Least Favorite Railroad

[Anonymous]

Least favorite,Guilford Rail System without doubt.

[Anonymous]

My least favourite Railroad would have to be the U.P. as they sucked up so many of my favourites and then, it was just no longer anything but BIG business. A very important factor in the personality of a railroad company is who is running it, the folks at the top and how their philosiphy makes it's way into the people and operations trackside. S.P. used to really suck at some locations while they were really cool at others. With the bigger roads each division can be, and often is a mini-railroad within the whole. Although fans of CGW or whom ever the particular predecessor, would yern for the old days, the C&NW was always for me, interesting and by far most of the employees I met or had contact with were great. Then it all ended with Uncle Pete, more than a few customers felt "shafted" too as we can all recall.
I'm amazed that N.S. gets such low marks as in the past what I've seen & heard of them and customers served, they were very proud to be a railroad, much, MUCH more so than CSX. But that isn't saying much in it's self is it. The CSX merger was a real morale buster too as it turned out.
BN often seemed to be needless jerks at best, but again depending on which fallen flag's division it was, they could be very good. Railroad companies are the people behind the big machines, and where they go, places & people served. That is the weighing factor for me anyway.
Chris

[Anonymous]

I don't think I could truly have a least favorite railroad; BUT, if I absolutely had to choose...

Amtrak. No question.

[JoeKoh]

If the Railroads would learn from the past.railroads come in take over and say do it this way.Then you get a meltdown of the system.Look at what happened in Houston and on the east coast.Change is suppossed to improve customer response not slow it down.
stay safe
joe

[Anonymous]

Mine has to be the Providence & Wooster. A friend of mine and I were taking photos from a city sidewalk of them crossing over a street on a bridge. They radioed the local police that we were tresspassing which we most certainly were not.

[emdgp92]

I'm not a fan of NS much. I'll watch their trains, but that's about it.

As to PC, it wasn't completely their fault that northeast railroading went to hell in the 70s. Much of the deferred maintenance problems was due to PRR and NYC back in the *50s*, along with outdated government regulations.

[Trainnut484]

Hands down --- HALFTRAK (AMTRAK)

BNSF should reban (first ban was from ATSF) Amtrak from calling trains 3 and 4 the Southwest Chief.

Santa Fe --gone but NEVER forgotten

[Anonymous]

Some of you don't like AMTRAK. It may not be as good as some of the class 1 trains before 1971 but, like it or not, it's the only game in town. Those of us who prefer train travel to all other forms of travel need to support it and push for improvements. It's unrealistic to hope that doing away with AMTRAK would result in any kind of improvement. Any service that remained would be fought harder by the freight railroads. As for my least favorite, I would nominate any railroad that can't get a passenger train over its tracks on time. I nominate UP's Sunset Route.

[jsanchez]

Most of my info has come from other railroaders, personel observations, customers, yes newspaper press, you have to see this railroad to believe it, supposedly the operating contract will be up for bid so hopefully some entity that knows how to run a railroad might be able to turn this mess around. I live 2 blocks from one of their under used, weedy over grown lines. Everything in Luzerne county is mis-managed , not just the railroad.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

Jsanchez wrote:
<<
Luzerne and Susquehanna- a mis-managed county owned railroad in the Wilkes-Barre, PA area, horrible track conditions, little marketing, and to many politicians running the show, helping to eliminate what little chance their is for decent sized industry to locate in the Wyoming Valley.
>>

And what do you base all of this on? Newspaper accounts? Do you know much of anything about how this railroad is managed or is this all from Rumorpace?

LC

[Anonymous]

Well, I'd have to say my LEAST favorite is some railroad I've never heard of. Probably one that runs only a train or two a week. Sometimes it can be interest to photograph these lines, but I'm into the big stuff. I like lots of action and variety. But to name one railroad in particular, Penn Central. Although that fiasco wasn't totally their fault, the railroad itself just sucked. The paint scheme was lame (at least NS keeps their locos somewhat shiny). Railfanning wasn't the best (from what I hear). I wish we would have seen some of the other alignments that came close to happening, such as PRR and N&W. The face of railroading in the East, and possibly the entire U.S., would be different today (and maybe for the better).

[Anonymous]

UP. They took away the Katy, Mopac, Rio Grande, SOUTHER PACIFIC, Chicago & Northwestern, Millwalke Road, and the Cotton Belt.
BNSF. I was a Santa Fe fan but I can't stand the sight of those ugly orange units.
YUCK!!!

[Anonymous]

got to agree on the bnsf colors..yuck. but I certainly can't come up with a least favorite..love them all.

[wabash1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

Norfolk Southern aka "the Dark Side"

It earns every lousy thing saidf about it every day...

LC

And i am just wondering what is said about the ns everyday?

[eolafan]

While the NS color scheme of Black and White is a bit boring (except I must say I like the race horse logo and it really looks good when the units are nice a clean after a wash), NS is in my mind just like any other road...ANY TRAIN OR RAILROAD IS A GOOD TRAIN OR RAILROAD!

[enr2099]

CANADIAN PACIFIC

CP has to be my least liked railroad, just in their attitude towards their Canadian Subsidiaries. For example, with the E&N(Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, runs from Victoria-Parksville, Parksville-Port Alberni and Parksville-Courtenay on Vancouver Island, a total of 181 miles. The E&N is now under Rail America control and is facing MAJOR abandonments), Canadian Pacific would often stop hauling to customers without telling them. Standard Furniture in Vic West comes to mind. The owner was never notified that CP would be discontinuing service to his warehouse, he didn't find out until an MofW crew showed up to rip up his spur. On the Kettle Valley CP built a lumber reload facility near Kamloops on CP's mainline, moving the traffic off the dangerous Kettle Valley Division and onto the even more dangerous winding, twisting, narrow highways in Southern BC.

[Anonymous]

AMTRAK,AMTRAK,AMTRAK. Anything that the FED GOV. has had anything to do with has been a fiasco. Amtrak has always been a tax payers nitemare and always will be. Don't let anyone fool you into believing that your taxes still aren't supporting that Rolling TIN CAN.[V][V][V]

[jgaherty]

Guilford Rail System.....if you ever knew the Maine Central before Guilford you would be tempted to give up your interest in the rails since Guilford's takeover. Their performance in New Hampshire/Vt with the remains of the B&M is just as sad. With some luck and state purchases of the lines the likes of Green Moutain and it's sister Washington County, The New England Central etc will make a difference.

[therailnut]

I really don't have a least favorite as far as railfanning goes( I will photograph anything of the railroads) but when it come to managment I would have to say the UP just because of the SP and CNW mergers. same goes with NS and CSX with conrail.

[Anonymous]

Wabash-

I guess it depends upon what day it is. But, to give a few examples, NS sucks because:

1. They don't adhere to their agreements.

2. They treat customers poorly.

3. They are impossible to work for.

4. They aren't interested in serving new customers with less than 1,000 loads/year.

5. They are a difficult interchange partner.

6. They treat their own employees like criminals.

I could go on...

LC

[wabash1]

Well limited clear all i can say is you can have your opinion even if its wrong.

1) or do they not let someone do as they want. that is against the agreement. in other words is someone sharpshooting and getting their just do when it screws them..

2) sounds like its the crews doing the work more so than the company.

3) I hear the same things from the csx and the up. and have been overdosed by the same junk from bnsf and the conrail people. the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. until you are there and up to your neck in crap. the rumors are bogus. its a good company to work for

4) I see only new customers who get switched 40 cars a day get service now. i better tell that to the guys we just put switches in and do only 2 cars a week to.

5) this point is useless we interchange with the up,csx,bnsf and its harder for us to interchange with them than the other way. the up is easier than the others.

6) they treat us like criminals this is a first. i am a criminal now. when did i get interrogated. when was i arrested. it seems you are being fed alot of bs.

I could go on also but it would be useless .

[Anonymous]

AmCrap! or did i already say so?

[Anonymous]

UNION PACIFIC

[wabash1]

Conrail. they got what they deserved

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

H'mmmmm,..tough pick............on Mondays, wednesdays, Fridays and most weekends, it would have to be the UP,...the rest of the time it would be any of the Cannuck railroads, all pages in the mag devoted to cannuck railroads are wasted pulp imho.....

Canuck is written with one n!

[JoeKoh]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wabash1

Conrail. they got what they deserved

isn't it interesting that the railroads the PRR and to a less extent the NYC bullied eventually took them over?
stay safe
joe

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rail61

UNION PACIFIC

dito rail61. Oooo they make me mad. They took away the MP MKT CNW MILWroad SP D&RGW SSW and those colorful shortlines.

[CP5415]

CN
I've never liked a Government run operation, even if it is a FORMER government run operation. Way too much wasted money sent.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

Amtrak is not a railroad or I would have a least favorite. I miss all the fallen flags, the short lines and the steam engines, but I love todays trains - different though they may be. It's in the blood.

[AltonFan]

QUOTE: GM&O, it ruined the true Illinois Central

I think you got that backwards. IIRC, in IC/GM&O merger, IC was the dominant partner, and it was the former GM&O/Alton lines that were rendered redundant.

And it was the red and maroon that got painted over with orange and white, and the GM&O wings that disappeared, while IC's split rail got painted in. And finally, it was IC that sold their traditional herald.

[joho2486]

To me, I hate the UP and the NS.

I hate the UP because they're too big, they use its power too much, and because, as one has said earlier, they are power hungry. Who could believe that UP is the biggest user of diesel fuel? At least one can consol themselves that the wide cabs sport the winged logo of the old days.

I hate the NS because of the paint scheme, which someone has already said, plus I don't like the fact that NS hasn't done more to exploit the traffic base in the Northeast. To my point of view, the old Pennsy and NYC trackage seems an abberation; NS is still a southern railroad with the flavor of the Southern and the Norfolk & Western, not one of a railroad on the East Coast. Of course, there is the Wabash, but even that, if one doesn't look carefully back into history, doesn't seem to fit into the character of the NS.