1956 is the year!!

[Anonymous]

I always saw 1958 as a watershed year for the RRs. That's when the federal Interstate Commerce Commission took control of passenger train-off petitions from the states. In a period of 18 months, the number of passenger trains in the U.S. was cut in half. Until then much of the railroads' operations, employment, and publicity were tied to passenger trains. Spiraling labor costs were a big factor in the demise of private passenger train operations along with competition from airlines and autos. Even today Amtrak trains lose money, despite fairly good passenger loadings.

John Baie, author of Two Track Main

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Ed.

You brought me back to pacing RI E's from "downtown" Tinley Park to 167th street, then backtracking, pacing smoky GE's back to Harlem Avenue with "The Song Remains the Same" providing the soundtrack.

Tom Klimczak
Lemont, IL

[edblysard]

Well, the other choices I had were Beethoven's symphony #4 in B flat major, or Vivaldi's Concerto for Cello, but that one depresses me.
Or Schumann- sonata for piano and violin, but I have to explain that one to my wife, and Whole Lotta Love sorta explains itself.
If your into classical guitars, I could do you Beethoven"s Fur Elise, or Minuet De Devisee,
or Debussy's Pavane in E Minor, but thats a really fussy piece, leaves you wondering where he was going with it...
I know, how about Dave Mason's Classical Gas?
Lots of strings, great beat, modern, sorta, everyone would reconize it, and you dont have to sing along?
Every song the Beatles did, all of Neil Diamond,
anything from Santana to Simon and Garfunkel, Garth Brooks, and maby the most sexy voice I have ever heard, Celine Dion.
I have a few of Old Blue eyes early ones, but their on old Victory disks, and I can't find a turntable that still has 78rmps.
I do have Andy Williams last christmas album.
And Mom and Dad were Lawrence Welk junkies. You know his shows are still on a cable channel somewhere..
Stay Tuned,
Ed

[Anonymous]

OK cool, but as a harbinger of change, my bet is a good many of the "big bands" fans rued the day the the "Crooners" captured the imagination of the youth of their day, much as many of them found contempt for Elvis et all, and many of the latter found contempt for the Beatles.

It's almost been a tradition, since Mozart..;-)

[Anonymous]

Interesting perspective......

When I read the "AL Pearlman" feature in trains, imagine my total shock to read about the man I have worked for,for 27 years, in such stunning detail.

Especialy since my boss has never worked a day on the railroad in his life.

How so? you ask... Well, the excentric personality, devoted to the well being of the company was such a "straight on" clone of our owner, right down to the "lets teach incompetance a lesson, so it never rears it's ugly head again" methodology of training people, my jaw just dropped when reading the article.

I made half a dozen photocopies, and passed em around to my co-workers, just saying "read this, then tell me if it reminds you of anyone"

Their responses the following day were classic.

Among those who have endured the brunt close hand, there is never any doubt that such acts are only the product of a desire to not be beat, and as such are commendable in their own right.

I'll bet if I and that Flannery guy could sit down and share some war stories, we would have pattern after pattern in common.

Pearlman made some mistakes,.....most noteably in his thrift oriented disdain against buying adequate numbers of motive power, early on with NYC.

But, given my own experiances with my own "Pearlman" (he's been on the Forbes 400 for something like 35 straight years, not MANY can make that claim) I'd hitch my wagon to his, any ol day...

After the abuse of each day draws to a close, you realize there aren't many men who he would even look forward to having on his team the following day, and just being one of those is one heck of a compliment, once you learn to read the language.....

[Anonymous]

No, Antigates, I never hated him or his music, if fact, i like Love me Tender and a few others, but I'm an "easy-lisnin" music man myself. But I like the Dave Clark Five and a good bit of the British Invasion.

[Anonymous]

lol,

Well, that is my entire point, each generation comes along thinking that all of eternity took until them to discover "good" music, and they will feel comfy with that notion till the next "new generation" comes along... playing their "rubbish"

I'll bet you "perry" fans really hated Elvis when he came along, didn't ya? ......;-)

[Anonymous]

This is no kidding,..even as a child I used to watch that show thinking "what fools, they are living in paradise, and want to escape it"

[Anonymous]

It's impossible to go back to where we were in that day and age, attitudes have changed, and people aren't always going to be satified with what was then. The best we can hope to do, is affect changes within our area and hope it spreads. Of course, the professor could build a radio out of a coconut, but couldn't build a boat, so that speaks volumes about humanity's sensibilities. Oh, well
-a young 'un (1984)

[Anonymous]

Ed, give me Perry Como, Andy Williams, Patty Page, and/or Lawrence Welk any day.

[Anonymous]

Indeed, about 1956, as you say, the Interstate Hwy System and immediately afterwards did in the "local" and accomodation trains that we rememeber so well. The REAL "coup de grace" tho was in 1967 when the last Railway Post Office car came off. As someone has posted the mail and Railway Express Agency business kept these trains on the rails as long as they were. All should read the sad story in David Lyon's excellent work "To Hell in a Day Coach", now out of print. But copies could be obtained throught Amazon or O.P. dealers.

[edblysard]

Yeah, but how much did the railroads contribute to the grade? I know goverment set rates killed off a lot of the smaller roads, but some of the articles I have read seem to indicate the bigger railroads knew they were in for tough times, yet very few took steps to prepare, in fact, it seems that quite a few spent themselves into bankrupt status on purpose. Were they that ill managed, of did they just not belive they could fail?. Pennsey employeed some of the best accountants and managers in the business world, yet waited till the last minute to try and do something about the comming recession. The last ditch effort to merge with NYC was doomed from the start.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[edblysard]

Cranked up "Whole lotta Love" real loud, feel a lot better now....
Now all I gotta find is a big jug of Boones Farms, a black light, and my old collection of posters...
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

I'm just enjoying another part of growing old,., being a "grumpy old man"....;-)

I SHALL NOT BE DENIED!!

back to the original intent of this thread,...........1956 seems to be a rather indicative "point of no return" for the railroads,...sure things started to taper a bit sooner,.but as for when the bottom dropped out,...'56 starts the interstates, '58 was a sizeable recession, through the early '60's major railroads were in severe hurt, and by the late 60's even the merger to end all mergers couldn't save even the mighty pennsey......

I think '56 was when the hill got ''steep"

[Anonymous]

I know what you mean,,,

caught myself the same way, music is always a generational divisor.....

Back when I was really hot n heavy for Bands like Led Zepp, or Deep Purple, my mom would come running into my room yelling "that's not music, turn that cr@p down", now I hear someone playing Punk rock or rap, and I'm like "that's not music, turn that cr@p down......(whoops, did I just say that?)"

[sooblue]

*lol*
have you heard of Linux? Freeware!

I know what your saying and I agree with it.
I can remember buying a new car for 2500.00
in 1973. Than came the wage and price freeze.
before that my dad was paying 35.00/month house payments. After the Freeze came off EVERYTHING jumped. Gas, cars, twinkies, wages did too.
people were afraid of more freezes.
Sooblue

[cabforward]

o.k., life sucks, then you die.. everybody who agrees, raise your hand!!

pres. jimmy carter said 'life isn't fair'..

everybody who isn't wealthy enough to fight the system with a lawyer is getting shafted by the gov. or someone.. what else is new?

lots of us believe the world is not nearly as good as it used to be..

2 cavemen examine a club; one says, 'they dont build 'em like they used to'..

2 more cavemen sit next to a fire; one says, 'i'm really not into these crazy new ideas'..

sure, a lot of what's happening today looks bad, feels bad, is bad.. so what?
was there a time when things seemed great at the time they happened? the present always looks better when viewed in the past.. wwii was a horrible experience, but many now think it was good because of how we fought the war then, versus how we oppose iraq now..

viet nam-- protesters blamed the military for the war and mocked soldiers returning home.. now, the govt. is blamed because of new information about how it was managed from the white house and the defense dept.. so what?

the point is perspective.. wait 5 years, this will seem
like the good old days.. the '50s and '60s seem that way to me..

talk to someone who lived in the depression and see how your situation compares to theirs..

i will agree with you-- everything you say is true.. what now? do we crawl back into bed and promise not to come out until it's all better? what's your plan? start a new political party?
the r.r. ticket? slogan: going nowhere fast..

crying in our beer isn't changing anything.. once we understand a situation, it's time to plan on changing it, not grouse about why it isn't better and who's to blame..

you're on the mainline, the signal aspect is 'proceed'--
what are you waiting for?

[edblysard]

Dated a girl whos dad has one of those chevy II with the small V8, dont remember the displacement,(more interested in the daughter than the car) straight from the factory it could get the front end off the ground. Movies now days, like the fast and the furious give kids the wrong impression. We never drove like that, we went out in the country and dragged on a 1/4 mile and 1 mile strip of old county road. And we were more concerned with how thay ran, and what was under the hood than with their looks or what kinda wheels we had. Geez, I am starting to sound like my dad, "I remember when" and "you kids nowadays ". I guess the next step is to go bald, no, maby that horseshoe ring of hair, get fat, wear sans o band pants, and go out and buy a Viper.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Excellant points.

And you touch on a point I've always found curious.

Why did the starship Enterprise need "Phaser banks" and "Proton torpedo's" when they could have just beamed all their enemies to France?

That'll teach 'em!!!...etc ;-)

[Anonymous]

N.ational O.rganization of W.omen.....;-)

[Anonymous]

>> L head straight 6
There is a company near Atlanta GA, called "Day one" That sells restoration supplies, (hard to find window gaskets, etc) They don't sell engines, but they know someone who can set you up, they know everybody in the restoration trade.

>>fartmaster mufflers
Yeah, that's what they sound like to me too. Go***hey are annoying, why would anyone even want an exhaust that didn't sound "throaty"?..=)

When I was growing up there was this guy everyone just called "Hillbilly" that had a '69 chevelle he had put a custom tweaked L-88 into it.

Fastest street burner any of us ever saw,..amazing car..had welded steel chain for motor mounts...one day he was stopped behind two cars at a red light,..we waved at him,..he gooses it and drops the clutch, pulls the front wheels a good 8" off the ground, and sits it back down before getting too close to the car in front of him,...biggest smile you ever saw.

Nice guy, but a bit of a horsepower snob,..he'd actually go looking for guys he'd hear about, that thought they had a faster car,...almost like they was shaming his family or something....=)

[croteaudd]

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. Much of what is present today resulted from necessities, and can be traced to phenomena related to monetary function, and the need for ever more efficiency so the system won’t totally “fall apart.” As a railfan, in the light of the above thoughts, I cannot help but wonder WHEN the chart lines will cross, and both railroads and trucking will no longer be economically viable, but rather, “beam me up Scotty” technology will be the order of the day. Just imagine a ‘trackless’ Union Pacific working out of a small corporate office of just three rooms advertising: “We will deliver your shipments coast-to-coast within just seconds with our new transporter technology. Just give us all the coordinates.”

Concerning actually WHEN “it all STARTED to fall apart,” I would venture to say that it was, not 1956, but rather, during the first third of the previous century. Some historians and editorialists point to that period. Of course, Santa Fe fans may point to all the famous war bonnet passenger train wrecks of 1956 …

[edblysard]

Dual Quads, mechanical secondaries, only thing that really waxed me was a old guy, around 40, ( oh crap, now I'm the old guy, I'm 44) in a Javelin AMX. God that thing was fast. He got me off the start line, by a car lenght, and we keep it that way till the finish. That was a gorgeous car, the guy built it in his machine shop. Balanced, to design specs. roller rockers the works, just about every thing you could do, looked fantastic. Dont see any of them anymore. Last one I saw looked like it had been spraypainted, kid was driving, almost stoped him to ask what he would take for it. Kids nowdays buy a rice rocket, put what my 9 year old calls a fartmaster muffler on, and slap on real ugly wheels, and think they have a race car. Huh, my old MGB runs with most of them, and all I did was put a weber in place of that joke the british call a carb. Currently trying to restore a 51 Willis Overland Steel Station Wagon, the one that looks like a 49 woody mated to a jeep. Know where I can get a L head straight 6? Got the T90 tranny, and the mod 18 transfer case, with the pto, just need the original motor. Got tired of hot rods, traded the challanger for a 50 Ford Custom two door, with the flathead 8. Drove that till 1983. Traded it for a horse and trailer. Kinda wish I still had it, it got better gas milage than my wife new Durango.
Bigger too.
Miss the pony cars though.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Rick, you stumped me on that one, what's N.O.W.?

[Anonymous]

Look all around you. The american dream has become a long labored "grasp" where it used to be nearly a "shoe in" for anybody that wanted it.

All the "wonders of competition" have been most successful in making margins thinner, for the companies lucky enough to survive, and a great portion of the Jobs that were exportable have been done so.

The Gov't doesn't even have incentives to "make jobs" like they once did, instead they do NAFTA type trips to stiff Joe American, whenever practical.

[Anonymous]

that "440" was a wedge....not a Hemi. ;-)

Nice car though,...3 duces, or dual Quads?

Those were some good years, back when the manufacturers had to sell 500 of something to qualify for NASCAR...Detroit turned some torpedos loose on the road, to be sure.

I'm not a big Ford man, but they released this "qualifier" back in like '66 or '67, that had 650 horses under the hood, off the dealers lot.

Guess they did quite a few things to try and "tone 'em down", put 'em in stationwagens that had heavy steel plating welded to the chassis to make them heavier, more "balky" etc.

Can you imagine some dodddering ol man buying one of those for his wife, "not knowing?"

Here Emma, I got ya something to pick yer groceries up in....

[cabforward]

no offense taken.. but i haven't a clue about mediocrity and the interstate highway system..?

[Anonymous]

1973....remember N.O.W. ?? ;-)

[Anonymous]

Sorry If I offended you....

But the I-state seems to have succeded best in making mediocraty ubiquitous...got it?