[PRCo] UMW blamed for diesels

[Fred Schneider]

That too.   They had a decade of equipment sitting idle in the 1930s followed by five years of beating their engines to death in the early 1940s.   Amen.   Thanks.


On May 15, 2014, at 9:10 AM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> We also need to consider the timing...railroads could have converted to
> diesels much earlier than they did, but would have had to write off a large
> amount of investment to do so.  By the end of the war, though, a lot of that
> investment was simply worn out and had to be replaced anyway.  At this point
> the railroads were simply following the dollars and buying the most
> transportation they could get for the buck.  Steam locomotives and their
> attendant infrastructure were horribly inefficient, and did not get replaced
> in kind.  John L. Lewis was a side show.
> 
> Ed
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org] On Behalf Of Fred
> Schneider
> Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 9:01 AM
> To: Western PA Trolley discussion
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] UMW blamed for diesels
> 
> 
> I think we have to look at everything ..
> 
> 1.   Smoke control laws.
> 
> 2.   UMW strikes making it hard to get coal.
> 
> 3.   Economics of running steam . we can lay off 4 out of every 5 workers
> and well a lot of ground we had used for shop buildings.  Might even be able
> to sell some shop buildings to other people for factories but that isn't too
> likely.
> 
> 4.   No need for water in the deserts of the American west.   
> 
> 5.   Locomotive availability . that diesel will run for thousands of miles
> before it needs any servicing.   Fueling can be done from a truck driven up
> to the railroad . we don't need water columns, tanks, coal tipples.   And
> the steam engine will run about 100 miles between service stops and it needs
> a lot of spare engines along the way because it likes to self destruct.  
> 
> An example of the self destruct concept..   When the PRR ran steam from
> Philadelphia to Harrisburg, there was a K4s stationed in Lancaster as a
> protect engine.   In the evening it sat in the station facing west because
> most trains ran west in the evening.   In the morning in faced east.
> Always with a crew on it.   John Bowman told the story of standing in the
> cab of that K4 one day talking when he was told to jump off NOW.   The
> signals had changed to clear on the pocket track.  They were going to work.
> In January 1938, when the wires were energized to Harrisburg, the protect
> engine was no longer needed.  
> 
> The steam engine may have been pretty to the railfan . dynamic . great to
> watch.   But we have to think how many billions of dollars were saved by
> scrapping them ..... and how much cleaner the sky is over Pittsburgh,
> Pitcairn, Glenwood, Rook, McKees Rocks and other places.  
> 
> I've been sending these guys some interesting articles on Pittsburgh
> Railways.   I have ignored the smoke control stories but they are there too.
> And there was an occasional picture of downtown on days when you couldn't
> see the top of the Gulf Building from the street.   
> 
> 
> On May 15, 2014, at 8:21 AM, John Swindler wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> Easier to blame another industry/organization than to look at the
> economics of railroad operation.  Some of David Morgan's writing talk about
> the reduction/elimination of labor costs associated with conversion to
> diesel - despite the high initial capital costs for diesel operation.  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>>> Date: Fri, 2 May 2014 14:33:45 -0400
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>>> Subject: [PRCo] UMW blamed for diesels
>>> 
>>> Writer forgets that the PRR announced several days earlier that it would
> cooperate with smoke control.   Blame cannot be totally based on either
> smoke control, economics or John L. Lewis and his boys.  
>>> 
>>> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FisbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6kwEAAAAIBAJ&p
>>> g=3025%2C2594239
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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