[PRCo] Re: Railroad excursions to PTM

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Apologies to those who will recognize this is not about Pittsburgh...

As a follow up on Bob's comments about charters and special movements,
the railfans generated a very small portion of the business (just like
they do at trolley museums and preservation railroads today).  The truly
significant movements were the convention trade from Shrine Clubs,
Jaycees, Boy Scouts, and daisey picker trips sponsored by the
railroads.  

I inherited a letter Dad wrote to Mom before they were married.  He had
lost his job with Bell Telephone during the very first year of the
Depression, and was living back home in Marietta Ohio with his family. 
During that period, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran a special from
Parkersburg, WVa to drum up business.  One train turned into two into
three.  Maybe more.  He got on across the Ohio at Williamstown WVa and
remarked that the first two trains sailed through fully loaded.  His was
over filled until they got to Wheeling and could dredge up a few spare
coaches.  Dad indicated to Mom that this might be a sign that prosperity
was here!  In reality, the economy would only get worse for another two
years.  Oh yes, on the way back home, he had to stand from Buffalo to
Pittsburgh to Williamstown.  

I remember vividly, because I was the photo finisher, John Bowman's
pictures of the Boy Scout convention at Valley Forge in 1956.  Trains
came in from everywhere over the Reading and Pennsy.  They were running
GG-1s to Norristown hauling specials.  There were B&O, CNJ, and Reading
diesels on the Reading that day pulling coaches and sleepers from as far
away as the Santa Fe.  

I also remember standing at St. Augustine, Florida later that same
summer, hoping something would go through on the Florida East Coast. 
Hey, their diesels were downright pretty ... BL2s, E6s, E7s in red and
yellow and chrome.  The afternoon scheduled train came through during a
typical Florida thunderstorm, but earlier I bagged a Jaycces special
heading north. 

One of the larger users of the railroads for special movements was the
military.  I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas in the spring of 1959
when a batallion was moved to Fort Carson, Colorado.  I have all sorts
of
pictures of the loading operations after dark, and one picture of an
earlier train in daylight in Kileen, Texas.  For me, this was a plus,
because the San Francisco Chief went through after dark ... I never saw
the eastbound but I used to ride the westbound back from Temple in the
evening ... the fare was the same as the bus ... the bus was filled with
standing servicement ... I could ride in an empty observation car on the
train.  

The 1950s was a period of continuous decline in rail passenger counts. 
But how I would like to stand on the westbound platform at Lancaster one
more time to see the "Fleet" going west.
The Spirit of St. Louis, the Saint Louisan, the Penn-Texas, the
American, the Jeffersonian, the Indianapolis Limitited, Cincinnati
Limited, two sleeper trains from New York and from Philly to
Pittsburgh.  On the Chicago steam there were seven trains a day through
here .. I can remember the Broadway Limited, the General, the Trail
Blazer, Manhattan Limited.  There was also the Red Arrow to Detroit, the
Clevelander and the Akronite.  The agent in Lancaster would also
announce the evening trains to Williamsport, Buffalo and Erie.  And in
the midst of it all was the diesel-electric car running the branch over
to York.  Lancaster had island high level platforms with tracks on each
side, and they needed both sides.  We also had a six-car train of MP54
electric cars for commuters going to Philadelphia from all the little
burghs west of Paoli.  Trains would alternate sides because the ran so
close to each other!  I guess we thought everything looked alike ...
tuscan red behind GG-1s ... but I'd give anything to smell that sirloin
grilling in the kitchen of a diner again.  

Bob Rathke wrote:
> 
> The original Cinerama opened at the Warner Theater in 1954.  I believe it
> was one of only a handful of theaters in the country equipped to show its
> 3-camera/3-projector presentation.  One of the segments in the film was an
> aerial tour of the "new" Pittsburgh, taken from a converted B-25 flying over
> the city.
> 
> It's always surprising to hear about those special train movements over
> railroads' branch lines in the 1950s.  Many of them were not fantrips, but
> were simply trains chartered to take groups of people to various
-- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --