BaltACD The bigger question, post 1938, when both the Broadway and the Century were reequipped with functionally the same accomadations by Pullman, running on virtually the same schedules - Why was the Broadway so berefet of passengers when compared to the Century? Was the Broadway's on board experience felt to be inferior to the Century? Was Penn Station New York considered a inferior facility compared to Grand Central? Was Union Station Chicago considered inferior to LaSalle Street Station? Were the dining car experiences different? The traveling public had to have percieved some critical difference when making the decision on how to spend their transportation dollars.
The bigger question, post 1938, when both the Broadway and the Century were reequipped with functionally the same accomadations by Pullman, running on virtually the same schedules - Why was the Broadway so berefet of passengers when compared to the Century? Was the Broadway's on board experience felt to be inferior to the Century? Was Penn Station New York considered a inferior facility compared to Grand Central? Was Union Station Chicago considered inferior to LaSalle Street Station? Were the dining car experiences different? The traveling public had to have percieved some critical difference when making the decision on how to spend their transportation dollars.
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
The account of the day in August when the Broadway left New York with zero passengers and arrived in Chicago with 2 passengers, both which got on in Philly is unbelievable. This is in 1939!
The Broadway must have racked up significant losses. Some kind of herd mentality going on with folks shunning the Broadway. Repeating some kind of story or rumour between people.
Can you imagine having the Broadway virtually to yourself...feel like a King. Ridership improved over the war but it was never very good. Pennsy kept it going though.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Miningman ......Appropriately, the new train, Pennsy's pioneer in the all-coach luxury market, would be called the Trail Blazer, a name which had formerly belonged to a crack Pennsy freight train. Inaugurated on an overnight schedule between New York and Chicago on July 28, 1939, it was an immediate success. Some measure of that early prosperity can be gleaned from a look at statistics for its first two full months of operation. In August and September 1939, the Trail Blazer carried nearly 32,000 passengers-an average of 524 per day-and produced revenue in excess of $500,000. On one day, August 19, the east- and westbound trains carried a whopping 1060 passengers-35 times as many as the Broadway carried on a similar day at the time, at a comparable operating investment......
PB70ER car #9255 for the trail blazer
PB70ER car #9255 interior
P70kr
P70kr interior
Twin Unit Dining Car
P70GSR
POC70R observation car #1121
POC70R observation car interior
All pics from HAGLEY DIGITAL ARCHIVES
S1 hauling the Trail Blazer (Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania)
The PRR did bring some Century paassengers to the Broadway by cutting the eastbound running time to 15-1/2 hours, which the Central could not match. This was in the post-WWII era starting around 1947 if my memory is correct, and lasted a few years.
I rode both trains in 1958, and thought the experience terrific. But neither "gleamed" the way the UP and AT&SF Super, El Cap, and Cities trains did. Also the Denver Zephyr. Inside and outside.
For what it is worth, I bought "Pennsy Streamliners" and if anything, it is better than the extract, while giving quite a lot of detail of the equipment involved.
Peter
CPR's Jubilee was a good example of how to establish a distinctive cooperative image of a railroad company, simple, sharp and elegance. Using of warm color of the livery was a smart move.
London Division passenger service between Toronto and Windsor/Detroit provided a vital link in the Montreal - Chicago international service. It was a competitive market shared by Canadian National and over the years various improvements were made by both railways to boost its public image and gain more revenue. A major advance by the CPR was the introduction in three markets of modern lightweight streamlined passenger equipment and new steam locomotives of a new wheel arrangement, 4-4-4 and named Jubilee in honour of the 50th anniversary (June 1936) of CPR passenger train service.In addition to a single trainset operating between Calgary and Edmonton and two between Montreal and Quebec City, there was a service between Toronto, London and Windsor/Detroit. There were four trainsets consisting of a mail-express car, baggage-buffet-parlor car and two first class ice air-conditioned coaches.
The Bullet, #629 with Jubilee 3000 ready to leave West Toronto Depot on Thursday April 9, 1953. Wooden S.U.F. working baggage car, lightweight air-conditioned coach, heavyweight coach. J.F.Beveridge, Collection of Dave Shaw.
Miningman ......The Fleet of Modernism certainly was a worthy competitor to anything the New York Central put out. Seeing those cars behind T1's or anything streamlined was certainly quite stunning. It's just another mind boggling 'why' when they abandoned it in 1945. Having everything repainted by 1950 seems like such a waste......
......The Fleet of Modernism certainly was a worthy competitor to anything the New York Central put out. Seeing those cars behind T1's or anything streamlined was certainly quite stunning. It's just another mind boggling 'why' when they abandoned it in 1945. Having everything repainted by 1950 seems like such a waste......
I don’t blame PRR for everything since they bought us a lot of unique and awesome steam locomotives, and it wasn’t their fault that their electrification didn’t go according to plan, and the Government didn’t have a strong will, or even never consider to build a HSR outside Washington, DC and New York. (Imagine what it would be like a HSR was built between Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago)
The Fleet of Modernism certainly was a worthy competitor to anything the New York Central put out. Seeing those cars behind T1's or anything streamlined was certainly quite stunning. It's just another mind boggling 'why' when they abandoned it in 1945. Having everything repainted by 1950 seems like such a waste.
It's hard not to fault the Railroads for re-equipping their fleets after WWII yet they knew passenger service never really made much for them anyway, if anything. They knew this and knew it well. Mail contracts and Express gave them some incentive and the service itself was the advertising and 'face' of the Railroad, that hopefully translates into good will and freight preference. I think they knew full well what they were doing. They could not see the massive drop off coming due to a new highway system yet to be built and airline travel becoming commonplace. It's arguable that they should have but given the times I don't think that's reasonable. Once the crappola hit the fan they certainly railed against the government involvement in the economy with highway construction, airport's and the St. Lawrence Seaway, leaving them doomed.
Roads in 1945-early 50's were pretty crummy between cities, not really direct. Winter weather was a big hazardous deal for motorists, roads not cleared in quick time like today. People still took the train if they were going anywhere substantial.
The 1952 Congessional was a departure for Pennsy with it's look. Some people, notably David Klepper, thought it was the finest look for the Pennsy. My choice would be the Fleet of Modernism, as short lived as it was.
BaltACD Looks like the PRR Board was actling like a drunk sailor on leave with a whole war's worth of pay to get rid of ASAP. Especially the number of 'nickle & dime' orders made during 1946. There does not seem to be any form of strategic plan to the equipment purchases.
Looks like the PRR Board was actling like a drunk sailor on leave with a whole war's worth of pay to get rid of ASAP. Especially the number of 'nickle & dime' orders made during 1946. There does not seem to be any form of strategic plan to the equipment purchases.
Exactly. It was like a money burning competition between PRR, NYC and C&O. If they paid 0.1% from those money they wasted to do some market research 3 times a year, they might have a chance to become another Union Pacific.
New passenger car orders after mid-1945
=================================================
(to be continue)
Betterment Cars, Sleepers, Headend:
Heavyweight Pullman Sleeper, Railcar, Second-hand cars:
Total: 88 to *352 approx.
* Cars assigned from Pullman to PRR since the 1920s, not all of them carried F.O.M scheme.
* Total number of Pullman-assigned car in PRR system = 610 sleepers (1936)
*Total number of passenger car PRR owned as of Dec 1945 = 3416
Proposed:
In late 1939, The PRR request a Loewy proposal for streamlining one or more E6s and K4s. While the streamlining was applied to four K4s for the South Wind and Jeffersonian, the E6s project was limited to artist renderings. Note the headlight was supposed to be placed above the smokebox door, but the final design of the streamlined K4s was equipped with a thick-framed headlight which was placed in the middle of the smokebox door.
*New passenger car orders since mid-1945 didn't carry the F.O.M color scheme anymore, one example is the reequipped Trail Blazer of 1947.
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