Miningman
1) Penn Central #15 Cleveland - Cincinnati 1968 Good Grief!
This comes when the government orders you to run a train, but won't give you any money to do it right. Why have amenities when they lose you money every trip, or food service when it loses you money every trip, or even run a higher-speed passenger locomotive when it would lose you money every trip, on a train that won't even come close to requiring even a coach worth of seats ... and loses money every trip?
Probably on the specific route of the X-Plorer, which also bled money every trip. I give them full points for trying; that route should have been one of the places 'corridor' service would have provided a useful and valuable rail opportunity.
In the interests of fair disclosure: I'd have put an RDC on this, torn out a bunch of seats, and put in a self-serve bar and food service. Perhaps pulled some of those fold-out Sleepy Hollow style chairs out of a long-distance coach and put 'em where someone might find them of value...
2) Penn Central 'Spirit of St. Louis' 1968 Do you really need 2 E's?
The answer to this is really implicit in Mark Twain's comment about whether the 2 Es can keep a secret...
3) Amtrak #363 Westbound St. Clair Mar. 7/74 @ Wayne, Michigan
It's a funny thing. I had lots and lots of experience with PC dip-black Es in abominable white-smoking condition going out of Harmon. But this is the first time, the very first time, I can recall seeing one that looks physically depressed at its prospects.
4) The St. Clair again, Amtrak Oct. 26/74 in Detroit at the Michigan Central Station
The actual train back there doesn't really look quite so bad. One does have to speculate how much of that locomotive's appearance is due to Detroit hoydens and their rocks and cinderblocks. It was so bad in places in the East around then that bars were being bolted to windshields to keep the crews alive.
5) Not Passenger but here is a look at Penn Central in its brief existence on the CASO. May 22/72 Windsor, Ontario
They didn't deserve it, and really couldn't do anything with it; neither did struggling early Conrail. So they gave it to Canadians, who certainly did know what 'they' wanted to do with it, and that's exactly what they did. Murderers all.
From magnificence in engineering to winning two wars to yes we have no bananas, we have no bananas today!
Or, when the money runs out we can't keep pretending to play trains.
Which is really about what happened with all those traction lines, and all those branch lines, and all the vast and wondrous service at both Ashtabula and Port Burwell ... and right down to what's happening in the Ottawa area. When even governments pass on the ability to run trains because it costs too much for any perceivable benefit ... and you can't get dedicated volunteers to run it like a bigger version of Strasburg ... it may be time to let it go until such time as a democracy recognizes it wants its service back.
I wouldn't hold my breath for any of what's pictured here, though.