"Whistle Sounds Final Time for 150 Passenger Trains

Thought I'd paste a link to the Toledo blade as displayed on Google News on the last day before A-Day:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Bi ... rail&hl=en

Thanks for posting that, Jeff. The article about the last train out of Toledo, at the bottom of the page, was particularly interesting. Toledo was left without any Amtrak service on the first day, whereas it had had trains to every major city in its heyday. I believe that Columbus, Ohio, was the largest U.S. city that was left without any train service in May, 1971.

Didn't Columbus have the National Limited which was the successor to the Penn Central's Spirit of St. Louis when Amtrak began?

>>Didn't Columbus have the National Limited which was the successor to the Penn Central's Spirit of St. Louis when Amtrak began?

According to Wikipedia, Columbus did have the National Limited, until 1979. Looking at the list on that page, Tulsa, Oklahoma, would appear to have been the largest city to lose all service in 1971.

Alloy wrote:>>Didn't Columbus have the National Limited which was the successor to the Penn Central's Spirit of St. Louis when Amtrak began?

According to Wikipedia, Columbus did have the National Limited, until 1979. Looking at the list on that page, Tulsa, Oklahoma, would appear to have been the largest city to lose all service in 1971.

I thought Cleveland was the largest city to lose intercity service (though there was still the EL commuter run to Youngstown. Service was restored a few months later with the first (403b) version of the LSL.

Interesting. However (and I hope this isn't off-topic,) the most telling tidbit of information came from a related story:

Will U.S. Be Railroaded Into Bad Transit Deal?
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pv ... 9705&hl=en

In accordance with the "Fair Use/Good Faith" Policy, may I quote:

"Despite the $200 million the corporation is to receive from participating railroads along with $140 million in federal grants and guaranteed loans, the consensus seems to be that the operation is under-funded."

Additionally:

"But when Congress created Amtrak, it handed the corporation a most difficult assignment-that of saving deficit ridden passenger trains service and showing a profit."


Not much has changed in that arena in 40 years!

What was the last privately operated train to arrive at its final destination?

In the derelict stations thread the discussion of Gary Union Station prompted me to look up the timetables and I was fascinated by the discovery that this was a station that lost service on A-Day was closed and had never been used since.

Additionally the Capitol Limited (B&O 5) appears to have been likely to stop at the station on May 1, 1971 after departing Washington on April 30, 1971.

This led me to wonder what the very last train to arrive would have been. Perhaps one of the transcontinentals arrived on May 2, 1971 after having left at night on April 30.

I know this may have been explained elsewhere but I could not recall a specific train being mentioned.

Well the last privately operated train would be well past 1971. The Southern Railway ran it until 1979.
And the Rio Grande Zephyr until 1983.

I think it was ATSF #2, San Francisco Chief, which arrived Dearborn Station about 830P Sunday May 2, 1971. Somewhere I have slides of that at Coal City IL. "Santa Fe all the way until the very end".

The Act specifically provided that there was to be no "its 1159P April 30, so we're done". Enough of that occurred when the roads were trying to get trains off pre-Amtrak.

The trains on the road at 1201A (remember folks, there is no midnight on the railroad) on A-Day continued to destination for the railroad's account. The very first Amtrak train was a NY-Phil "Clocker" departing Penn at 1205A.

Greg,

Definitely aware of both SR and DRGW ... meant A-Day trainoffs ... Still something of a miracle that those two kept running anyways ...

Gilbert B Norman wrote:I think it was ATSF #2, San Francisco Chief, which arrived Dearborn Station about 830P Sunday May 2, 1971. Somewhere I have slides of that at Coal City IL. "Santa Fe all the way until the very end".

Nice to have that on record Mr. Norman. Thank you.

Kalmbach's contemporaneous book Journey to Amtrak by Harold Edmonson (and a bunch of contributing photographers, including myself) has a page of photos of the arrival of Santa Fe #24 as well as #2 at Dearborn Station on the evening of 5/2/71 as the last of the discontinued trains that had been on the road. They arrived close together with #24 being last.

Mr. O'Keefe -- since you're clearly interested in the subject of the Amtrak transition, I'd recommend looking for a copy of that book on eBay or wherever... it's a great documentation of the events of April 1971.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:I think it was ATSF #2, San Francisco Chief, which arrived Dearborn Station about 830P Sunday May 2, 1971. Somewhere I have slides of that at Coal City IL. "Santa Fe all the way until the very end".

I recall reading (somewhere) that the last was AT&SF #24 (the remnant of the GRAND CANYON). This train was scheduled to arrive at Dearborn Station on May 2, 1971 at 9:00PM. I don't know when it actually arrived, but likely after #2.

BTW ... these were not the last trains to set out on April 30, 1971. Both the BN WESTERN STAR (from Seattle) and the SP SUNSET LIMITED (from Los Angeles) departed at 10:00PM (PDT). These arrived at their end points well before either of the AT&SF trains.

And, curiously, AMTRAK's first train was #235, a clocker from New York to Philadelphia. This train departed Penn Station at 12:05AM (EDT) on May 1, 1971, approximately 1 hour prior to the WESTERN STAR and the SUNSET LIMITED due to the time differential between the east and west coasts.

I have to wonder, Mr. Laubenheimer, if anyone on #235 (1 MAY) was aware they were on the inaugural Amtrak run. It was all the same to the crew - lifting PC issued tickets, cutting cash fares for PC Accounts, operating under PC Rules, and claiming their time on a Pink PC timeslip. The equipment; a GG-1 handling a string of PC P-70 Coaches.

And the passengers, maybe there was a railfan on board, but otherwise the passengers were (cop slang) "The Three D's" - Drunk, Doped, Drowsy.