"Why, in my day..." Did trains REALLY run better i

It seems like a lot of people, including myself ("One inch of snow and the whole railroad grinds to a halt!!!"), believe that passenger trains ran better in bad weather years ago. My personal memory goes back to the early 70s, and I'd swear that the railroad just laughed at snowstorms, and the trains always got through. The general attitude in books and magazines going back even further indicates that "The Iron Horse never stopped!"

But is this really true?

Did the trains really run better a generation ago or does our collective memory simply deny facts that don't agree with our belief in the "Good Old Days."

I do think that with all the additional technology on the trains today, there is more to go wrong (not unlike modern automobiles: There aren't too many people these days who can fix their car in the backyard). Forty years ago, conductors didn't have to worry about manual doors malfunctioning. If one didn't work, another would, and if that one didn't work, you just kicked one open.

So I ask you, were things really better back then?

...they were in the railroad business, owned and operated by railraods. No government service. There were people, proud people, loyal people, who supervised and operated the railraod. They were career people with years and years experience; some the experience and jobs handed down through the family. Their job was to run the railroad. From top to bottom. They did it. It wasn't a job, it was a livliehood, thier way of life. Today, lawyers and politiicians and accountants define the system of rules and laws under which trains operate. Anyone of the "employees" (supervision and management down to the tracks) is as dispensable as the paper towels in the washroom; when the cupboard is empty or it doesn't work the way they want it to, go down the street an buy some more. It is easier today to walk away from the operating problem than to try to operate through the problem. If you went down to the pizza place to buy a pizza and they decided you wanted apple pie, the pizza place wouldn't be there next week because you wouldn't be back. So why should when you expect a train to take you to where you want to go and it doesn't, come back again to ride tomorrow or next week?

Even in horrendous snowstorms, the ErieLackawanna MUs soldiered through just fine. A lot of that was the organization (crews sleeping in their trains, deadheads running all night to keep the wires deiced, etc), and a lot was the simplicity of manual doors and traps, fresh air toilets, no heat, simple connections and no electronics.

There was much more redundancy in the system, too. Taber has pix in his DL&W 20th century of Pocono and Pacific steamers pushing MUs in extreme icing situations. There were freight engines and crews available at many points along the routes. And, agents in most stations to keep passengers in warm surroundings.

During the 1990s NJ-ARP often asked Railway Age icon Bob Lewis this question, in various guises and for various comparisons.

Lewis' answers were either yes or no, depending on the situation or comparison. He fondly remembered equipment or service that excelled in "days of yore." He also could recite instances of bad service, or defective equipment, in those very same days.

Trains absolutely were more reliable 50 years ago. Henry6 and Lackawanna make the main points. You couldn't. after all, have stuck door motors on a Lackawanna MU that didn't have any. Seems like all the railroads around NY had an ethic of doing whatever was necessary to run the trains. But, the railroads "back in the day" had much more labor available to them.
Things were not perfect in the old days. GG1's had trouble with fine snow getting in the traction motors. But, the Pennsy had steam engines it could quickly deploy to rescue the GG1's.
One definite improvement is safety. When I read about railroad accidents 50 years ago, even on well-maintained, busy mainlines, they seem appalling in retrospect.
Today we have 2 additional problems. Amtrak's infrastructure is crumbling, and there is not enough money to fix it. This causes many delays. And, NJT's management seems unusually inept, and functions very poorly in the face of problems. To fix that would require heavy-duty intervention by the state, and I don't see that happening.

You couldn't. after all, have stuck door motors on a Lackawanna MU that didn't have any

Considering that the doors were not often closed on those MUs but left open, it would not have mattered between automatic and manual doors anyway...

Also locomotive's weren't run by computers. Come look at the Metra forum and see what we think of our new MP36PH-3's built buy MPI. We are experienced at grinding to a hault!

[quote="henry6" There were people, proud people, loyal people, who supervised and operated the railraod. They were career people with years and years experience; some the experience and jobs handed down through the family. Their job was to run the railroad. From top to bottom. They did it. It wasn't a job, it was a livliehood, thier way of life.[/quote]

Running the Erie Lackawanna was "a way of life" back in hey day.

Yes.
Every phase was under the control of one management, the railroad's.
There were far more freight trains and switching crews in operation and there were also available engines to perform rescue missions for stranded passenger trains. Even many of the secondary mains had a reasonable amount of non-passenger activity so that help was never very far away when needed.
Besides that, railroads had a whole array of rail mounted snow fighting equipment, plows, Jordan spreaders, etc. And they used them.
Now you have freight railroads, and some commuter mileage in Eastern Mass. does not even have freight on it any longer, transit authorities or state agencies, Amtrak, etc. I'm sure they all try to co ordinate efforts but each's goal is different. In addition to that, some of the property sales to the MBTA anyway, instruct the freight railroads that continue to have rights on passenger track to avoid using those tracks during peak passenger hours.

Southerners own the northern railroads now! they have no idea whats going on up here in the north when is cold and snowing. They see snow and react to it as if a new ice age is comeing or something so they shut down and declare a state of emergency over 1mm of snow.


I was laughing over the fact that people were runing around the store like chickens with there heads cut off this past Saterday when we got that snow storm. We had people geting into fights in the parking lot over parking spaces a few people were cast off to the hospital all this. over what 8 inches of snow? maybe a foot? come on these people have lived in New York for how long and they react as if they never seen snow befor.

A few years ago I was on a railfan trip and we were all flabbergasted to hear on somebody's scanner that the train ahead of us was stalled, waiting for the engineer "..to reboot."
I hope these engines don't run Windows. If they do, what happens when some railroad gets a virus?

JoeG wrote:A few years ago I was on a railfan trip and we were all flabbergasted to hear on somebody's scanner that the train ahead of us was stalled, waiting for the engineer "..to reboot."
I hope these engines don't run Windows. If they do, what happens when some railroad gets a virus?

Hopefully the person that maintains the computer software doesn't surf the internet on his/her assigned laptop before plugging in the RS-232 cable into the locomotive...

And GE/GM probably have an easy way to dump the memory and reinstall the operating system.

Lackawanna484 wrote: a lot was the simplicity of manual doors and traps, fresh air toilets, no heat, simple connections and no electronics.

Irish Chieftain wrote: Considering that the doors were not often closed on those MUs but left open, it would not have mattered between automatic and manual doors anyway...

My opinion, that's a liberal definition of "better" if no heat, and safety issues of doors left open are criteria that helped keep the trains running. I do grant that being on a train that moves with no heat is preferrable to standing on a platform waiting for a train that isn't coming, and as long as I'm not in the vestibule while the train's moving it doesn't make too much difference to me if the door's open or closed.

As for manual vs motor operated doors, similar to manual vs powered track switches, or roll down vs power windows on an automobile, why is it so difficult to disengage the motor when it breaks so that one can just slide the door manually?