Amtrak was created by the federal government to consolidate the remains of America's once best in the world railroad passenger system. Many of the railroads had allowed their services to decline and discouraged passengers with poor services and increasingly limited number of trains. Compounding those problems, Amtrak was initially underfunded and financial funding has steadily decreased year by year. While other major countries have invested in High Speed Rail systems, Amtrak's ability to enter that market is limited by federal financial cuts and as a result America's infrastructure is left behind.

Maintaining first class and coach transcontinental service was an early priority. Amtrak's The National Limited ran between New York City via Pittsburgh to St. Louis and then onto Kansas City. At Kansas City, one of the Amtrak sleeping cars was uncoupled and held in the station for several hours and then attached to the westbound consist of the Super Chief enroute to Los Angeles, California. No need to change cars for a cross country trip. The photo taken in December, 1971 shows the crew of the ex-Penn Central dining car relax after serving the last of the diners before arrival in St. Louis.

Many of Amtrak's on-board crews were veterans of the Pullman Company and other first class rail service providers. They still wanted to provide traditional old style 1st class service as they had done for years. But the reality was that at Amtrak's inception it was generally forced to depend on an infrastructure of worn out rolling stock, rundown stations in many regions and insufficient investment capital to make the necessary improvements as quickly as needed.

Once one of the finest classic rail stations in the nation, St. Louis' Union Station had fallen on hard times by December, 1971 when cars of Amtrak's National Limited occupied adjacent tracks amid mud from water coming through the deteriorated train shed roof and years of general grime.

The equipment and facilities taken over from the western railroads was significantly better than those from eastern railroads. The Union Pacific Railroad's distinctive yellow coaches and sleepers became a common sight on eastern trains such as The Broadway Limited. Stainless steel passenger cars were easier to mix throughout Amtrak's system since their exteriors blended together easily.

The Santa Fe Railroad's locomotives with their distinctive traditonal War Bonnet design and colors still powered Amtrak's eastbound and westbound Super Chief / El Capitan trains in the early 1970s shown here meeting high in the New Mexico mountains near Raton Pass.

This long Amtrak train consisted of 18 passenger cars and baggage cars that were the combination of the El Capitan's forward coach section including lounge and dining cars coupled to the rear first class Super Chief's section ot sleeping cars, dome lounge car and the dining car.

In the years before Amtrak was formed, individual railroads with passenger service would at times operate private, non-scheduled, passenger trains for special groups and special occasions. As the railroads exited the passenger business, the operation of those private trains declined or disappeared. That market void for special operation private trains was slightly filled for a time as a small number of independent private individuals who purchased and modernized former railroad passenger cars and made them available for tours.

Amtrak had recognized a market potential for group travel private trains that, due to equipment shortages, they could not always provide. Amtrak also established a program based on a fee per mile to accommodate individual private cars at the rear of their scheduled passenger trains when possible.

The 1980 Irving Trust Winter Olympic Special Private Train

Steam passenger trains had an excellent reputation on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. In the early 1900s, the Delaware Lackwanna & Western Railroad became a construction pioneer in the use of re-inforced concrete to build structures such as the Delaware Water Gap river bridge, the nearby Paulinskill Voaduct and further west was the 2,2375 long sprandrell deck arch Tunkhannock Viaduct. They were and still are considered an engineering marvel. Reinforced concrete was also used for tunnels and the train stations and switch towers on the Lackawanna's rail routes. Those structures at the western end of the Lackawanna Cut Off that provided a straight 70 MPH line railroad route with almost no grades or curves across much of western New Jersey to Pennsylvannia at the Delaware Water Gap.

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's premier passenger train Phoebe Snow travelled daily between Hoboken, New Jersey and Buffalo, New York with connections to Chicago.

Railroad Steam Locomotives once powered thousands of trains in the United States. The locomotives were impressive almost "living" machines with their never forgotten steam sounds blending with the melodious steam whistle sounds heard for miles.

West of the Cut-Off crossing the Delaware River.

The passenger trains of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route that included the famous 20th Century Limited.

(Below)The New York Central's Lake Shore Limited Boston Section (Train 22) with two locomotives about 1951. The Number 600 was the lead steam locomotive of the double header team for the climb over the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts. The photo shows Train Number 22 at the Austerlitz Street crossing just after leaving the train depot in Chatham, New York on schedule in the late morning heading east for the train's late afternoon arrival in Boston. The Lake Shore Limited had originated in Chicago for the overnight run to Abany, NY where the train split into the New York Section enroute to New York City's Grand Central Terminal and the Boston Section enroute to Boston's South Station. (Photo by Gene Baxter)

 

 

 

( Right > ) The Erie Railroad was one of the oldest of the eastern railroads and had its eastern terminal on New Jersey's Hudson River shoreline in Jersey City. But from the New Jersey waterfront to the mid-west, scenes such as this Erie local train serving the smaller cities and towns were common.

( Left) Along the mainline route of the Pennsylvania Railroad, locomotive 6769, a 4-8-2, hauls a westbound merchandise freight along the Juniata River toward Lewistown, Pennsylvania. It was also the route of the PRR's famous passenger train fleet including the all first class Broadway Limited operating overnight between New York City and Chicago.

The Delaware & Hudson Railway's steam locomotive evolution at its high point in 1943 led to the creation a new Northern design designated by Delaware & Hudson as the Class K 4-8-4 and they were built by American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York.

Throughout the country, as the number of larger and smaller railroads incresed competing for the freight and passenger markets the web of railroad tracks expanded. Large cities were well served. Most towns and small cities especially in more rural areas were served by a single railroad Midsize cities became an interchange points for several railroads.

In the northeast, Albany, New York was one example.In the 1800s it became an important river port due to Hudson River and Erie Canal traffic. The railroads then made it their hubs. The architecturally renowned Delaware & Hudson Railroad headquarters and passenger station adjacent to the New York Centra Railroadl's imposing station became important points of commerce. The New York Central Railroad's Albany Station was the first stop for their prime westbound and last stop for the eastbound passenger trains to New York City such as the 20th Century Limited.

The new Pullman train between New York and Boston in 1891 quickly became known to railroaders as The Ghost Train because of the creamy white exteriors of its all Pullman car consist. With lettering and other decorative features in gold, the train offered a marked contrast with every other passenger train.

The northbound train left New York at 3 PM, traveled over the New York and New Haven and New York and New England lines, with a scheduled arrival in Boston at 9 PM. An identical southbound train set left Boston at 3 PM and arrived in New York at 9 PM. Speed was not important at that time for these overnight trains. With all stops they averaged only 38 miles and hour over the 227 mile route. What made these trains popular was the comfort and service provided on board combined with the constant regularity of arriving at stations on time.

Each train's consist included a combination car, passenger coaches and drawing room cars. The combination car included a baggage compartment and a smoking room provided with upholstered willow chairs, lush carpeting and white shades and draperies on the windows. The drawing room cars were outfitted with 20 revolving chairs and 6 reclining chairs. Car lighting was provided by gas fixtures and each car carried its gas supply in nine foot long cylinder tanks under the car. During night time, and especially during periods of mist or fog, the brightly lit interiors and the white exteriors made the trains appear especially ghostly. Built especially for this service, each Pullman car cost about $8,500 at the time.

At the heart of railroad steam locomotive operations up until the 1950s was the railroad roundhouse with its turntable to orient steam locomotives into the individual "stalls" or work bays. In Troy, New York, the seven stall roundhouse was built by the Boston and Maine Railroad. It was located at 8th Street and Middleburgh Street north of the Troy Union Station. The structure still survives today as an industrial building.

These photos taken on a winter's night by Gene Baxter about 1950 show the Central Vermont Railroad's steam locomotive number 501 and its tender fully loaded with coal on the turntable prepared for the next day's rail traffic.

The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey operated passenger and freight service in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania and cross Hudson River commuter ferries from Jersey City, NJ to Manhattan in New York. Their major operational base for their motive power steam locomotives was at the Communipaw Round House in Jersey City. By the late 1960s, the region's declining rail passenger and freight business and the changeover from steam to diesel motive power saw that faciility closed down. In 1970, when these photos were taken, the hundreds of skilled workers were gone and only a few large pieces of machinery to heavy to carry off remained.

Steam railroad locomotives still survive in the U.S. and Europe for the enjoyment of railroad and steam power enthusiasts and to preserve those important technologies. Two examples are:

The Cog Railway travelling up to the 6,288 ft. high peak of Mount Washington, New Hampshire USA is a most enjoyable rail journey. The railway's rack and pinion locomotives first went into operation in 1869 on the approximately three mile line that has an average grade of 25 percent with a maximum grade of 37.4 percent at points. The original construction that made it the world's first mountain climbing cog railway set the stage for innovation and inventiveness that has ensured continuous operationThe Cog Railway continues to be a leader in cutting edge technology." Modern green technologies are used but some scheduled steam power to climb the mountain remains.

Wilmington & Western Railroad, Wilmington, Delaware. operates scheduled short line steam train excursions throughout the year.

The railroads opened the nation. As difficult and dangerous as it was to build across and through the Rocky Mountains, for those that could travel the routes it provided spectacular scenery. Many miles of the mountain railroads were built to narrow gauge standards. This 1929 photo of the Royal Gorge Route shows a Denver, Rio Grande & Western RR passenger train that had traveled hundred of miles through gorges and over mountains, stopping at the Hanging Bridge. At this point, the Royal Gorge is a half mile deep yet only forty feet wide at the bottom, a quarter mile wide at the top.

The Olympian shown climbing the Rocky Mountains on the mainline of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway.

Great Ocean Liner Memories