There are so many reasons this will never happen again that we could post about it for days, weeks...
Jersey_Mike wrote:One of my PRR books mentions some experiment with taking a loaded coal train through the tunnels in the 1950's or 60's. The up and down grades managed to break 3 or 4 knuckle couplers and the experiment was not repeated.
If you recall which, please post the name of it. Coming from a book, hopefully there's a reference in the back to where that info came from. I'm one of those annoying "show me the proof" people
Until I find photos or the rumored report, I'm not going to believe it happened.
By that measure, here is what I found in the NY Times archives:
In 1918, much of the US was snowed in. Coal was a major source of heating - thus it's delivery was essential. Freight was largely moved by carfloat at the time, and NYC harbor was icing up.
This is probably the most interesting article:
"Use of tubes gives city relief at once" - Jan 2, 1918
subtitle: coal administrators say McAdoo's order will prevent an alarming shortage.
"Director general McAdoo's order directing the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels under the hudeson river opened to coal trains means that the supply of fuel to NYC will be increased immediately"
"transporting coal into long island by cars instead of barges, as is now done, will mean a savings of from three to seven days in distribution to customers"
The article also describes a riot in harlem over coal, whereby residents raided a coal company to get what they could.
Note that the above article says they OK'ed the movement of coal through Penn, but not that it happened.
This next article says it did happen, and thus far is the only proof I've found that freight ever moved through Penn:
"Novel plan to supply city with coal" - Feb 17, 1918
"The use of the Pennsylvania tunnels served only to a small degree to relieve the situation, as a fifty car train had to be cut up into five sections on the Jersey side in order to be haulable by the electric locomotives on the 2 per cent grades at each end, and only a very limited about of coal could be carried under the hudson river each day by such means".
The other articles I found in the times archive state that the railroads were moving freight more reliably in February, across the country. One article actually listed car counts, which is a level of reporting you just don't see much of today.
So... like I say further up in this thread - freight probably once went through the tunnel due to an emergency shortage. There *maybe* was a PRR or PC test train way back 50 years ago... and today... well. NYS spent millions to build the oak point link to get freight out of mott haven, and LIRR rerouted anything they ran through harold by the 1980s. The MTA doesn't want freight in those junctions. Even if they were agreeable, the two times freight maybe moved through penn were failures. Using the 1918 numbers, moving 10 cars of freight through at time doesn't make much economic sense. To move a lot of freight through, you'd need a lot of slots... which doesn't exist even late at night. Nevermind the fact that Amtrak says it may need to shut down a tube for months due to hurricane damage.