I could use a little bit of help with a project I’m doing at school. For speech class, I’m doing an informative speech and I decided to do the history of train travel as my topic. I’ve decided that my thesis statement will be: In this day of incredibly fast plane and automobile travel, I would like to tell you about the climax ofrail travel, the decline of passenger trains, and rail travel today. (My three main points are in bold). It’s not a perfect thesis statment, but this is only the rough draft I’m working on.
I was wondering if anyone could give me some good web sites to look at, especially for the first two points. Google has brought up more Wikipedia articles than anything, and I’ve learned to never trust what I find on Wikipedia.
I’m not asking for anyone to do the speech for me, I know that’s my job, but I would like some sites to get me started. Once I’m all finished (which will be about a week from now) I’ll post it on here.
…What an interesting theme for your talk Willy…I’d bet you will do a great job of it too. I believe if you can locate the proper sites on here in Google or some other search engine you will find lots of good info and with your interest in the RR’s you will be able to sort it out.
Certainly some articles of passenger train operations I’d be looking for would be: Sante fe, Pennsylvania, NYC System and perhaps Great Northern as some of the stand outs…
I found this Web site to have interesting insights http://www.lafn.org/~dave/trans/energy/index.html. The reason that energy requirements for passenger transportation have greatly increased is not such much that cars are that much less energy efficient than trains (modern cars are definitely more energy efficient than both early 1900’s electric and steam railways owing to the low thermal efficiency of steam powerplants of that day, both directly on the steam locomotive and in the coal-fired steam electric power plant, and modern cars are not that much less energy efficient than modern trains owing to the weight, aerodynamics, and seating density and load factors of trains). What is happening is that with cars, people move around a lot more than in the days when trains were the primary mode of transportation. This site is primarily about energy usage, but it maps out the rise and decline of passenger trains as well.
Willy, I’m not sure “climax” is the word you’re looking for here, though I can’t suggest a substitute for it at the moment.
You probably need only go back as far as World War II (I was about to say “only as far back”, but I realize how long ago that must seem to you–probably worse than World War I to me!) to capture the glory days of passenger service, when trains still ran nearly everywhere, new equipment was giving them a facelift, and people could still enjoy travel on railroads who really cared about it.
After that time, you had passenger airlines, the Interstate Highway System, and the end of Railway Mail Service, all of which contributed to the decline.
Back in the 1950s, Trains devoted an entire issue to the subject of “Who Shot the Passenger Train”–and that was probably even before it was really shot!
Somewhere there must be passenger-mile statistics you can look up to show the decline. You needn’t go much further than your city’s two major railroads to give impressive descriptions of the trains in the “good old days”–both railroads did a good job, and advertised their services in the media (mostly print) of the day.
I’m afraid that comparing Amtrak to those older trains (both where they go and quality of service) is going to be an exercise in disappointment for you.
I’ll be happy to help further if I can–you know where to find me!
Wikipedia is a wonderful resource, no doubt, fascinating even. But there are writers on there who give opinion as fact or others who are, unfortunately, just plain wrong. Most colleges and some high schools have made policies that Wikipedia can not be quoted, but only referenced to as a secondary source, as you would quote an encyclopedia. It can not be used as a primary source of information when researching papers for school. Like any research for a paper, statements have to be backed by primary sources to be considered legit.
Carl: Kinda tough after the marketing people, the media and the current lexicon?
Acme (Wylie Coyote, Genius-Esq)
Pinnacle (CNN/MSNBC - bad spelling is an insurance outfit)
Zenith (Oh well - that one may have died off like RCA to Willy’s generation)
…how about “when they led the industry in their day”? …and he ought to go back and revisit what conditions on the early trains/ immigrant trains were like…
ps- Wikipedia many days comes out “Wonkypedia”[:D]
Personally, I like zenith, but considering my class, I doubt anyone else would know what it means. I’ll probably go with your suggestion of “when they led the industry in their day”, or something similar.
Carl - I know that comparing passenger trains in their glory days to Amtrak today is going to be disappointing, but I do want to tell the facts.
I don’t really have anything against Wikipedia, but my teachers have pounded it into our heads that Wikipedia should rarely, or never be used for anything.
How about just plain old “peak”? I seem to have misplaced my trusty Thesaurus, so that’s the best I can do. Another excellent source of reference information- head over to the Trackside Guides side of the forum and ping Dale (nanaimo73) in one of his voluminous threads- plus I believe there’s at least a couple of his topics that will mesh quite well with what you’re looking for!
American passenger trains: Their finest hour,their decline, and rail travel today.
Start with the “high tide” of American passenger trains during WW II. Follow the story, as the transportation habits of the country change. End with an overview of today’s passenger trains “now” verses “then”.
…Consider the WWII era of passenger trains and how they served the nation at the critical time of war…Everything that would and could be moved as far as equipment, was put to work…Probably one of the railroads finest hour…Moving military folks and civilians helped in a major way to win the war…
Thanks to everyone for getting me started. I already have a pretty decent introduction and conclusion put together, now all I have to do is find the facts and put them together into a speech. I’ve got until next Tuesday, so I think I’ll take it slow and steady and really put some thought into it over the next couple of days and I will certainly use the World War II ideas.
My reference suggested that the peak of passenger trains was in the 1920’s.
That the 1930’s represented a decline could be attributed to the Great Depression, but after the 1920’s, passenger rail was no longer a growth industry while automobiles were.
The WW-II years are an anomoly. Yes, WW-II represented the railroads’ Finest Hour inasmuch as they served the war effort in a time of mobilization and gas rationing.
But the War was a time of full employment in contrast with the Depression that preceded it, and many thinkers reflect that too bad that it took a general war to bring about full employment and such a wide degree of social cooperation and sense of common purpose, couldn’t the government do a similar thing without a war to bring about the same effect – government public works and infrastructure spending to bring about full employment, gas rationing or at least strong gasoline taxes to get people to do the socially responsible thing of riding trains instead of the selfish thing of consuming gas in individual cars?
The problem with the positive social effects of WW-II on the homefront is that apart from the death-and-destruction-and-casualties side to the war, some of the economic effects were not sustainable. The railroads had suffered a deficit of investment in things like Diesel locomotives and modern air-conditioned passenger cars in the 30’s, and we went to war with the passenger train infrastructure we had, not the one we wish we had. People rode the trains because they had to not because they were particularly fond of riding trains. Coupled with the extreme crowding of the trains (probably much like modern air travel that gets critiqued around here as intolerable), the condition of the equipment, and the time spent on trains and waiting for connections, I imagine train travel was not even a railfan’s idea of fun. I had read letters of a relative by marriage who had served in combat in the Pacific theatre, who compl
If wish to include the interurban, the peak of rail passenger service was probably around 1920. If you exclude the interurban, I would say the peak was around 1905.
The interurban was designed and operated to handle passengers. Freight railroads saw the interurban as a threat. In areas with sufficent population, the interurbans sprang up quickly offering cheaper and more frequent service. Sufficent population density was not strictly urban. Rural areas of the midwest from Ohio to Iowa saw many interurban lines built.
The interurban maybe seen as market driven technology of the time developing seperate systems for freight and passengers. The great paper interurban from Chicago to New York on a straight line comes to mind. Nearly 1,000 miles would be covered in 10 hours. Never built beyond a few small segments, it pointed at what was viewed as nearly within reach.
The automobile killed it all. WWII was an abnormal situation. A national emergency demand for travel coupled with gas and tire rationing was not sustained after peace.
I gave my speech on Friday. I think it went very well and I will be surprised if I didn’t get an “A” on it. I know this is a long post, but I hope you enjoy!
Have you ever gotten on an airplane and flown across the country in only a couple of hours in comfort and style? Pretty nice isn’t it? But just imagine that only 60 years ago, the most comfortable, elegant form of travel was by train and it took several days rather than hours. Although it took so long, train travel used to be the ultimate, most elegant mode of cross-country transportation. Rail travel was not always the most elegant form of travel, especially at its beginning, but by World War II, the railroads were the way to travel. Passengers could go almost anywhere across the United States in a safe, efficient manner. Only several years later, automobiles and airplanes would take their toll on train travel, but at the time, trains ruled. Let’s take a train ride and visit passenger trains: their finest hour, their decline, and rail travel today.
Passenger trains actually had two finest hours. One was in the early 1900s when ridership was the highest. The other was near the end of and immediately after World War II when some of the most luxurious passenger trains ran. I would like to focus on the passenger trains of the mid 1940s to mid 1950s. It was during this time that the railroads really outdid themselves in terms of service and elegant transportation. The Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Santa Fe Railroads were the big players during this time period. Such trains as Union Pacific’s City of Los Angeles, Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight, and Santa Fe’s Super Chief and El Capitan made rail travel the most luxurious form of cross country travel. Railroads wanted to keep their equipment top notch and according to Twenty-Five Greatest American Luxury Streamliners and Domeliners, "From the years immedi
