Got my Model Railroader. Trains is still a no-show here, too.
I would opine that the lists in the 75th anniversary issue of TRAINS were intended as a starting point for conversations and discussions rather than serve as something definitive. They are similar to the various “100 Best” lists put out by the American Film Institute from time to time. The AFI has said that these lists are intended to stimulate discussion about movies. The TRAINS lists may well be serving a similar purpose.
Okay then, do you agree that Ricky Gates has made a more significant contribution to railroading than… James J Hill?..Than Colis P Huntington?..Than Herman H Pevler? …Jay Gould and the Commodore?
They fostered the robber baron business of railroading. Gates fostered drug testing for the rank and file of railroad employees.
It was a great issue, Jim and thanks to you and the others for putting it together. I enjoyed the 75 people and 75 places. My Dad did know Lou Menk when he was President of Frisco, Mom said he came back when BN took over but not in the way anyone expected. Dad was dead by then and didn’t have to see the beloved Frisco name removed from the yard office where he worked.
I wish I could be at the 75th party, but had too many other things going, but I am sure you will have coverage in a future magazine and look forward to that.
Pevler was no robber barron.
In my opinion the list is too heavy on CEOs, remarkably absent of rail transit types like George Krambles, and has at least one ho hum type that I’m hard pressed to point to anyway the industry is different due to his involvement and I can think of many folks that had impact not on the list.
James J. Hill, Jay Gould, Vanderbuilt, etc. were not around 75 years ago, and the Trains article specifically says that this list of theirs only covers people who lived in the past 75 years who “shaped railroading”.
My personal amusement was to see Patrick B. McGinnis make the list. He did save the old Norfolk Southern, which gave him the idea to try to do the same for the New Haven and the Boston & Maine. He proposed radical new services and deferred maintainance to increase the bottom line. It didn’t work, and he ended up in jail eventually after getting kickbacks on the B&M. But he did leave both railroads with an iconic new image, one of which is still being used in revenue service (by ConnDOT) some 46 years after the NH disappeared.
Paul A. Cutler III
Great issue. The article on the German hydrogen fuel cell powered trains really took me by surprise.
Whoa, Nelly!!! On your 1940-2015 Timeline, you missed (a big) one in 1957 (pg. 45). On the morning of Tuesday, August 27, 1957, locomotive no. 3780, of the 3776-class 4-8-4, Baldwin L.W. class of 1941, made the last steam locomotive revenue movement, in helper service, between Belen and Mountainaire, New Mexico on the Atchison, Topeka, and SANTA FE Railway.
OUCH! That hurt all two (2) of us Santa Fe fans. Santa Fe saved two of the 1927 3751-class (3751, 3759), one of the 3765-class (3765), and six of the wartime 2900-class 4-8-4 Northern type engines, but not one of the 1941, but not one of the 3776-class locomotives. Except for the 2900s, These engines made the longest ( Kansas City - Los Angeles, 1765 miles), and second longest, (LaJunta - Los Angeles, 1234 miles) steam locomotive runs in the nation. The 1938-41 rebuilt (Albq.) 3751s were assigned to Nos. 23-24, “The Grand Canyon Limited”, the 3765s and 3776s handled Nos. 7-8 and Nos. 19-20, The “Fast Mail-Express”, and “The Chief”, repectively.
Santa Fe jumped the gun in 1954 when they went on Kansas City TV with five engines side-by-side announcing that the AT&SF was dieselized. True, no steam ran in 1955, but a number of 5021-class 2-10-4s and some 2900 and 3776-class engines were in summer helper service in Abo Canyon in 1956 and 1957. Six weeks later the world heard the ‘beep-beep-beep’ of ‘Sputnik’ and the S,pace Age.
I guess that the listing of 75 names we must know should be regarded in much the same context as the Baseball Hall of Fame. Membership is not necessarily awarded on the basis of excellence in performance alone. Popularity (and political correctness) are certainly a factor.
This issue wasn’t quite the classic that I had hoped it would be, but I can’t stop thinking about that Lackawanna HH660 and how nice she’d look on the turntable lead next to Lackawanna #426 at Steamtown.
Anyone aware of any activity to preserve her?
Have you tried Railpub.