The steam period closing down

The P Company was in serious financial trouble LONG before the Penn Central debacle.

That 5362 K4s must have been running nitrous oxide!  If the K4 fleet was even close to that level of performance on a consistent basis, there would have been no need for S1 or T1 Dupleii !  The poppet valve experimentals, both pre and post war, were not exactly the answer either.   As it turns out, the K4s finally found it's niche on the New York and Long Branch, where they gave the Penn the equivalent of the CNJ FM Train Master, without the $250K investment for commuter service.

From what I have seen in photo captions, K4's regularly ran at speeds up to 90 mph. But perhaps the Pennsy wanted to run larger passenger trains, faster - like at 100 mph+. Hence the T1. And just to put a fine point on it, the T1 had had much more power and speed potential then a K4, even though the K4 was obviously a fine locomotive.

From January 1, 1941 through December 1, 1945, 17,507,647soldiers, sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen were moved over the PRR system. This does not include any military personnel traveling on furloughs, which ran into many millions.

To handle strictly military passenger traffic required 29,670 extra trains composed of 400,000 cars." — Pennsylvania Railroad 1945 Annual Report.

I personally had the experience of riding behind a K4s at 80 MPH on a 1950's fantrip to Atlantic City.  Segments included were both the Atlantic City Line and the Main Line (Northeast Corridor).  The exhaust was like a runaway machine gun! 

There was an account many years ago in TRAINS of a K4 hauling the Nellie Bly on the (nearly flat) Atlantic City line at over 100 MPH!

The k4 was a great locomotive, to be sure, but how fast could the GG1 pull a passenger consist. I've heard many differing accounts...80mph, 100mph, 1 source said it was capable of 120 mph, but never clocked at that speed....what say you?

While the topic is PRR.

How far west did the PRR run?

Here in Valparaiso Indiana about 60 miles East of Chicago there is a concrete RR bridge, still serviceable with the emblem PRR in the classic shield. I do know PRR made it to Chicago. on a series the ""Men Who Built America'" apparently Carniege built a bridge over the Mississippi River for the PRR. So at least i know it went that far!

The normal limit for GG1-hauled trains NY-Washington was 80 MPH.  When the track was upgraded for Metroliner service in the 60's, some trains and equipment (particularly the Congressional's) were allowed a maximum of 100! 

While working for PRR in Philadelphia, I commuted from Trenton.  On occasion I recall hearing the announcement for my lackluster morning train at 30th St:  "You have a 100 mile-per-hour train."

The Pennsy ran to St Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville, KY on the western side of the system.

thanks for the reply. 100 mph commuter , that must've been something else. I've never had the pleasure of riding the PRR. Only a few steam excursions and Amtrak. My earliest recollections of trains are from the very late PRR into PC era, the late 60's in western, pa. The P&LE and, of course, Big Blue.

And the Windy City!

Yes...don't forget Chicago. Today's Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad operates that former P Company line from Bucyrus, Ohio to Chicago.

And don't forget extensions Logansport-Effner, Ind (connection to TP&W), Terre Haute-Peoria, and Indianapolis-Vincennes.

 here ya go, right click on the map and select "view image"

Mackinaw City, MI!  That's one I wasn't aware of. And of course, Chicago! There was a marvelous picture in Classic Trains a while back of the #6200 steam turbine on the 26th Street Crossing, with it's train hanging back on the Chicago R bridge.

That branch was actually the Grand Rapids and Indiana. Ran from I believe Richmond IN. through Fort Wayne here, to The Mac. The old station used to be here in Ft. Wayne on Wells street/Cass st, looks like Google shows it to be a bike shop now. The land where the rail yards were, is the area that the FWRRHS is trying to have a museum built.

In the latest issue of "The Keystone," the magazine of the PRRT&HS, there is an excellent article about the demise of PRR passenger operations and those of all US railroads in general.  The facts are that during WW-II the railroads carried a huge amount of passenger traffic and were not able to spend any time or money to properly maintain their fleet or modernize it.  During the same period the aircraft industry had huge technical improvements caused by war needs.

At the war's end the railroads were left with worn-out equipment and had new competitors in the airlines and automobiles.  They spent money they didn't have to try and modernize their passenger fleets for a public that didn't want them anymore.  It was a downward spiral.

Logansport - a busy Pennsy town pre-Conrail, very little remains of the many arteries leading to and from my hometown these days.  Little brother Wabash, however, is keeping the rails polished, and TP&W is hanging in there.

Ernie Clausing's article in volume 42 no 4 of The Keystone about his working days in Logansport is one of my fave Pennsy articles.

And that's about it, Rich! Except for the Duplexii and J1 fleet, steam was shot!  The electric side of the road was better with some near new GG1s, the oldest being eleven years at war's end.  Money was spent on passenger improvement, and not just new Diesels to pull the trains. By 1950, Penn had basically new Blue Ribband fleets ready to compete with Wm. White and Gus Metzman across the pike. While Central outspent the Penn for passenger capital outlay, the Penn was not left in the dust...in spite of some pretty shabby stuff lying around.