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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy [quote]QUOTE: The PRR was loyal to its on line coal mines and worked very late into dieselization to make steam more efficient hence the T1, S1, S2, Q1 and Q2 engines. [/quote] All of which were dismal failures. The Pennsy was a 19th Century steam road that never realized that the 20th Century was half over. The most sucessful of their steamers was just a copy of the C&O's 2-10-4s, a smaller version of which regularly beat Pennsy trains in all categories (the AMC 2-8-4 is arguably the best all-around first generation superpower steamer). 80% of the Pennsy's steam roster was 1800s technology. They sampled AMC, C&O, and N&W engines, but always wanted to go their own way, instead of copying the work of better engineers. [quote]QUOTE: The cost of diesel maintenance facilities, fueling and spare parts alone were more than other railroads spent for engines. It had to be done orderly so they could be fed and maintained. [/quote] Which is my whole point: the Pennsy DIDN'T dieselize in any sort of orderly fashion. They just tried to implement the shotgun approach to dieselization, and it cost them more in the long run. The Pennsy came into the diesel era full of cash, and ended the steam era dead broke and looking for a merger partner (the PC failure was the best they could come up with). Big roads with offices full of engineers and big steam did things right; why not the Pennsy? [/quote] You are being far too simplistic. The Pennsy did not embrace dieselization until they decided not to pursue duplex drive steam. The duplex drives were not "Dismal Failures". In fact they suffered fewer teething problems than most radical departures from normal practices. And by the time the fires were dropped the T1s had been turned into respectable, albeit slippery, passenger locomotives. Pennsy did not order from just EMD, or just ALCO because they couldn't. No one manufacturer could supply the numbers of locomotives the Pennsylvania Railroad was asking for in the time demanded. Thus PRR ordered everything from everyone. They had to. With the decision to sideline the duplexes all of the PRR locomotives predated the Great Depression with the exception of the Js. The PRR management didn't have the luxury of buying a few locomotives and taking a few years to learn how to best use them. So they ordered diesels the only way they knew how to order locomotives, specific units taylored for specific jobs. On top of that was the extreme variations in traffic seen in the 1945 - 1958 timeframe. First you had tremendous traffic due to the demobilization of the military because of the end of the Second World War. Then there was a great lull which idled the jobs of quite a number of newly purchased locomotives. So those diesels were quickly reassigned. Then you had the Korean "Police Action" and another mobilization requiring more locomotives than PRR had operable. So drag out some of the idle steamers, lease some other steamers from ATSF and RDG, and order as many diesels as the builders can deliver in two years. And that is not mentioning the grain rushes in OH, IN, and IL which affected the PRR differently each year. While the rush for dieselization may have not been optimal it is hardly the cause for the downfall of PRRs cash situation. Get track diagrams, or employees timetables and compare the industries present on line east of Altoona to New York between 1920 and 1960. A huge percentage of the shippers were gone, not changed to trucks (although there were some of them). The industrial north east was gone! You cannot make money on traffic that no longer exists. Don't rewrite history to conform with how you want things to be. Likewise NYC wasn't the Pennsy's choice for merger partner. But every other combination was blocked by litigation or by the governing bodies.
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