[PRCo] UMW blamed for diesels

[Dwight Long]

Fred

While I agree with most of what you say (the only part being the 100 mile rule, which with modern steam power was quite obsolete—a modern steam loco could run a thousand miles before needing that sort of attention), we were discussing the PRR, not railroads in general.  In the PRR’s case one had to take internal railroad politics into account.  They had more effect on the timing of conversion to diesel (which was inevitable) than anything else, including then current legislation.  As soon as Martin Clement and John Deasy were deposed, and James Symes became the power on the PRR (even though Walter Franklin was actually the President for a while), the conversion proceeded as quickly as the PRR could obtain diesels—and from any builder!  Had that transition to power in Philadelphia taken place even five years earlier, there would have been no T1s or Q2s and the conversion would have been more orderly, less pell-mell, and ultimately less costly for the so-called Standard Railroad of the World.  

And now someone wants to build a T1 from scratch????   Just goes to prove the saying—not sure if was from Jack White or George Hilton—that the amount of rail enthusiast interest in a particular railway or railway part is inversely proportional to its economic usefulness.

Dwight

From: Fred Schneider 
Sent: Thursday, 15 May, 2014 09:01
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&pg=3025%2C2594239
>> 
>> 
>> 
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