I have a few general questions re the NY Central and the PRR
1. I am trying to find the Historical Societies of these RR and I found their addresses in a Kalmback publication. I think I wrote them a few years ago but they never responded. Where can I really get good info on these railroads…I am particularly interested in the mainlines, facilities and PHOTOS OF THE PASSENGER STATIONS on the B’Way Ltd and 20th Century. I have Ball’s book on the PRR during the 40’s and 50’s (very good but not much in the way of station photos and yards, coaling, turntables etc.). I also have Solomon’s Book on the NY Central…again, very good but a little short of the photo info I was looking for.
2. I believe the NY Central had a 4 track mainline from Albany to somewhere in Ohio (which was like the only RR that had such a massive Mainline for so long a distance) then ran a 2 track mainline until Indiana, where it entered the 4 track “Race” into Chicago’s LaSalle St Station…OR SOMETHING like that. Can anyone give me a more accurate general overview on this and also the PRR Mainline ?
Rather than write the historical societies, you need to join them and get their publications. Both the NYC and PRR have active historical societies. Since you have asked such a very broad question I doubt they will answer it because they probably don’t have the thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours it would take to research and provide you with information on such a broad area.
The PRR historical society has issues of Keystone Modeler on line as free downloads.
Other than that buy an RMC or a Trains magazine and look at the book sellers to see what books you can buy on either railroad.
For passenger stations – go to Trainweb and backtrack on the URL or change the city name in the URL. Here’s my hometown Johnstown Amtrak Station (on the cross-PA – PRR mainline) at Trainweb, and an example for Harrisburg – with tons of pictures to boot!
P.S.: At the bottom of each webpage, the current webpage train station is “sandwiched between” the prior and next train station.
For more information on the PRR than you can possibly need, check out Jerry Britton’s Keystone Crossings website. A vast and deep repository of resources.
In answer to #2. You are talking about the NYC “Water Level Route” which the “20th Century Limited” (& other NYC trains) used from Grand Central Station, in New York City. It ran along the east side of the Hudson River, north to Albany. Then, west to Chicago. Amtrak now operates the “Lake Shore Limited” daily, (only from Penn Station now) over the same trackage. If you go to the Amtrak website, you can view the route, & timetable. As far as I know, the PRR ran the “Broadway Limited” (so named because of their 4-track main, (not the NY City street!) from Penn Station west (under the Hudson River) & thru Pennsyvania (Harrisburg) to Chicago. The two railroads competed, to see who could get from NYC, to Chicago, the fastest! My money was on the New York Central!
Yeah, well both of you took my New York, New Haven, and Hartford down with you.
Seriously, though, you might look at Rush Loving Jr.'s “The Men Who Loved Trains”. At the risk over oversimplifying a complex issue (Loving does a better job of elaborating), his belief is that while the Pennsy had better plant and equipment, and may have been in better financial shape, it was the Pennsy’s stodgy and conservative management, coupled with the courts direction to further absorb other distressed railroads (like the New Haven) which ultimately doomed the PC “partnership.”
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! I do hope you had your tongue-in-your-cheek when you made this statement.
As A.E.Perlman said, PennCentral was less a merger than it was an acquistion (of New York Central by the Pennsylvania RR.) In the opinion of many–including a college professor-railfan of mine–the Board of Directors of the new PennCentral made a crucial and ultimately disasterous decision when it put Stuart Sanders in as CEO instead of Perlman. PennCentral could probably–and this will probably always be conjectural–have survived had it had Perlman’s and the Central’s superior management skills to guide it into the future with a policy of reducing operating overhead which was absolutely essential in keeping it afloat.
It was really a combination of things that doomed the Eastern railroads. Freight rates controlled by the ICC., The railroads never fully recovered from WW2 with the capital to renew existing physical plant., Competition by the trucking industry., Bad management.,and others were all contributing factors of the fallen flags.
It seems that railroads were doing a better job of making money when rail road people ran them. Then along comes the business man CEO types with little or no rail road experience and then bankrupt. A very good example is Baldwin Locomotive works.
Any of the sources mentioned above should provide some of what you are looking for.
Just for your information, the NYC Depot in Elyria, Ohio is still standing. Externally it looks much like it did when the Central built it. The local transportation authority has begun restoration of the building which was once the most elaborate NYC Depot between Buffalo and Chicago.l
If I can get past the snow piles, I’ll post a couple of pictures for you.
Boy you can say that again. There is a brilliant photo caption in the book “New Haven Power” by J.W. Swanberg.
To paraphrase, it says, "Two of the greatest disasters to befall the New Haven: Flood Damage in 1955 and Patrick B. McGinnis. While his “new and improved” paint scheme grows on you (and is used today by Metro North and Shore Line East as a tribute livery), in less than two years, his quest for cash ruined the New Haven.
Again, it is purely speculative, but the New Haven might also have survived were it not for McGinnis’s tenure as president.