.

@justforever96

2 жыл бұрын

Except management literally just picked and chose whatever employee footage most backed their case to get free money to repair the damage they had done. The time to listen to the employees is _before_ you run your road totally into the shit and end u trying to get a huge taxpayer bailout to avoid the consequences of your mismanagement. They are literally just using the employees as leverage to get what they want; they figure congressmen will watch this and see potential voters about to lose a job if they dont open the cash hose up. "See these poor workers, you wouldnt want them to be out of a _job_ would you? So you had better give us $500,000,000. Or they will all blame you."

@justforever96

2 жыл бұрын

@@leoross5777 They are doing their job. Management wanted them to make it sound as bad as possible so they could get free money. How often does management ask you to complain about your job on camera? Why shouldnt a guy complain that his clothes get filthy? If he does his job, he can complain all he wants. Even soldiers are allowed to complain. You are not required to be 'grateful' that you are allowed to work. And you dont know anything about any of these guys or their personal experiences, or even what else they said to explain themselves. You literally have one guy making the simple factual statement "I wouldnt work for the railroad again'. Maybe he was good reason to say that, maybe he wishes he had gone to college. Maybe he decided the work is not what he likes to do, or the pay isnt worth it. But to you apparently that is a high crime, to actually complain after you have been given the _privilege_ of working long, hard hours for little pay, how dare you complain or even suggest you wish you had chosen another career!? You should be grateful they allowed you to work at all. What do you think this is, a free country where you can choose the work you want to do or something? Shut up and get back to work, peons!

Penn central- “We need federal funding we’re a mess!” Government- “ Conrail take or leave it”

@TexasRailfan2008

3 жыл бұрын

Penn central- “we’ll take it”

@25mfd

2 жыл бұрын

@@TexasRailfan2008 LOL!!!!!!... i guess they had no choice huh... LOL

@timandelmo2096

2 жыл бұрын

N it happend jus like that too haha

@historyboy08

2 жыл бұрын

Government - "I hate Conrail! Hey, Norfolk Souther, you interested in it? Norfolk Southern - "sure we'll make payments to buy it off of you"

@jayo1212

Жыл бұрын

@@historyboy08 CSX - "Hey, no fair! Why do they get to have Conrail?! We want it, too!" Government - "Alright, CSX, you can have this 42% of Conrail, the rest goes to NS!" NS and CSX (begrudgingly) - "Fine!"

The equipment and infrastructure has gone to shit while management still continues to get raises.

@ohioandnortheastern

4 жыл бұрын

School in a nutshell

@richardkirka5977

3 жыл бұрын

"We have to pay top dollar to keep these people working for us. Otherwise someone will snap them up, and there is nobody else with those skills that we could hire from." Spoken by someone who plans to be promoted out of that job, or working for some other company within two years. And this attitude is common in most industries.

@caseyvanboxtel2279

3 жыл бұрын

Typical of politicians too

@chrisstromberg6527

3 жыл бұрын

@@douglasskaalrud6865 Unions had little to do with the failure. Look at the business case studies on this and see for yourself that this was a failed merger! I know it’s easier for you to just regurgitate political, anti-union sound bytes, but you look really uninformed when you do this!

@douglasskaalrud6865

3 жыл бұрын

Chris Stromberg I supervised in three different union shops. The first thing unions do in a failed situation like the PC debacle is to proclaim to the world that it’s not the union’s fault and if the world believes the union might have had something to do with the problem it’s because they’re some slick-sleeved management trainee who doesn’t know anything. Who is regurgitating what? I heard it for years from guys just like you and your ilk. Always someone else’s problem, always someone else’s fault. We’re not the problem-we’re perfect. It’s so much easier to point the finger than look in the mirror. Management gets all the money-we get nothing. The question stands: what were the union raises? Or don’t you want to talk about that?

My dad has a friend who worked for PC when he was young. He was telling us how some trains coming into the yard he worked rocked so much that the wheels were coming off the rail so only the very edge of the flange kept the cars on the track.

@jasonwhipp5721

5 жыл бұрын

That’s insane

@rogerrobertson2958

4 жыл бұрын

The DT&I RR had the same issues.

@David-yf5fo

2 жыл бұрын

I remember watching the same near the Collinwood yard just east of Cleveland. As an 8-years-old boy, I wondered how those rocking locomotives ever managed to stay on the tracks as they slowly passed through some switches. Apparently they didn't.

Do your cars keep coming off the track? Maybe you should model Penn Central!

@DaimosZ

6 жыл бұрын

If you have worn out HO track, it's great for modeling differed maintenance on Penn Central's branch lines

@trainfan4449

5 жыл бұрын

I model a.merged PC-Chessie(without the WM). Me and my friends used significant amounts of math to find out what lines to remove, how to destribute equipment, ext. It would be about 1980 that it would be a profitable company.

@modelrailpreservation

5 жыл бұрын

Crazy part is, for a model locomotive to run, it requires smoother trackwork than the PC had. Unless you go deadrail, battery powered models instead of track powered. Which, I suppose, has a fitting name if you use it to accurately depict some PC trackage.

@arkie74

5 жыл бұрын

its pretty easy to make sectional track look like the pc, cut in places and patch track so there are alot more joints. this will make the cars appear to be rocking. also carefully denting the rail heads. use different lengths of cars so none of the locomotive wheels never really come off the track causing power loss, and this makes the rocking look more realistic.and solder EVERY joint that way you never lose power.

@TexasRailfan2008

3 жыл бұрын

That’s me, my gg1 won’t stay on the track for the life of it

The Penn Central was a metaphor for how the whole country was doing in the early 1970s. I remember watching cars on the Penn Central pass by at grade crossings and the way they rocked from side to side vividly. And, I was only a pre-teen at that time. Most of those who made it through this in their prime and middle years and were much more cognizant of this unpleasantness than I are now dead. Few today would believe how bad it was and the very reason why we can have something like this again. There are thin margins between what what we take for granted today and something like this.

@kleenexbox974

Жыл бұрын

We're experiencing it again with Norfolk Southern

@DanTDMJace

9 ай бұрын

@@kleenexbox974It's starting

@KNR6292

8 ай бұрын

@@kleenexbox974 same all-black with white letters paint scheme too

My great grandpa worked on the Pennsy. He was a fireman. My grandma says that he would always be talking about his favorite engine, the K-4.

@trainknut

7 жыл бұрын

I'm more of a J1/M1 guy myself, gotta love the heavy haulers, but the K4s were damn fine too.

@Gfysimpletons

2 жыл бұрын

@@trainknut decapods we’re beasts

"So, what makes your new repair shops so superior compared to the old ones?" "Oh, now we have _roofs_ . And that's not all, we got walls, and even 'doors'. It's really the latest word in rail maintenance!" Pretty sad when that is the best improvement you can come up with. I guess 'repair shop' was more like a concept than an actual building. Then they built an actual _shop_ .

@saxongreen78

Жыл бұрын

Being a fettler or welder in a Dickensian, decrepit rail yard in _Pennsylvania_ in _1974_ (outdoors in the bloody snow) must have felt like one was being punished for the sins of a past life...an abject disgrace.

@MatthewKleczewski

2 ай бұрын

"You can shut out the weather."

Leasing came too late in the day. The PC was still a 19th century rail system in the 1970s.

@dknowles60

4 жыл бұрын

that was the PRR. the NYC has new track ctc new locomotives. only 40% of the PRR is around today

An astute observer will notice the facilities cited as in "good" condition were previously part of the New York Central while those in "bad" condition were formerly part of Pennsylvania and New Haven.

@Eric-zi1oz

8 жыл бұрын

+FATCAEU That is true and that would later influence the decisions by Conrail in the abandonment of most of the PRR system in Indiana and Ohio,.

@fwsauerteig

7 жыл бұрын

Interesting point. Id love to read more about this discrepancy. Is it the case that Penn brought the New York Centrall down with it?

@deloreanman14

7 жыл бұрын

The Central saw the writing on the wall that the way railroading had been before WWII was going away forever and at a very rapid rate and did their best to adapt. The PRR insisted on doing things the way it had always been done and refused to evolve. Just prior to the merger, a very telling quote came out from the presidents of the NYC and the PRR. The Central's president said, "We're in the transportation business" while the president of the PRR said, "We're in the railroad business." I doubt the NYC would have survived into modern times but they were in much better shape than the PRR was.

@billybrkich3647

6 жыл бұрын

something that the ICC would not let PCRR do

@dknowles60

4 жыл бұрын

@@billybrkich3647 wrong the PRR chose not to do

I appreciate how penn central was open about this. This actually saved all of the anthracite roads via conrail

Actually this is what is also going on today with our nations water pipes,roads and bridges, it's kick the can down the road let someone else handle it,problem is for decades no one is handling it.

@joshnielsen3148

8 жыл бұрын

your so right

@MilwaukeeF40C

8 жыл бұрын

+Carl Covington It can't be "handled". Too much was built and it all operates with the same kind of economic principle as a Soviet Union bakery.

@CarmineRC

8 жыл бұрын

+Bushrod Rust Johnson YOU'RE right. We need to stop the Socialist style politics that we have now, and get people more BULLISH in there... To actually get things DONE, instead of just smoke and mirrors!

@dancingwithczars

7 жыл бұрын

Don't blame socialism for the collapse of railroads. Pure capitalist greed of draining off profits instead of reinvesting in infrastructure killed them off. As for the rest of the U.S. infrastructure, you can't build anything if you don't tax the rich to help pay for it. That's why America is turning into a third-world country. You are witnessing the corrosive effect of capitalist greed.

@MilwaukeeF40C

7 жыл бұрын

dancingwithczars They didn't have anything to reinvest. Because the socialist government subsidized all their competition (roads).

This video is awesome. It preserves the historical Penn Central bankruptcy and helps me because I model April 1st, 1976.

@ConsolidatedRailFan

7 жыл бұрын

I wish I had that kind of commitment, I collect and run anything from 1970's to early 2000's from PC to CR, I would model CR through every era if I were able to

@hohobbyist1098

4 жыл бұрын

I model Fall of 1971, but definitely not a specific date. Wow.

@David-yf5fo

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, just pour a can of lighter fluid on your layout, set a match to it, and it will look very prototypical. The N&S 1073 in no way captures the true essence and heritage of the PC as well as India Railways does with no effort at all.

@QuadMochaMatti

Жыл бұрын

The Bicentennial year was kind of a joke after all, even if I didn't understand much of what it meant or what was going on at that time as a 4-year-old. Not sure what we were celebrating even now. Thankfully, I won't be around for the Tri/Tercentenial, as I'd be over 100 years old at that point. I'm not even sure if there'll still be a US around before I kick the bucket, well before then.

They should have switched to geico, the would save 15% or MORE!!!

@zombiefootsoldier2983

4 жыл бұрын

On car insurance, but nothing else

@kelvintorrence5994

4 жыл бұрын

They would have still ripped out the government which is us.

@minkendall940

3 жыл бұрын

😂

@leoross5777

3 жыл бұрын

@@kelvintorrence5994 ya know what GEICO stands for, dumas?

The irony of it all was PC was ahead of it's time. Their hopper and gondola and boxcars deteriorated a few years ahead of the American Oligarchs deciding to move our industrial production overseas. Now railroads are just containers from overseas.

9:01 The poor locomotive even sounds sad!

@russellgxy2905

8 жыл бұрын

+thetravinator9 I thought the same thing.

@IVR02

7 жыл бұрын

The world's most depressed locomotive.

@russellgxy2905

7 жыл бұрын

BikerBoyNJ Too bad audio meme don't exists the same way visual ones do. YOU KNOW A RAILROAD IS BAD 9:00 WHEN THE ENGINES THEMSELVES ARE SAD

@kelvintorrence5994

4 жыл бұрын

That's bad

@ohioandnortheastern

4 жыл бұрын

I DONT WANT TO BE APART OF PENN CENTRAL ANYMORE!!! SEND ME TO BALTIMORE AMD OHIO RAILWAY!!

Penn Centless or Penniless Central: Which do you prefer?

@DaimosZ

6 жыл бұрын

Trainzguy 2472 Penn Centless Rolls off the tongue better

@henrylombard-hughes6622

6 жыл бұрын

Penisless Central

@jasonwhipp5721

5 жыл бұрын

Both

@lorumipsum1129

4 жыл бұрын

Why not both? Penniless Centless.

@floridianrailauto9032

4 жыл бұрын

@@henrylombard-hughes6622 Kinky

Heart-wrenching to see a transportation network in this pitiful state.

@QuadMochaMatti

Жыл бұрын

Symbolic of the country as a whole, but far too many were just in denial. Maybe we shouldn't have spent so much money fighting the Soviets for 40-plus years when we could have finished them off in World War II, or helped put down the Bolsheviks in '17 - and we could have put all that money towards something that was worth defending in the end, instead of having a hollowed-out core of a nation and 4th world infrastructure system, like we still do now.

Thanks for posting this; it's certainly one of the best industrial films I've seen. Over the years I've read most of the seminal books on the PC disaster, but seeing this really puts them into perspective, especially the perspective of the folks who actually had to try and run that mess.

I like Penn Central. Just not the bankrupt Penn Central.

@victormaitland5249

9 жыл бұрын

I agree, it was a very interesting railroad, one that dominated 99% of NYC-Chicago passenger trains !

@66NEETS

9 жыл бұрын

HOLY FUCKING SHIT....THE CLIP AT 1:22 REMINDS ME OF THE MAUMEE AND WESTERN RAILROAD!WITH THE REALLY BAD TRACKS!That railroad needs to FUCKING get shut down and get the lines fixed,and sell it to NS..

@mikeytrains1

9 жыл бұрын

Freddy Fazbear You may be right!It reminds me of the Maumee and Western to...

@mikeytrains1

9 жыл бұрын

It's kind of hilarious watching the train cars bop around left and right and up and down at 8-10 MPH..

@mikeytrains1

7 жыл бұрын

***** Yeap..

Penn Central was the very epitome of the "Rust Belt" of the Northeast United States. Their livery looked cool, though.

@peterroeder1258

3 жыл бұрын

Their livery was literally black with a little white logo. It looked like it was designed by a overly-depressed artist

@Steamer04

3 жыл бұрын

That says alot

@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory

2 жыл бұрын

@@peterroeder1258 The logo has a lot of symbolism in it, it looks modern, and the black and white is striking.

Instead of convincing me to give them money, this convinces me they are the worst class l railroad in history.

Imagine creating a documentary for showing off how shitty your railroad is doing.

@burbank

3 жыл бұрын

I know it's simply amazing! I believe that this was a documentary meant to be presented to a congressional committee to get an understanding and make the pitch for a federal loan or potential bailout. That never happened. The government created Conrail as a separate corporation to clean up the savage mess. It said that a major US corporation would end up this way but that's what happens with a brutal cocktail of incompetence, mismanagement, overregulation, lack of investment, and changing external forces.

@russellgxy2905

2 жыл бұрын

I think that's the point. It's to appeal for federal assistance. The 60's and 70's were a point where the antiquated restrictions the ICC held over railroads were making holes and cracks in the industry.

@griffinrails

2 жыл бұрын

pretty sure that northern ireland railways did this once

@justforever96

2 жыл бұрын

Anything for that free money. They had a different video they showed to investors, presenting it as a lucrative, sure bet investment.

@definitely_notme4112

2 жыл бұрын

At this point, they were begging to be bailed out. They even said if they didn’t get funding they’d have to totally shut down, and that would shut down major parts of the northeast freight network. So the government bailed them out by forming Conrail.

Rock Island should have made a film like this.

@sodakrailroadproductions8561

9 жыл бұрын

Rick Covert The Milwaukee should have, too.

@DaimosZ

6 жыл бұрын

Milwaukee Road E75 The MKT also

@cehayes74

4 жыл бұрын

Rick Covert The Chicago Rock Island & Pacific would have been saved if the ICC allowed the Union Pacific to merger in 1964 but delayed it !!! They finally allowed them to merger in 1974 but U.P. wasn’t interested anymore !!!

@mikeytrains1

4 жыл бұрын

@@cehayes74 The UP was given the go ahead, the Rock only fucked itself by deferring simple maintenance to make its wallet look better. The UP just said they weren't interested after a while. Either way, a Rock Island HU on UP would be a kickass sight to see..

@cehayes74

4 жыл бұрын

FLNY Mike I can believe it !!!

3:32 Penn Central's freight car fleet has decreased rapidly since [REDACTED]

22:54 - 23:14 something about the Metroliner's pair of Leslie horns that sounded simply beautiful when they were both played in unison, AND working correctly.

@jackboerner1901

7 жыл бұрын

travelsonic yeah. I was like, "Good job, Penn Central. You did at least something right. Enjoy the rest of your spam".

@travelsonic

7 жыл бұрын

Amtrak, Southern Pacific & Coaster Productions Yeah, knowing what they originally sounded like kinda makes the KLA5 horns that Amtrak gave the Metroliners upon conversion into cab cars sound so... unfitting... hard to describe... not that the KLA5s are bad sounding at all, just ... they don't feel "at home" so to speak on Metroliners.

Looks like all class 1 railroads could use this as a refresher course because they are starting to resemble penn central in a lot of ways.

The NYC WLR was actually in decent shape in 1974 while everything PRR was left to degrade..

@dknowles60

4 жыл бұрын

the PRR had be degradeing since the end of WW2

Listen to your workers often, don’t focus on money and being greedy about it

@leoross5777

3 жыл бұрын

fuck these lazy b's they should have been ALL fired. every mothers son of them, instead they gave these useless eaters title 5 protection. then they COULDN'T lay them off or fire em

Fascinating in retrospect...thanks for posting.

The opening scene in the yard reminds me of my first HO model railroad...

I liked those 2 L&N units at 20:07!

@jmcf8673

7 жыл бұрын

C-630 C-628 1400 series, i saw these often. first trip to DeCouresy, I photoed 1400. tho, my favorites were the C-420s. esp the ex monon with the nose mounted bells.

In October of '71 my father, a friend and I visited Cedar Hill yard in New Haven. The same yardmaster, Mr. Frank Logie(sp) was gracious enough to take us around. Fast forward to the run-down condition of the yard not even 3 years later when this film was made... the deferred maintenance of track was a sickness, like cancer. Riding in the mud became commonplace, especially with the growing number of heavier cars. Thanks for uploading this well-made film. I imagine it got some in Congress to reconsider the PC in a different light.

@DrKO2453

7 жыл бұрын

Ah yes, "deferred" maintenance...when a Harlem Division train literally spread the rails apart outside of Philmont because the ties were in such rotten condition.

Interesting piece if history. Thanks for uploading this.

Bevan and Saunders had to keep a brave face on their situation specifically so that banks would continue to advance PC funds. Bevan did this so well that the DOT was actually surprised by the failure.

@highjumpstudios2384

2 жыл бұрын

Fraud's a wonderful thing innit.

@David-yf5fo

2 жыл бұрын

I don't know if they had faces born of bravery. Oblivious... yes, and a physiologically much less taxing way gain to yardage while screwing people and appearing as brave. That is how Batesian mimicry evolved.

Remember hanging out with my buddies on railroad tracks underneath the 19th St. bridge in Harrisburg Pennsylvania back in the early 70s and seeing the all black engines and some cars with the white letters on them PC. Every now and then you would still see a Reading Lines train being those tracks were the former Reading Lines. We had fun in those days!!

It's sad what happened to Penn Central, but Conrail was the Phoenix that roe from PC's ashes.

@lehighandnewengland

7 жыл бұрын

Conrail wouldn't survive just like the penn central if it wasn't for government subsidies

@trainknut

7 жыл бұрын

Conrail was literally a bailout railroad, once the government figured the east coast railroads could survive on their own, they split the Conrail system into equal parts for it's competitors and shut it down. In other words: "Of course it was government subsidized, you fool!"

@kenkemzura903

3 жыл бұрын

Very true. Conrail did become profitable after abandoning and selling off unprofitable marginal lines. The Staggers Act of 1980 helped made that possible. Once Conrail was profitable, the Federal government had Conrail split between Norfolk Southern and CSX.

@David-fm6go

2 жыл бұрын

@@kenkemzura903 Conrail was privatized ten years before the split. That being said Penn Central should have never existed and a divide similar to now should have happened with the NYC-B&O-C&O and the PRR-NW.

"Gota rob Peter to pay Paul..." Damn.

@jacklong8873

3 жыл бұрын

Foreshadowing to the band KISS

@AlwaysStayWorkin

3 жыл бұрын

@@jacklong8873 LMAO!!

This is like the real Island of Sodor with how many wrecks happen

@davidarturojaimes691

3 жыл бұрын

Penn Central have caused confusion and delay...

@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory

2 жыл бұрын

yeah but on Sodor the trains aren't clinically depressed though

This is a great movie; I read about it in Trains Magazine nearly 40 years ago and often wondered if it would ever appear 'in circulation'; thank you for sharing it....it was such a sad time in the history of American railroads......

@David-yf5fo

2 жыл бұрын

The whole country was like that and the Vietnam war was the cherry on top.

You could honestly say that by the late 60's and early 70's, rail travel had bottomed out. Nowhere to go but up from there, really. Heck, at the time of this video, other railroads were already making improvements! Amtrak was even gaining momentum! It still has a long way to go, but it has greatly improved!

I remember as a kid in 71 going to the Penn Central Livernois yard (Detroit) with my dad to the team track unloading box cars and watching locomotives pushing cars over the hump. Got a ride on a switcher during crew break. Good memories. Now a days the hump and bowl are gone, it's a Intermodel yard now.

Such a cool film even at forty plus year's old. Thank You for the post.

seriously sobering viewing, this. Am I alone in thinking that actually the most amazing thing is that they did stop the "downhill snowball" and even made it profitable enough to attract corporate buyers? The amount of deferred maintenance referred to is nothing short of stupefying. Ramshackle would be too kind a word, and yet they made it work again (eventually). Even in this, speaking as an Australian, I see the ol' school American can-do attitude: all it needed was a bit of proper resourcing from someone (in this case the government) with some money, who was then smart enough to back off and let the people do their work and be proud to do it. A rare thing, that.

@DaimosZ

4 жыл бұрын

Even that was bittersweet; The US Government decided that Penn Central was too far gone for it to give new funding since the amount of money in the red not only threatened Penn Central but almost all the surrounding coal lines and in 1976 the US Government conglomerated all these lines into Penn Central and formed Conrail, which became profitable and promptly privatized little over a decade later.

I came to watch this video because it's mentioned in Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor". Its amazing to see thé company’s issues on video!

You would have had to go back to 1956 and warn Eisenhower what a huge economic, social, and eclological mistake the Interstate Highway Bill would prove to be, for starters.

@kimobrien.

4 жыл бұрын

Trucks can never replace freight plus they pay road taxes that rail doesn't pay. Not building the Interstates would have been an even bigger mistake. The Interstates facilitate commerce. Not building them would have resulted in more highway deaths and a hodgepodge of state highway connections. It would be the same of not building lighthouses and even the original railroads themselves. .

00:53 to 01:21 was taken on the Petersburg secondary in Southern, Indiana that is now the ISRR.. The track today is in MUCH MUCH better condition..

@Mikey300

3 жыл бұрын

And the Petersburg Secondary was part of the NYC at the time of the merger, not the PRR. It terminated at the L&N (ex-C&EI) Wansford Yard on the north side of Evansville IN; and was originally built by a C&EI predecessor before it was sold to the NYC (probably the “Big Four” subsidiary). So, for all of you Alfred Perlman admirers out there, this was one line that even HE couldn’t see a reason for modernization before the merger.

Jeez, conditions were absolutley terrible

Rail freight is booming in the UK at the moment, making quite a resurgence, for exactly that reason, rising fuel prices, rail is more efficient for bulk loads running between railheads. I can't say your prediction can be borne by any current trend over here. I can't speak for the US of course.

One of my uncles worked for the New York Central. He seemed to have seen the writing on the wall and left before the PC disaster. He worked for the NYCTA (later MTA) running subway trains for over 15 years before retiring in the early 80s.

Spot on. To this day passenger rail doesn't turn a profit- before Amtrak the freight railroads were mandated to absorb their operations as a 'public service'. Just an example.

That video of the train swaying and twisting back and forth makes me feel ill. I can't imagine what that feels like from the cabin.

That film certainly inspires consumer confidence :-)

@BAS19.6

2 жыл бұрын

That ship had sailed by then

Be thankful that the government did step in by way of Conrail. The merging together of 2 bankrupt railroads only created a bigger bankrupt railroad. Penn Central was destined for failure from day one.

"I SAID RERAIL IT NOT DERAIL IT!!" - Penn Central

Good to hear they did preserve some things,thank you

LOL good ol Alcos. Smoke like a fiend....

Sadly, Penn Central did a lot of this to themselves. To begin with, they took 2-3 bankrupt railroads and tried to make it all work. The other reason is because they got to involved in other assets they were running. It's like they forgot they had a railroad until it just fell apart around 1970.

@dknowles60

4 жыл бұрын

only the PRR and new haven were bankrupt

The railroads are stronger than they ever were today.

This is hard to watch. Just a total EMBARRASSMENT of a company!.

@DavidAFishel

10 жыл бұрын

I lived through this era.....it was more than an embarrassment. It was criminal!!

@drby0788

10 жыл бұрын

Can u tell me about it a little. I'd love to hear your input

@MilwaukeeF40C

10 жыл бұрын

Penn Central was the logical outcome of centralized economic "planning" through regulation. Its like history repeats itself again and again and again and again.

@theoldar

10 жыл бұрын

Bushrod Rust Johnson Huh? Penn Central was a 100% private company. The government created Conrail out of the wreckage, and did a damn fine job of running it too.

@DavidAFishel

10 жыл бұрын

theoldar At first, the government did not so good of a job; it took many years for CR to grow into what was eventually split up between NS & CSX.. The PC was a privately held company that criminally deceived the US Government + investors. The PC Got away with millions of dollars that was "Granted to the Railroad" and "Pocketed by the cronnies. You are correct on both of your points - but - it took a while for CR to straighten out and become a contender.

"Well if I had to live my life over again, I wouldn't work for the railroad." Classic!

@DaimosZ

6 жыл бұрын

CG Todaro if he felt that way then why did he bother staying on

@JCarrollTV

4 жыл бұрын

Daimos Z railroad retirement

@gregleuze6657

2 жыл бұрын

@@DaimosZ Once you have 15/20 years invested in a job what else are you going to do? Start another career at 45/50 years old?

@DaimosZ

2 жыл бұрын

@@gregleuze6657 to be fair I wrote that comment years ago. I get now what he meant by that and I honestly feel bad for making that comment in hindsight given my recent struggles with finding a good, consistent employer that I didn't have back when I made that post.

@gregleuze6657

2 жыл бұрын

@@DaimosZ I wouldn’t feel bad, the eyes we see the world with change as we get older and gain experience. Unfortunately I feel the same way about my job.

Wow I knew it was bad back then but the video really brings it home !! Only saw pics in the train mags of the day but never brought it home like this !!! Its amazing Conrail saved it after a few years but they also got the $$$$$ needed to help. I know that major industry was hurting and the highway system/trucking hurt but am still amazed that two great RR (NYC/PRR) got in so much trouble in the 1960s to begin with !!???

@66NEETS

9 жыл бұрын

Mhm

@thenekom

8 жыл бұрын

+Ronnie Farnsworth Not just the $$$ to save it all, but sweeping changes in policy, such as allowing discounts for bulk customers which basically got us the unit trains we see today that power not only the big class I's, but also short lines serving major industries. Not to mention the right to abandon unprofitable track, much of which was later sucked up by new short lines and industrial switchers who figured out how to run short lines for a profit. It took the government running a railroad to figure out that "Wow our regulations are terrible, no wonder so many railroads failed!" And the rest is history.

@ronniefarnsworth8224

8 жыл бұрын

thenekom Yes I agree, great info. When I lived in MA. Providence & Worcester took over lot of old NH lines that no one thought could be saved , they have been strong since the 70's. I'm a life long B&M/MEC fan and Guilford messed it up for 20+years with Pan Am its better but I live in Exeter,NH on the mainline and with all the run-through power the the last 5yrs it looks more like NS or CSX !!! Damn shame ! For railfans & photos,engines,color and rolling stock with no graffiti I liked the 1960s - early 80s. I sound more like my Father everyday ! Lol rest his soul. Thanks for posting !

Honestly looks like they've had issues for years, long before the mergers. Trackbeds don't magically become mud over night, 30 year old rail doesn't suddenly appear, and cars don't deteriorate that badly in a week. This is from YEARS of Deferred Maintenance, like, probably a decade or more at the time.

@dknowles60

4 жыл бұрын

yes it was on the Prr side.

OMG Could you imagine if a locomotive made the same pollution today as in 8:50? The enviro-wackos would shut down the entire railroad industry!!! I'm glad locomotives are cleaner nowadays!

@kimobrien.

4 жыл бұрын

You really need to look at a city like Pittsburgh to see what industrial pollution looked like.

@waynerainey2606

4 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you're so happy with the increased cost of the cleaner locomotives. I myself would rather have a little smog than working myself to death just to eat, have you seen the price of food lately? In the end it's us that have to pay for all this green. I also notice the people screaming green this and green that becoming millionaires (at our expense)

@jayo1212

Жыл бұрын

@@waynerainey2606 I prefer to be able to breathe...

my granddaddy worked from fireman to Engineer on the southern railway from late 40's to late 70's, one of the few roads of the day that put in the physical plant reinvestment in the 50's and 60's and embraced multimodal early on, that allowed them to make it thru the 70's (pre- Norfolk Southern merger)

This has to be the most depressing train video that I have watched to date. Will have to read the History of the NY Central again. What a sad ending to a railroad with such a history.

Penn Central was doomed from the get-go and a terrible way for two once great railroads to die.

Good piece of railroad history

It's extremely sad to see that this is what became of three of America's rail pioneers. Penn Central was a failed attempt to put Pennsylvania RR, New York Central, and New Haven on life support. In their heyday these lines were the lifeblood of the northeast and great lakes regions, the gateway from the eastern seaboard to the midwest, and the roads that worked them were massively influential over the industrialization of the United States as a whole. People joke about how disastrous Penn Central was, but to see where it was at, and knowing what lofty heights its forebears reached, is just tragic.

Notice how all they facilities they say "WE upgraded them before we ran out of money." Were upgraded by the NH and NYC

My grandparents my great grandparents relatives and aunts and uncles all work for the Pennsylvania railroad and I myself cherish every insignia, every sign, and every single thing I see about the Pennsylvania railroad I cherish it. I love it and I always will. oh God I certainly wish you would come back it was the greatest or as they used to say, "Pennsylvania railroad the world standard". May God bless all those who worked and continue to work on the railroad today. 😇🙏😘😉👍

None of this saved the Penn.

@johnjablonski7638

6 жыл бұрын

because the NYC always wanted to destroy the PRR,,, in the end the jerk offs Fed them selves

@inewyorkcentralrr

4 жыл бұрын

john jablonski it’s not the point of NYC hates PRR and vice versa. It came down to the fact that both wanted to make profits at a time where the Car Companies were starting to take a strangle hold on local metropolitan transit. Car companies bought out trolley companies and replaced them with bus lines. Like, you’re not wrong about the hatred between NYC and PRR, but by the time they merged, it was mostly gone and this was seen as the best option rather than have two railroads collapse simultaneously.

3:41 so that’s how gondolas are made 🤣

I recall seeing Penn Central trains rolling through my town of Laporte, IN as a kid and then suddenly there were blue Conrail locomotives pulling everything. I remember my Dad saying the the government just couldn't allow the freight in the country to stop. I was about 10 when Conrail appeared. I was too young to know how BAD of condition the tracks were in. Laporte is on the double-track mainline from Chicago so it's possible that this section was not as bad as many others but IDK for sure.

@dknowles60

7 ай бұрын

that track was always in good shape, its Ex NYC 90% of the Problems were on the Prr side

Pennsy preserved more than could be expected now displayed in the Strasburg I believe. I got to see it as a kid and it was great along with all things Altoona.

24:27 - Every time I watch this I think "LBJ didn't die in 1973, he got a job on Penn Central".

Several improvements I see that can be done to fix this railroad.

This was very interesting!!!!👍,👍👍👍

I remember when clips of this film were shown on the evening national news. I believe I saw it on ABC. The moment about 20:19 is what stands out in my memory.

This video showed what made Penn Central so great (being sarcastic).

The only thing that never changes is the dividend to shareholders....

I'm trying to decide which was the bigger disaster. My last relationship.. or... the PC. Hmmm.

@irish89055

3 жыл бұрын

😂

@brianbooher7318

3 жыл бұрын

This rivals my last 5 relationships they suckd me dry then sucked me for a lil more then gone

The main reason the , PC went bankrupt was the additional roads they had to include in the merger and gov regulations.😢

ARS 16= wannabe steam loco.. LOL

@Thej611

10 жыл бұрын

lol so true

@Pillowbiter84

4 жыл бұрын

ARS-1600=Alco Road Switcher, 1600Hp

I grew up in the sweet spot... when I reached the age where little kids first see trains and become captivated, the Penn Central was in the middle of its existence. It's a shame they couldn't make it work, but seriously - merging two superannuated railroads with similar trackage patterns was never going to succeed. Without seriously creative rethinking - which PC had some of, but not enough - and an avalanche of bailout cash, this railroad was doomed. Sad, because their cars were a favorite for me as a kid, invoking the industrial North as I grew up in the emerging South. I will always miss the Penn Central.

@David-yf5fo

2 жыл бұрын

I am probably close to the same age as you, maybe a little older, and was living in "the mistake on the lake" in the early 1970s. Do you miss the bleached green boxes adorned with the white love worm logos or are you just missing your childhood? I miss neither.

This is why the Steggers Act of 1980 so helped Conrail get out of the mess shown in this movie.

@stereoplayers

3 ай бұрын

And, was a (in fact, the only one) bailout that worked!

I wish I had grown up during thi time, my home road is the KCS. and I remember all the way into the early 80s, the rails were bad. I remember the trains rocking to the point cars would start backing away from the crossings! I once saw the end of a coal train that had a Burlington northern caboose, as it rounded a slight curve through the middle of Stilwell Ok. I saw 9 cars and the caboose over turn but not the caboose, it almost did, but it didnt. one guy up in the cupula got throwed out against the door on the end, and knocked out. but 9 cars of coal right in front me! wow. It was only a few months before they installed welded rail, and the end of cabooses. no more wrecks due to bad track. there were other bad derailments, but not due to track conditions.

@zeeteavathepipe3184

3 жыл бұрын

When thing started to improve?

@arkie74

Жыл бұрын

@@zeeteavathepipe3184 just a few months later, they got rid of cabooses, and installed constant welded rails.

The morrisville pa shops musta been legendary

I hope they stay strong too. Passenger service is also improving. The Northeast Corridor is making healthy profits not seen in 90 years, and with the hassle that air travel is becoming, people would rather take trains to regional destinations. Freight railroads are redoing 100 year old tunnels and bridges, buying locos and cars, not to mention the new shortline boom. Now my only wish is that the railroads would restore lines abandoned back in the 70/80s, if a profit is there of course.

"Look at how terrible we are at being a railroad. Now give us some money!"

@warrenash5370

3 жыл бұрын

Perhps the government should have thought about the wear and tear of the Eastern railroads after the increased traffic of WWII just wore out the railroads. The government spent money on highways and airports. The railroads were left to rot.

@povertyspec9651

3 жыл бұрын

@@warrenash5370 Every single thing you buy at your local Wal-Mart, Costco, grocery store, etc. gets there by highway. Some of the stuff gets there by rail for a portion of the trip, but 100% always gets there by highway.

@gonzoengineering4894

8 ай бұрын

​@@povertyspec9651 Because the railroads were left to rot

nice! worth my time

Actually, passenger railroads will never disappear either! Not as long as there are congested highways and a desire for a smooth ride!

Yes, I remember that book. Very thick and full of good info, including the reports of corruption and job featherbedding. Shady dealing from management and union officials, sad to say.

And now we have Precision Scheduled Railroading and just as far the other direction. The Railroad Companies are ruled by Wall Street! The Customer lost back then, and they still lose today!