Exciting railroading events in the 70s or 80s?

[emmar]

I was just wondering what kind of exciting events happened in railroading during the 70s and 80s. I don't know a lot about this time period. And want to learn more.
Thanks

[domefoamer]

Too many farewells, too many last trains home. I remember '83, when the Rio Grande Zephyr streamlined her way to Denver for the final time. Photographers lined the route that day, as they had every day for months before the end. Their tripods stood atop ridgelines like teepees. In a pack of four cars, I raced the train up the Colorado River to Gore Canyon, pushing 65mph on twisting two-lane gravel roads, hustling for one more shot in the waning light. I rememer it as a great train moment, but a great driving moment too.

[UPTRAIN]

1971: Amtrak Created.
1976(?): Conrail Created.
1980: St. Louis San Francisco (Frisco) merged into Burlington Northern.
1982: Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific merged into Union Pacific.
1988: Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Lines (Katy) merged into Union Pacific.

(Just a few of the more local ones that I know of, people can elaborte on eastern mergers, the excursion steam boom and whatnot.)

[nanaimo73]

The 1970s were not the great, with several railroads going bankrupt. After the Staggers act in 1980 there were new regional railroads with interesting paint schemes popping up all over the place. There were other railroads with passenger trains, like the Southern and Autotrain. Almost every year had a new locomotive model from GE or EMD. Double stacks and Freds made their debuts. And because there were a lot more class ones, there were a lot more new locomotive orders, although a lot of them were for 10 or 25 units.

[Tulyar15]

In Britain the 1970's were a time of revival. After the closures of the 1960's we had the completion of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line to Glasgow in 1974; that same year our prototype High Speed Diesel Train acheived a world record of 143mph which stood for over a decade and the first production HST's entered service 1976.

As for preserved steam, British Rail allowed preserved locos on the main line in 1971 after they had banned them in 1968. The Severn Valley, one of Britain's top heritage lines opened its first section of line in 1970; doubling the length of its line 4 years later. A cavalcade of mostly preserved steam locos was held in Shildon, Co. Durham in 1975 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway; a similar event was held at Rainhill in 1980 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. On the narrow gauge the Ffestiniog Railway opened its deviation round the portion of its rout that had been flooded by a hydro electric dam in 1978; finally re-opening to Bleaneau Ffestiniog in 1981.

[SSW9389]

I'll add a few more. The auto rack was enclosed because they were being rocked. Cabooses came off the train and we waved goodbye to FRED instead. Crew size for freight trains went from four to three to two. Roofwalks finally went away after many years of extensions.

[rockisland4309]

March 1975: Rock Island declares third bankruptcy.
August: 1979: BRAC and UTU goes on strike against Rock Island.
March 1980: Rock Island shuts down operations.

[oltmannd]

Here's my list of the important and interesting - some already mentioned.

Stack trains invented
Amtrak goes all HEP - F40s and AEM7s dominate
Conrail IPO
EOTs replace cabooses
Microprocessor based locomotives (Dash 8s and 60 series)
N&W/NS steam program (J and A plus other big steam)
AutoTrain almost makes a go of it.
Two man crew become the norm
Commuter agencies take over operations from RRs. (SEPTA, NJT, etc.)

[Chris30]

How about the Powder River Basin?? The first BN coal trains started comming out of the PRB in the mid 1970's and the CNW joined in the 1984.

CC

[eastside]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rockisland4309

March 1975: Rock Island declares third bankruptcy.
August: 1979: BRAC and UTU goes on strike against Rock Island.
March 1980: Rock Island shuts down operations.

1982: I work as a grunt on the team restructuring the Rock Island. [:D] The only time I can claim to have been directly involved with a railroading company.

Decline and depression, not excitement, characterized the railroads in the '60s and '70s. It took a long time before the Staggers Act (1980) had an effect. I'd say it was the late '80s before I noticed.

[CShaveRR]

Random thoughts:

1970: Penn Central declares bankruptcy, finds itself short of box cars because a small Illinois short line has been stealing them.

1970: Nobody believed that passenger service from Chicago to Grand Rapids would ever amount to anything again, as the crew on that train often outnumbered the passenger. They had to scrounge a few cars for the last run on April 30, 1971.

1971: Carl hires out on CNW, fortunes of the beleagured carrier are reversed (well, it happened, though the two aren't related, I'm sure).

1972: Chessie System paint scheme unveiled. Makes everybody else look dull by comparison.

1972: Two words: Da***wo.

1973: CNW hopes to get maybe a dozen coal trains a day when it announces plans to extend its Wyoming line into a coal field. It's going to take money, though.

1974: Hurricane Agnes does in the eastern railroads that hadn't gone into bankruptcy earlier, ensuring that Conrail will be made up of nothing but bankrupt lines two years hence.

1975: Lots of railroads paint a locomotive in red, white, and blue to honor the Nation's Bicentennial. Most railroads do one of their latest and greatest; CNW does a GP18 (which happened to carry the right number--1776) and a hopper car.

1976: In a related story, three steam locomotives haul a red, white, and blue passenger train all over the country (one at a time).

1976: The abandonment of a few hundred feet of ex-EL track in Griffith, Indiana, forces Chessie and Amtrak to reroute trains over a route incorporating an obscure ex-Pere Marquette branch line. Pine Junction and Wellsboro, Indiana, become the most interesting hot spots in the country as a result. Many trains seen not once, but three times at the same spot!

1977: Chessie System, not content with gaudy diesels, puts the cat on the tender of an ex-Reading 4-8-4 and parades it across the C&O and B&O. Carl and friends see the special at Pine Junction--three times!

1977: General Electric decides to start "dashing" its locomotive models, later goes overboard by putting the dash in front of everything else.

1979: Amtrak drops some long-distance passenger trains, leaving major cities and markets without passenger service for the first time ever.

1980: CNW almost changes its corporate colors to blue and white by acquiring thousands of the Rock Island's newest and best freight cars. A year or two later they make amends by adopting a painfully bright shade of yellow. Dull-by-comparison Chessie System paint scheme has only until 1987 to live.

1980s: Bright yellow didn't make it to commuter equipment, as the Regional Transportation Authority takes over things around Chicago.

1983: Stack train service from Chicago to the West Coast begins, and five-unit articulated well cars become the car of choice. APL bravely loads one container with a set-up dinner table, and unloads it, undamaged, at the other end. The word "fillet" gains a railroad definition as clearances prevent stacked containers to points east (a few unsuccessful attempts were made with spectacular results).

1984?: All of those bright yellow cabooses that C&NW rebuilt and adorned with American flag decals disappear from the ends of trains.

1986: Mysterious shock waves are felt in the railroad industry on June 14, centered in Philadelphia, with little Warn-er-prior notice.

1987: The oldest railroad in the nation is gobbled up by the colorful cat, which itself became entangled in a new identity consisting of just letters.

198?: Emma born (aftershock).

1989: CSX, the corporate successor to Chessie System, "dips" some of the old diesels in a coat of plain gray paint with blue lettering, as another word from the latest defense technology ("Stealth") makes it to the railroads. People began to long for the old C&O blue and yellow; it would take CSX over a decade to bring it back.

1989: EMD dips a bunch of SD60s into gray CSX paint; these were the last road freight locomotives produced at LaGrange.

I'm sure I've missed quite a few things (and maybe got a few dates incorrect), but the events described herein actually happened in one form or another. But the two decades you "missed" are probably the most exciting ever, in terms of railroad history.

Carl

[emmar]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Random thoughts:

1970: Penn Central declares bankruptcy, finds itself short of box cars because a small Illinois short line has been stealing them.

1970: Nobody believed that passenger service from Chicago to Grand Rapids would ever amount to anything again, as the crew on that train often outnumbered the passenger. They had to scrounge a few cars for the last run on April 30, 1971.

1971: Carl hires out on CNW, fortunes of the beleagured carrier are reversed (well, it happened, though the two aren't related, I'm sure).

1972: Chessie System paint scheme unveiled. Makes everybody else look dull by comparison.

1972: Two words: Da***wo.

1973: CNW hopes to get maybe a dozen coal trains a day when it announces plans to extend its Wyoming line into a coal field. It's going to take money, though.

1974: Hurricane Agnes does in the eastern railroads that hadn't gone into bankruptcy earlier, ensuring that Conrail will be made up of nothing but bankrupt lines two years hence.

1975: Lots of railroads paint a locomotive in red, white, and blue to honor the Nation's Bicentennial. Most railroads do one of their latest and greatest; CNW does a GP18 (which happened to carry the right number--1776) and a hopper car.

1976: In a related story, three steam locomotives haul a red, white, and blue passenger train all over the country (one at a time).

1976: The abandonment of a few hundred feet of ex-EL track in Griffith, Indiana, forces Chessie and Amtrak to reroute trains over a route incorporating an obscure ex-Pere Marquette branch line. Pine Junction and Wellsboro, Indiana, become the most interesting hot spots in the country as a result. Many trains seen not once, but three times at the same spot!

1977: Chessie System, not content with gaudy diesels, puts the cat on the tender of an ex-Reading 4-8-4 and parades it across the C&O and B&O. Carl and friends see the special at Pine Junction--three times!

1977: General Electric decides to start "dashing" its locomotive models, later goes overboard by putting the dash in front of everything else.

1979: Amtrak drops some long-distance passenger trains, leaving major cities and markets without passenger service for the first time ever.

1980: CNW almost changes its corporate colors to blue and white by acquiring thousands of the Rock Island's newest and best freight cars. A year or two later they make amends by adopting a painfully bright shade of yellow. Dull-by-comparison Chessie System paint scheme has only until 1987 to live.

1980s: Bright yellow didn't make it to commuter equipment, as the Regional Transportation Authority takes over things around Chicago.

1983: Stack train service from Chicago to the West Coast begins, and five-unit articulated well cars become the car of choice. APL bravely loads one container with a set-up dinner table, and unloads it, undamaged, at the other end. The word "fillet" gains a railroad definition as clearances prevent stacked containers to points east (a few unsuccessful attempts were made with spectacular results).

1984?: All of those bright yellow cabooses that C&NW rebuilt and adorned with American flag decals disappear from the ends of trains.

1986: Mysterious shock waves are felt in the railroad industry on June 14, centered in Philadelphia, with little Warn-er-prior notice.

1987: The oldest railroad in the nation is gobbled up by the colorful cat, which itself became entangled in a new identity consisting of just letters.

198?: Emma born (aftershock).

1989: CSX, the corporate successor to Chessie System, "dips" some of the old diesels in a coat of plain gray paint with blue lettering, as another word from the latest defense technology ("Stealth") makes it to the railroads. People began to long for the old C&O blue and yellow; it would take CSX over a decade to bring it back.

1989: EMD dips a bunch of SD60s into gray CSX paint; these were the last road freight locomotives produced at LaGrange.

I'm sure I've missed quite a few things (and maybe got a few dates incorrect), but the events described herein actually happened in one form or another. But the two decades you "missed" are probably the most exciting ever, in terms of railroad history.

Carl

You guessed right on when I was born (1988) so I "missed" a lot more than just two decades. It just happenes that those are the decades that I know the least about.

Thanks everyone for the information.

[railroad65]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Random thoughts:

1970: Penn Central declares bankruptcy, finds itself short of box cars because a small Illinois short line has been stealing them.


Carl

More information on this, please.

Railroad65

[Anonymous]

yes indeed the seventes was the pinnacale of southern pacific's success as a railroad giant...unfortunatly due to poor management it was all down hill from there...literally.

[Anonymous]

yes indeed the seventes was the pinnacale of southern pacific's success as a railroad giant...unfortunatly due to poor management it was all down hill from there...literally......tell me what happens when a railroad goes bust or merges...who gets the rights to the name of the bankrupt/insolvent/received/merged company once it takes on a its new identity? does the previous c.e.o...or largest exsiting shareholder at the time of chapter 11 being filed? etc etc

[Anonymous]

I was born 1989 so I missed a lot but I do know some about that era,
milwaukee roads pacific coast division electric lines in the cacades shut down 1971 with the whole electric system taken out in 1974 to save money, as the divsion is now in the process of a slow death and in 1977 milwaukee road filed for bankruptcy in and as last ditch act of self decapition abandoned all track west miles city montana in 1980 and in 1986 the once great milwaukee road slipped away leaving a legacy I will never forget[V]

[CShaveRR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by railroad65

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Random thoughts:

1970: Penn Central declares bankruptcy, finds itself short of box cars because a small Illinois short line has been stealing them.


Carl

More information on this, please.

Railroad65

The railroad was the LaSalle & Bureau County. I recall seeing lots of old ex-NYC 40-foot box cars being relettered LSBC, and thought it was a legitimate transaction until the newspaper articles started coming out. I'm not sure of the details any more, nor do I know whether the cars went back to PC (I'm inclined to think not).

[nanaimo73]

QUOTE: Originally posted by railroad65

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Random thoughts:
1970: Penn Central declares bankruptcy, finds itself short of box cars because a small Illinois short line has been stealing them.

More information on this, please.
Railroad65

Have a look at this-
http://www.geocities.com/thegreatjose/LSBC/LSBCTheft.html

[cpbloom]

1982 - with the help of Conrail, cpbloom became a railfan. [:p]

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kiwiguy

yes indeed the seventes was the pinnacale of southern pacific's success as a railroad giant...unfortunatly due to poor management it was all down hill from there...literally......tell me what happens when a railroad goes bust or merges...who gets the rights to the name of the bankrupt/insolvent/received/merged company once it takes on a its new identity? does the previous c.e.o...or largest exsiting shareholder at the time of chapter 11 being filed? etc etc

All the assets, including the names and trademarks owned by the RR, can be bought, sold or transferred at any point. NS owns all the trademarks of their predecessors (except Conrail). Conrail did NOT own the trademarks of their predecessors because they were not conveyed with the RR assets that went to Conrail. The predecessor companies held onto them along with any other assets not conveyed.

[waltersrails]

The chessie dies during this time my favorite railroad. But NS forms which makes me happy even though i still model csx.

[Anonymous]

lol....the LS&BC ran thru my backyard pretty much although it was long gone before my time...the year the Rock went bust.