Rail groupings
The Winter 2011 issue of my Classic Trains magazine (apparently there are only four issues per year; one per season) has an article about rail-groupings proposed in the 1920s.
These groupings were government proposed, a result of the success of the U.S. Railroad Administration (USRA) during the First World War.
Rail-transit became so bollixed during the war, the USRA was set up to rationalize things.
Freight would plug rail destinations, and shippers couldn’t get cars.
The USRA instituted freight routings across railroads that otherwise competed.
Other connections might be avoided.
They even instituted steam-locomotive designs (USRA locomotives), which many railroads purchased.
There were apparently three plans: -a) the preliminary Ripley plan (whose author was William Z. Ripley); -b) The Interstate Commerce Commission’s plan; and then the so-called -c) “final” plan.
Ripley’s plan and the Interstate Commerce Commission plan were very similar.
What interests me is how these groupings addressed the fact the Nickel Plate (New York, Chicago & St. Louis) never attained New York City.
“Nickel Plate” comes from the fact a New York Central executive was so distressed by the competitiveness of New York, Chicago & St. Louis he said it was nickel-plated.
And so New York, Chicago & St. Louis renamed itself Nickel Plate.
But New York, Chicago & St. Louis never crossed New York State to attain New York City.
It only attained Buffalo.
I’ve ridden the old Nickel Plate line west of Buffalo through Erie, PA.
Nickel Plate always seemed rudimentary compared to New York Central’s old Michigan Central line (I think it’s Michigan Central, but it could be Michigan Southern).
Up-and-down, and even street-running through Erie, PA.
That is, Nickel Plate’s mainline though Erie was on 18th Street. How did one boom-and-zoom that?
You always had to slow for Erie, maybe 10 mph.
And only recently did street-running end through Erie when the old Nickel Plate was realigned into the old Central line to cross Erie.
That would have never happened years ago. Nickel Plate and Central were always at war.
And most of Nickel Plate is only single track. Central was at most four — now it’s two.
Yet Nickel Plate ran expedited freight at 50-60 mph, while Central plodded.
Central was the heavyweight carrier, and Nickel Plate was the thorn in their side.
Nickel Plate’s railroad could handle the speed, but it wasn’t easy.
Instead of easy lakeside gradients New York, Chicago & St. Louis was inland, and climbed the hills instead of just cutting through them.
Lake Erie was fed by numerous streams that threaded deep glens.
Both railroads had to jump them to follow the lake, although Central, being lakeside, might have easier approaches.
So how did the ‘20s plans address the fact Nickel Plate never attained New York City — it didn’t even come close. It had to depend on connections to forward freight to New York City.
In the late 1800s the West Shore was built to compete with New York Central railroad in New York State.
It was financed mainly by Pennsylvania Railroad, arch competitor of Central.
It was called “West Shore” because it went up the west shore of the Hudson River.
West Shore never attained New York City proper, as did New York Central, although Central’s old line into New York City is now Metro-North Commuter Railroad, a government entity, which mainly transports commuters into-and-out-of the city.
West Shore attained northern New Jersey across the Hudson from New York City, as most freight railroads now do.
There is no actual freight-railroad service into New York City from the west. Freight gets trucked into the city from north Jersey. (It used to be ferried.)
Like Nickel Plate, West Shore was rudimentary compared to New York Central.
But then Central began financing the South Pennsylvania Railroad in PA to counter the Pennsylvania railroad.
The South Pennsylvania was never built, but much of it was graded, and numerous tunnels dug.
The tunnels were later incorporated into the Pennsylvania Turnpike, although they had to be re-dug for highway use.
One wonders if South Pennsylvania would have been electrified with all those tunnels.
A steam-locomotive couldn’t work steam in a long tunnel. It would asphyxiate the locomotive, and likely its crew. —Unless the tunnel was heavily ventilated; and a steam-locomotive would need a lot of ventilation.
The competition got so out-of-hand, financier J.P. Morgan got all the warring parties together on his yacht on Long Island Sound to work out a deal.
New York Central would stop financing the South Pennsylvania Railroad, for which they got the West Shore.
In other words, West Shore became no longer a competitor. It became part of New York Central, and much of it was abandoned.
One can still find remnants of the old West Shore across New York State from the Albany area to Buffalo.
Only two segments remain: -a) the old West Shore line south of Rochester, NY, now used as a bypass (West Shore didn’t go through Rochester), and -b) the line along the west shore of the Hudson River to the New York City area in north Jersey.
That line is now CSX (railroad). Freight on CSX uses the old New York Central main across New York State, but then transfers onto the old West Shore to get into the New York City area in north Jersey.
I’ve always felt Central’s getting the West Shore was a mistake; that it could have been a way for Nickel Plate to extend itself to New York City.
And like the original New York, Chicago & St. Louis, much of it was within sight of Central.
So like Central it was water-level; easy to operate.
If Nickel Plate was running West Shore, it would have been the same spoiler New York, Chicago & St. Louis was.
And it would have been accessing a namesake city.
But Central’s getting the West Shore was before the turn-of-the-century.
The proposed plans were 1920s. How did they connect Nickel Plate with its namesake destination?
The Ripley plan proposed allying Nickel Plate with Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W), the ICC plan allied it with Lehigh Valley (LV; or “Valley”).
Both only went as far west as Buffalo, but both were mainly coal-roads, built mainly to access the northeast Pennsylvania anthracite coal-fields.
Anthracite coal is very hard and rocky, and doesn’t burn as well as soft coal.
Yet it burns much cleaner. There’s hardly any soot. “Phoebe Snow” was DL&W’s selling-point, a fictional matron in a lily-white dress that never got soot on it when she rode DL&W trains, which were burning anthracite.
I’ve ridden behind soft-coal burning steam locomotives. You had to wear swim-goggles to keep the cinders out of your eyes.
But the firebox grate of an anthracite-burning steam-locomotive had to be much wider to generate the heat of a soft-coal burning steam-locomotive.
The so-called “Wooten” firebox (“WOOO-tin”), much wider than a soft-coal burning firebox.
Allying Nickel Plate with Lehigh Valley or Delaware, Lackawanna & Western just ratified what was already happening anyway, that Nickel Plate could connect to Valley or DL&W at Buffalo to access the New York City area.
Both LV and DL&W had mountain grades to contend with; West Shore didn’t.
The Buffalo extensions of both railroads were afterthoughts, an attempt to attract bridge-traffic like Nickel Plate.
Another bridge alternative was Erie, although unlike Valley and DL&W it ran all the way to Chicago. (Erie also had some stiff grades.)
Erie was not aimed at the anthracite coal-fields in northeast PA, although it built a branch down into the area.
Anthracite coal to New York City was an incredible traffic-generator.
People used to heat with it, since it burned clean.
Erie was an attempt to build railroad across southern New York, so unlike Central it encountered hills.
Erie’s first destination was Dunkirk on Lake Erie, west of Buffalo.
Erie’s main to Dunkirk became a branch as Buffalo became the major lake port on Lake Erie. (It was where the Erie canal ended.)
Buffalo also became a railroad interchange point; like Chicago.
Erie merged a Buffalo-line that crosses Letchworth Gorge on a massive trestle.
That trestle was wood at first, but that burned.
It was replaced with an iron trestle, and now it’s steel. (I think there have been three trestles. —We’ll soon have a fourth, but it will be a bridge.)
The Erie line went from Buffalo east to the Erie main at Hornell.
Erie merged with Delaware, Lackawanna & Western in 1960, becoming Erie-Lackawanna (EL).
Their lines were often in sight of each other; a lot of DL&W in New York was pulled up.
Erie-Lackawanna at Buffalo became a connection for freight from Nickel Plate, although by then Nickel Plate was Norfolk & Western.
In fact, EL became sort of affiliated with Norfolk & Western through subsidiary Dereco.
Massive Bison Yard was built near Buffalo; but now it’s all but abandoned.
About all that remains are the through tracks to the old Erie line to Hornell.
The old Erie line in New York is now Norfolk Southern, so NS is through from Chicago to the New York City area through New York State. —That is, Buffalo to Hornell. Erie’s main from Hornell west through southwestern NY is a shortline.
Essentially the old Nickel Plate has finally connected to its destination city.
Continuous railroad from Chicago to New York through New York State. Competition for the old New York Central, now CSX.
And the West Shore just disappears.
A railfan friend doesn’t bemoan the fact Nickel Plate didn’t merge West Shore. (And he was president of the Nickel Plate Historical Society.)
“What happened is what happened.”
The completion of Nickel Plate occurred without government planning.
These groupings were government proposed, a result of the success of the U.S. Railroad Administration (USRA) during the First World War.
Rail-transit became so bollixed during the war, the USRA was set up to rationalize things.
Freight would plug rail destinations, and shippers couldn’t get cars.
The USRA instituted freight routings across railroads that otherwise competed.
Other connections might be avoided.
They even instituted steam-locomotive designs (USRA locomotives), which many railroads purchased.
There were apparently three plans: -a) the preliminary Ripley plan (whose author was William Z. Ripley); -b) The Interstate Commerce Commission’s plan; and then the so-called -c) “final” plan.
Ripley’s plan and the Interstate Commerce Commission plan were very similar.
What interests me is how these groupings addressed the fact the Nickel Plate (New York, Chicago & St. Louis) never attained New York City.
“Nickel Plate” comes from the fact a New York Central executive was so distressed by the competitiveness of New York, Chicago & St. Louis he said it was nickel-plated.
And so New York, Chicago & St. Louis renamed itself Nickel Plate.
But New York, Chicago & St. Louis never crossed New York State to attain New York City.
It only attained Buffalo.
I’ve ridden the old Nickel Plate line west of Buffalo through Erie, PA.
Nickel Plate always seemed rudimentary compared to New York Central’s old Michigan Central line (I think it’s Michigan Central, but it could be Michigan Southern).
Up-and-down, and even street-running through Erie, PA.
 |
| Photo by BobbaLew. |
| 10 mph! (This is a Norfolk Southern railfan excursion with Norfolk & Western J #611 [4-8-4], street-running through Erie, PA, on the old Nickel Plate. At that time (late ‘80s), 611 was the only J operating. Norfolk Southern is a 30-year-old merger of Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway. Nickel Plate was earlier merged by Norfolk & Western.) |
You always had to slow for Erie, maybe 10 mph.
And only recently did street-running end through Erie when the old Nickel Plate was realigned into the old Central line to cross Erie.
That would have never happened years ago. Nickel Plate and Central were always at war.
And most of Nickel Plate is only single track. Central was at most four — now it’s two.
Yet Nickel Plate ran expedited freight at 50-60 mph, while Central plodded.
Central was the heavyweight carrier, and Nickel Plate was the thorn in their side.
Nickel Plate’s railroad could handle the speed, but it wasn’t easy.
Instead of easy lakeside gradients New York, Chicago & St. Louis was inland, and climbed the hills instead of just cutting through them.
Lake Erie was fed by numerous streams that threaded deep glens.
Both railroads had to jump them to follow the lake, although Central, being lakeside, might have easier approaches.
So how did the ‘20s plans address the fact Nickel Plate never attained New York City — it didn’t even come close. It had to depend on connections to forward freight to New York City.
In the late 1800s the West Shore was built to compete with New York Central railroad in New York State.
It was financed mainly by Pennsylvania Railroad, arch competitor of Central.
It was called “West Shore” because it went up the west shore of the Hudson River.
West Shore never attained New York City proper, as did New York Central, although Central’s old line into New York City is now Metro-North Commuter Railroad, a government entity, which mainly transports commuters into-and-out-of the city.
West Shore attained northern New Jersey across the Hudson from New York City, as most freight railroads now do.
There is no actual freight-railroad service into New York City from the west. Freight gets trucked into the city from north Jersey. (It used to be ferried.)
Like Nickel Plate, West Shore was rudimentary compared to New York Central.
But then Central began financing the South Pennsylvania Railroad in PA to counter the Pennsylvania railroad.
The South Pennsylvania was never built, but much of it was graded, and numerous tunnels dug.
The tunnels were later incorporated into the Pennsylvania Turnpike, although they had to be re-dug for highway use.
One wonders if South Pennsylvania would have been electrified with all those tunnels.
A steam-locomotive couldn’t work steam in a long tunnel. It would asphyxiate the locomotive, and likely its crew. —Unless the tunnel was heavily ventilated; and a steam-locomotive would need a lot of ventilation.
The competition got so out-of-hand, financier J.P. Morgan got all the warring parties together on his yacht on Long Island Sound to work out a deal.
New York Central would stop financing the South Pennsylvania Railroad, for which they got the West Shore.
In other words, West Shore became no longer a competitor. It became part of New York Central, and much of it was abandoned.
One can still find remnants of the old West Shore across New York State from the Albany area to Buffalo.
Only two segments remain: -a) the old West Shore line south of Rochester, NY, now used as a bypass (West Shore didn’t go through Rochester), and -b) the line along the west shore of the Hudson River to the New York City area in north Jersey.
That line is now CSX (railroad). Freight on CSX uses the old New York Central main across New York State, but then transfers onto the old West Shore to get into the New York City area in north Jersey.
I’ve always felt Central’s getting the West Shore was a mistake; that it could have been a way for Nickel Plate to extend itself to New York City.
And like the original New York, Chicago & St. Louis, much of it was within sight of Central.
So like Central it was water-level; easy to operate.
If Nickel Plate was running West Shore, it would have been the same spoiler New York, Chicago & St. Louis was.
And it would have been accessing a namesake city.
But Central’s getting the West Shore was before the turn-of-the-century.
The proposed plans were 1920s. How did they connect Nickel Plate with its namesake destination?
The Ripley plan proposed allying Nickel Plate with Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W), the ICC plan allied it with Lehigh Valley (LV; or “Valley”).
Both only went as far west as Buffalo, but both were mainly coal-roads, built mainly to access the northeast Pennsylvania anthracite coal-fields.
Anthracite coal is very hard and rocky, and doesn’t burn as well as soft coal.
Yet it burns much cleaner. There’s hardly any soot. “Phoebe Snow” was DL&W’s selling-point, a fictional matron in a lily-white dress that never got soot on it when she rode DL&W trains, which were burning anthracite.
I’ve ridden behind soft-coal burning steam locomotives. You had to wear swim-goggles to keep the cinders out of your eyes.
But the firebox grate of an anthracite-burning steam-locomotive had to be much wider to generate the heat of a soft-coal burning steam-locomotive.
The so-called “Wooten” firebox (“WOOO-tin”), much wider than a soft-coal burning firebox.
Allying Nickel Plate with Lehigh Valley or Delaware, Lackawanna & Western just ratified what was already happening anyway, that Nickel Plate could connect to Valley or DL&W at Buffalo to access the New York City area.
Both LV and DL&W had mountain grades to contend with; West Shore didn’t.
The Buffalo extensions of both railroads were afterthoughts, an attempt to attract bridge-traffic like Nickel Plate.
Another bridge alternative was Erie, although unlike Valley and DL&W it ran all the way to Chicago. (Erie also had some stiff grades.)
Erie was not aimed at the anthracite coal-fields in northeast PA, although it built a branch down into the area.
Anthracite coal to New York City was an incredible traffic-generator.
People used to heat with it, since it burned clean.
Erie was an attempt to build railroad across southern New York, so unlike Central it encountered hills.
Erie’s first destination was Dunkirk on Lake Erie, west of Buffalo.
Erie’s main to Dunkirk became a branch as Buffalo became the major lake port on Lake Erie. (It was where the Erie canal ended.)
Buffalo also became a railroad interchange point; like Chicago.
Erie merged a Buffalo-line that crosses Letchworth Gorge on a massive trestle.
That trestle was wood at first, but that burned.
It was replaced with an iron trestle, and now it’s steel. (I think there have been three trestles. —We’ll soon have a fourth, but it will be a bridge.)
The Erie line went from Buffalo east to the Erie main at Hornell.
Erie merged with Delaware, Lackawanna & Western in 1960, becoming Erie-Lackawanna (EL).
Their lines were often in sight of each other; a lot of DL&W in New York was pulled up.
Erie-Lackawanna at Buffalo became a connection for freight from Nickel Plate, although by then Nickel Plate was Norfolk & Western.
In fact, EL became sort of affiliated with Norfolk & Western through subsidiary Dereco.
Massive Bison Yard was built near Buffalo; but now it’s all but abandoned.
About all that remains are the through tracks to the old Erie line to Hornell.
The old Erie line in New York is now Norfolk Southern, so NS is through from Chicago to the New York City area through New York State. —That is, Buffalo to Hornell. Erie’s main from Hornell west through southwestern NY is a shortline.
Essentially the old Nickel Plate has finally connected to its destination city.
Continuous railroad from Chicago to New York through New York State. Competition for the old New York Central, now CSX.
And the West Shore just disappears.
A railfan friend doesn’t bemoan the fact Nickel Plate didn’t merge West Shore. (And he was president of the Nickel Plate Historical Society.)
“What happened is what happened.”
The completion of Nickel Plate occurred without government planning.
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posted by BobbaLew at 11:32 AM
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