Excuse the warning, but I know that some people only like sunny and bright topics. If that’s you then skip the below stuff.
Ever since I’ve enjoyed trains, the track has been ripped up everywhere, trains (especially passenger) all over have been discontinued. It’s like the whole scene is dying a slow and protracted death. What is REALLY depressing is when I look at old maps and stuff and see how much stuff was around—track and industries everywhere. Roundhouses, belt yards, crossovers, it’s stuff that I never really got to see that often and now never will.
What I’m basically saying is that I sorta wish that I never had any knowledge beyond what the average person has about trains and stayed stuck to mainstream hobbies like watching football and /or drinking beer or listening to crappy music.
I would have been much better off if I had simply followed what the media says your hobbies should be, then I’d be completely ingorant to what has happened to the rails.
Ignorance is bliss. Everytime I see another track getting ripped up I wish I never noticed or payed attention to the trains at all [sigh]
Progress means change. I hate the loss of many of the things from years ago, but when you move forward, you consolidate and usually make things better. Rails and industries are gone because they became obsolete. Things done with paper and pencil are now done on this item I am using right now. In this case, progress has changed the entire world.
Don’t lament the losses; instead celebrate the gains. The world will never wait for us if we don’t keep moving forward.
Ahhh, wasn’t the real sin of Adam and Eve that they ate from the tree of knowledge?
Ignorance is bliss.
But, I think you may be looking at it all, wrong. Be happy for the railroads for learning better ways to get their jobs done, even if that does mean consolidation, rationalization, and merger to reap efficiencies. Which is better for the railroads, to have dozens and dozens of smaller, weak class ones…or to have a handful of strong, healthy ones?
I am very much inclined to agree with what Richard said. My hometown, Sioux Falls, South Dakota was once served by five different railroads; Chicago & Northwestern, Great Northern, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road and the Rock Island. Today there is very little evidence that any of these roads had existed in my community. We do have the old Rock Island passenger depot, but the trackage around it was torn up many, many years ago. There were three different restuarants in this building since then, and all of them failed and went out of business. And where the Rock Island once had a pretty good sized yard, there is now a large group of apartment buildings, and I would bet you that the residents of these apartments are totally ignorant of what had once been in the place of where they are currently living.
Today we have the BNSF operating in and out of Sioux Falls, and we have a short line, the Ellis & Eastern, which is owned by Concrete Materials, and operates over a small portion of what had once been part of the Rock Island’s mainline through Sioux Falls. We also have the Dakota & Iowa which runs through Sioux Falls on it’s way to Sioux City, Iowa, and that’s all we have. In downtown Sioux Falls we have a seven-story building which once housed the regional offices of the Rock Island, and may have also served as a freight depot, and I think a lot of people in this community are totally ignorant of it’s history.
And the City of Sioux Falls would like to force the BNSF to relocate all their yard trackage in downtown Sioux Falls in an effort to “esthetically beautify” the downtown area. If this is not an absurdity, I don’t know what is.
We all are sorry to see things disappear and lament the loss of what was in the past, be it railroads themselves or facilities. Most of the lines by me, even here in the New York City area (north Jersey to be precise), are gone or became mostly commuter lines. It’s nice to think of the golden age of railroads in the past but things do change with necessity. Plus, railroads have actually made a comeback with such innovations as double-stacks and other areas. Some lines are busier than ever while others are dormant, but I believe there is a long future ahead for our favorite industry and will be at trackside as often as I can anyway.
I don’t think the topic here is negative so much as introspective. It makes for an interesting discussion on both sides.
I would venture that you live somewhere east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio Valley. That seems to be about the only area where railroads may be disappearing in the way you describe. And I would venture a guess that railroads aren’t the only thing disappearing in your neck of the woods.
Unfortunately, your “rail awareness” appears to be myopic, or perhaps misguided. I see tracks being built, systems being upgraded, new power, new equipment, new control systems. Does this sound like a dying industry? It sounds like you need to visit someplace where railroads are doing the job they were meant to. Take a trip! Just read these Forums–and the Newswire, if you’re a Trains subscriber. Expand your awareness! You have a lot of people right around here who are willing and able to help.
Passenger service dying? That’s so 1970s! You still hear reports of passenger systems not getting enough money–at the same time (and sometimes in the same sentence) as reports that ridership is at record levels. You hear of some misguided political types wanting to reduce spending on passenger rail and transit–but at the same time you hear cries for new services to be started, or existing services expanded. If politicians reflect the feelings of their constituents (that’s a big “if”), are you going to push for more, or bemoan what should be here but isn’t?
Freight railroads are reporting increases in income all the time. This isn’t all inflation, or due to rates increased out of proportion. It is being accomplished in the face of higher fuel prices, and covers all of the major railroads. Again, look at the reports of double-tracking, triple-tracking, or even quadruple-tracking of lines. The quadruple tracking is taking place in the middle of Wyoming, where a railroad didn’t even exist 25 years ago!
I really understand the feelings of your situation, however; I must say I have good memories of what I’ve seen and I’m glad to have seen what I remember. (does that make any sense?)
Part of enjoying trains is being nostalgic. Maybe we should be happy it happened at all. And new stuff can be fun too! I love the street cars in Portland, OR
That does make sense, Schmalz. Funny that this should be a topic after I had just seen a coal train this afternoon that was quite interesting. Hoppers, no coal cars. Old ones, C&NW green and yellow with herald and reporting marks, D&RGW, black with speed lettering, MoPac with screaming Eagle and Mopac with Misouri Pacific Lines within the buzz saw, UP cars of all varieties. All with original reporting marks and some BN. One of the locomotives was an SP grey and red, which was clean. Sure, the paint was faded and there was a yellow panel on the cab with a UP number, but so what? At least the speed lettering was readable.
Maybe they’re running short in Powder Valley, but this was sure a show. I usually don’t even turn my head to see a coal train.
I go back to the steam days and they weren’t all that thrilling. Try living in a house where nothing escapes the powdered ashes of the coal smoke and the house and windows rattle when the express goes through. The only thing I miss is the old steam whistle, and there are a lot of recordings of those. Besides, I’m getting deaf in my old age.
Best to enjoy what you have and you can be nostalgic for it later.
Richard, I agree with most of those who have replied to you. Don’t look back, look forward. Yes there are many fallen flags, but the mega railroad systems that remain are stronger than ever. They are hauling more traffic, and they are spending more money on upgrading their infrastructure. Just think of the Union Pacific double tracking part of the Sunset Route, and triple tracking their line east of North Platte, NE. Think of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe double tracking their “Transcon.”
Change is inevitable, but change can also mean a recasting. Think of public transit where streetcars, light rail, or call them what you will, are making a comeback in many cities. While I don’t expect to see the likes of interurbans come back like the Pacific Electric, the Lehigh Valley Transit, or “Roaring Elgin” there is no doubt that street cars once written of as ancient and obsolete are returning in many cities.
What about preservation? This is important, and there are many museums and some tourist lines that are doing a good job of preserving all kinds of railroad equipment. It would have been nice if one of everything could have been preserved, but that’s not the way things happen.
I feel the same way sometimes as you do…However,like a friend told me, someday what is new now will be old, and if we’re still here we’ll be telling the younger set “thats not the way it used to be”…Locomotives of today will look as antique as a steam engine looks today to us but there is beaty in a steam engine just like there will be in a 20 yr old SD70 ACE…I dont think I’ll be here in 30,40,or 50 yrs to compare them as Im now nearly 60…
Yeah, Richard, I hear you, too. I still like to watch the action on the lines that are still left and busier than before. I thrill to the new streetcar lines and second tracks and double stacks and mainlines stuffed to capacity…
But I do miss the branch lines, the locals, the myriad passenger trains, the dozens of Class I’s. I wonder “what might have been” if only-oh, take you pick: PC never happened (or needed to), the RI-UP merger went through in time, SP-SF didn’t end up with a Southern Pacific stripped of so many assets. Little stuff like what if the GB&W was merged with BN to big stuff like what if the Interstate Highway system was vetoed as an expensive boondoggle.
I think just about anyone has to have a touch of melancholy in their RR memories somewhere.
take pictures while you can.some railroads haven’t learned from history and are now paying for it by adding capacity. everyone needs a hobby. its something matt and I can do together.
Imagine being a person interested in trains, or a professional railroader, from the 1895 era suddenly being transformed to the so called golden age transition era 1947-1957. They’d be similarly unhappy:
Far less track. (Reached its peak around 1920 or so)
Fewer rail facilities. (No more small town water tanks and coaling towers)
Fewer passenger trains. (Even small branches had passenger trains before the auto and before the paved road)
Many industries no longer served by rail. (The 28 foot and 36 foot boxcar could serve a smaller factory and even a tiny factory that these days would be too small for truck service had no truck alternative).
Much less infrastructure.
Equipment less colorful, less varied, no more gorgeous billboard reefers or varnished wood passenger cars.
At least here in Maine things are on a clear up-swing. Lines are being rehabilitated and reopened. Passenger service is being restored. The State is actively seeking customers for a reopened Mountain Division.
Progress is always change, but change is not always progress.
Since the opposite of pro is con, is the opposite of progress congress?
Buddhism teaches us (in the Four Noble Truths) that much of humanity’s suffering is due to the unwillingness to accept and embrace change.
According to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), these are
“the noble truth that is suffering”
“the noble truth that is the arising of suffering”
“the noble truth that is the end of suffering”
“the noble truth that is the way leading to the end of suffering”
According to the scriptures, the Four Noble Truths were among the topics of the first sermon given by the Buddha after his enlightenment, which was given to the five ascetics with whom he had practised austerities. The early teaching and the traditional understanding in the Theravada is that these are an advanced teaching for those who are ready for them.
As diesel costs rise, long distance road traffic will decline, wheres all that traffic going to go? Road trucks can’t electrify, where railroads always have that option.
I’ve beleived for years that some degree of electrification is inevitable in this country, afterall a stationary power plant is far easier to plan in and control fuel usage (coal, nuke, or nat gas) and emmision controls, than a million rolling diesel engines of varying efficiencies.
Gasoline may hit $5 a gallon this year and it might hit as high as $8 in the coming years, If so, what happens if diesel hits $10 a gallon, were not going to just stop and crawl under our blankets and cry. Commerce will still go on, but at which point do we reach a tipping point when electrification with stationary power plants becomes a more cost effective than the traditional dismal. Same is true for the car, did you hear GM is closing 4 truck/SUV factories and is looking to sell off the Hummer brand? Even GM can smell the coffee.
While I certainly don’t regret becoming a railfan or “rail aware” (heck, now I EVEN work for the CPRS), the time during my growing-up years (late 60’s thru the 70’s; graduated from H.S. in '79) was filled with a lot of disappointments and heartaches; especially in my home area of northeast Iowa. The Milwaukee Road branchline that went through my hometown of Edgewood was torn up in 1977 north of Hopkinton (man, when I saw those vehicles and machines in town taking up track and all the other stuff, it was like someone taking a knife to me). And it wasn’t all just branchline stuff either. First, the “Cities” streamliner passenger trains that the Milwaukee Road handled between Chicago and Omaha became a victim of Amtrak’s coming on May 1, 1971. Then, the MILW’s mainline between Green Island and Tama went on the chopping block. The CGW mainline that ran north of Manchester has been long gone; only pix and memories remain.
And yet, oddly enough, some very good things have happened since my H.S. years. The Milwaukee Road’s mainline between Samoa (Sabula) and River Junction (La Crescent, MN.) along the Mississippi River; specifically the segment between Marquette and River Jct., was saved from abandonment in early 1981 and upgraded substantially. It is doing just fine today, thank you, and is primed to become an important link when CP gets the nod from the STB to take over the DME/ICE. The Illinois Central Gulf’s Iowa Division that precipitously went to hell under ICG auspicies between the late 70’s and early 80’s underwent an metamorphosis under Jack Haley’s Chicago Central and now today is a vital part of my employer’s chief competitor, the CN. So while I’ve experienced my share of heartaches over the years, I’ve seen some very good things happen as well.
Where i live in Ohio since the mid 60s we have “lost” 2 rail yards whithin 2 miles of each other. And at least 1 more on the other side of town. Not to mention some industrial tracks and sidings. I have always read that rails were over built to begin with so i guess it should not be surprising. It seems odd to me to see a switch crew working with one person on the ground. When i was working in the 80s it was 3 or even 5 man crews. But i still enjoy my hobby for the most part. Time marches on i guess!