What if? (Fantasy Railroading!)

Hi, My name is Joe and having grown up in the South Chicago-Northwest Indiana area when the trains were all here in the 60's and 70's I was afflicted by the bug early and in a big dose. I lived in R.I. and went to school there from 1980 to 88' (URI-Lived 100 yards from Kingston Station!) and became fascinated by the character and color of New England Railroads. In a small geographical area it has something for everyone, from Crawford Notch to the New Haven electric zone. The sad part is the very quality that brings endearment to the New England Lines also killed them. Short hauls, high taxes & terminal costs, massive passenger responsibilities and a rapidly eroding freight base, running into the arms of truckers, knocked it dead. Like a fish out of water, by the 60's, the whole regions railroad service was laying on it side gasping for every breath of air when only a return to water solves the problem!

• .......................................................WHAT IF?...................................................

Lets say its the early 50's; The future problems are looming on the horizon and are recognized; but the damage hasn't been done yet ...........AND AMAZINGLY............The Federal, State and Local Govt. are on the railroads side!!!.........Although the Interstate will be built it is clear that without healthy railroads the Interstate will rapidly become a noisy, polluting parking lot. All levels of government recognize that:

• 1.)Taxes on real estate directly involved in right of way should more accurately reflect a level playing field with truckers and airlines. Tax abatements are granted.

• 2.)Commuter and Passenger services are a necessity but should no longer be a direct burden on railroad finances. The decision has been made to provide 100% subsidy for these services. The only decision left open is should service be structured Metra/NJ Transit style or paid through direct subsidy to the railroads to be operated at no loss to them.

• 3.) The ICC has come to its senses and has recognized the need for an "updating" in its outlook on railroad regulation. It has agreed that:

• A.)A regional railroad merger plan similiar to the proposals considered in the 1920's that would bring together regional railroads to provide more efficent service recognizing that competition really exists between"different modes" of transportation rather than different providers of the "same mode"of transportation.

• B.)Shipping rates should be deregulated to allow efficient direct competition with "other modes" of transportation.

• C.)Rationalization (Abandonment) or Implementation (Construction) of services and right of way should reflect practicality and demand rather than litigation but keeping in mind that with concessions on right of way taxes and service subsidies this is not a permission to run to dispose of marginal services and lines without thought and future planning. Where everyones best interest is considered, responsible local operators may be brought in to maintain and improve the level of local services.

• D.)In general; the governments position is this: Railroads should be given every break in the book to rebuild themselves into strong organizations that can meet the future unencombered by irrational demands to preserve and/or pay for unneeded services or be a public welfare agency (commuters).

Labor:

• Recognizing that their future viability and employment is tied to the railroads health they are willing to be very flexable. By attrition, with state legeslative approval, they are willing to crew reductions, hour based instead of mileage based pay scales for operating crews. Goal is 3 man crews with job interchangability into other job descriptions during time of employee attrition as needed to support full employment.

Shippers:

• 1.)Have embraced the flexability of trucking but have discovered that, when handled efficently, intermodal rail transportation of trucks on trips greater than 200 miles makes economic sense.

• 2.)Prefer to work with railroads, a mode of transportation they are familiar with, but need to have their confidence restored in its dependability and ability to meet their changing needs.

The Public:

• Wants updated, and cleaner transportation from the railroads with more convenient expanded scheduling. Consideration in freight route planning will be important to avoid conflict with passenger routes.

Wall Street:

• Is intrigued by this new found railroad opportunity and are up for the job of financing the whole affair. Liberally.

• ..................................NOW THAT WE ARE IN RAILROAD HEAVEN.................................................................

The initial merger plan includes Bangor & Aroostock, Grand Trunk plus Canadian lines in New England, Maine Central, Central of Vermont, St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County, Rutland, Boston & Maine, New Haven (Poughkeepsee bridge intact) and Delaware & Hudson. The New York Central will contribute the Boston & Albany but not Selkirk yard as well as trackage rights on the West Shore line with purchase option. To provide long distance haulage to the area and decrease the terminal nature of the region also included are:Lehigh & New England, Lehigh & Hudson River, and Erie (not merged yet). To protect their limited future viability the New York, Ontario & Western.... The Lehigh Valley, Lackawanna, Central of New Jersey and Susquehanna are being considered for inclusion into a possible "Penn Central" like combination but nothing is cast in stone yet.

• .......................................THE QUESTIONS ARE..............................................................................

• 1.)Is this a good railroad/route combination? What would your choices be?

• 2.)Is it valuable to go as far west as Chicago?

• 3.)Should you go further west? Rock Island? D&RGW? WP? Milwaukee? (Can you save the lost) etc.

• 4.)What lines in New England would form your primary main lines? secondary lines? branch lines? abandoned lines?

• 5.)What Abandonments would you take back? Which ones would you take back to move freight off heavy passerger lines?

• 6.)What lines outside New England would form your primary main lines? secondary lines? branch lines? abandoned lines?

• 7.)What Abandonments outside New England would you take back? Which ones would you take back to move freight off heavy passenger lines?

• 8.)What lines, if any, would you spin off to shortline operators? Why?

• 9.)Would you want suburban and long distance as well as major passenger line (Shore Line, etc) ownership & responsibility (with freight trackage rights) placed in the hands of govt. agencies (MBTA/Amtrak) or retain them for direct subsidy of losses?

• 10.)What shops would you keep? abandon? sell to passenger agencies if applicable?

• 11.)What yards would you keep? abandon? upgrade? downgrade? Make into hump yards? specialized facilities (intermodal hubs, etc.)?

• 12.)What new facilities would you build for intermodal, loose car, passenger services? Where?

• 13.)What long distance passenger services (if applicable) would you retain, discontinue, reinstate, introduce?

• 14.)What freight services and routes would you promote, introduce, retain, discontinue, reinstate?

• 15.)How would you operate it efficently? handle local freight? Through trains? Switching?

• 16.)What questions, "perfect world" scenarios or conditions would you add or delete from this list?

• 17.)How would you market it? What would the slogan on the side of your car be?

On a lighter note:

• 1.)What does your railroad look like?

• 2.)What would your color scheme look like?

• 3.)What would your logo look like?

• 4.)What (if applicable) would you name your passenger trains? special service freights?

• 5.)Would you maintain a stable of "Heritage Equipment", "A steam department a la UP?"

• 6.)What would your taste in motive power run to? Are you a GE man or GM man? Remember this is a "perfect world", if you want you can be an ALCOholic! Hell, in a perfect world you can buy the plant and save it too! Its in Schenectady and theoretically on line after all! I wonder if building your own locomotives would be an antitrust violation?

I know all this is pure fantasy but it makes interesting fodder for daydreams. Think about what railroads would be like if common sense had prevailed? We might still have some of the quaintness. With todays preservation consciousness think of what might still be around or even still in use? Imagine "Ski Trains" ,working and patronized long distance trains and efficent, frequent freight service to all customers not just the unit train purchaser. So when your bored at work, sitting in commuter traffic, milking the cows, or mowing the lawn (er...I mean....shoveling snow), Build your fantasy railroad, rebuild New England to your liking, imagine it running, and working! But by all means, share it here! I'd love to know what yours would look like, and operate like!!!

When I have a bit more time, I'll sure answer that. Great job with the scenario, Joe!!

Welcome to "Fantasyland".
Sorry to put a damper on your thoughts but this is another study in
futility.
There were a number of things that brought down much of the railroad
plant in the northeast and in New England in particular.
Probably the biggest thing that killed freight was the major loss of heavy
industry especially in southern New England. Connecticut lost so much
heavy industry that it is nothing short of a miracle that as much trackage
is still in use as there is. Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk, the Springfield
Line, New Haven and especially the Naugatuck Valley so far as the former
New Haven Railroad was concerned have just about completely dried up as far as freight traffic is concerned. OH, there is a little bit here and there like a lumber yard or a warehouse or a seasonal receiver of road
salt but nothing like the heavy industry that once existed in all of the points that I listed above.
All of this loss resulted in a greater number of freight railroad routes than
was needed. The outcome, only two major freight routes still exist into
and out of New England - the former Boston and Albany route across
Massachusetts between Boston, Framingham, Worcester, Springfield,
Pittsfield and Selkirk yard which is the busiest. The other major route is
the former Boston and Maine route across northern Massachusetts and
southwestern corner of Vermont between Boston and the Schenectady,
New York area and a connection with the C.P., former Delaware and
Hudson. There are a few more connections but these two get the most
use.
As far as passenger service is concerned, the jet plane, the interstate
highway system and commuter service deficits which were ignored for a
long time by local and state governments; mis-management did not help
one bit and both the New Haven and the Boston and Maine had their share
of that in the 1950's and 1960's.
The two major former New Haven Railroad routes fared very badly as a
result of 1. The loss of nearly all of the heavy industry in Connecticut and
2. The merger and takeover by the Penn Central. Much better routes
existed and Penn Central did not want to share revenues with others on
what freight business still remained during their time. Nobody could really
blame them for that.
To touch on a little bit else here, the former Maine Central line between
Portland and St. Johnsbury was an expensive line to operate because of
the extreme weather conditions in the winter and steep grades and lack of
good local business for the most part, Guilford found an alternative
interchange with the Canadian Pacific and after that it was basically the
end of this route. Many of the lines in northern New England just plain
lost out as more through business was lost to mostly plant closings and
trucks running on taxpayer built highways. The railroads as a result had
to cut back to stay in business at all. The northern route between
Concord and White River Junction was another example of business gone
because of the alternatives above, down to one rather short through
train each way, the traffic got rerouted through East Deerfield and up the
Connecticut River Line and the northern route was down to a very short
wayfreight one day a week. I got a picture of it coming into White River
Junction yard one Thursday with two or three cars and a GP-7. You can't
a major piece of railroad running and maintained with that sort of traffic.
So for the railroads to ever make any sort of a comeback, you would first
have to restore all of the heavy industry that existed 30, 40 or 50 years
ago in this area and I do not believe this is possible.
It is easy enough to blame Penn Central, Conrail and especially Guilford
for all of these cuts but I do not think the fault lies with these railroads for
the most part, you must have heavy industry for most railroad freight, it
is gone. In some cases, what little bit of freight traffic that was offered to
the remaining railroads just wasn't worth the costs of providing the service. Local governments haven't helped any either, they have for the
most part taxed the railroads pretty heavy too.
Get yourselves some of the books that well cover these area in much
better days both freight and passenger wise.
Noel Weaver

Great, Insightful post, Noel.

Thanks,
Brooks

The railroads had little in their power to prevent the decay of industrial New England. There was simply too great a sea change in the manufacture of goods.

Having said that, the real issue is how could rail competition be strenghthened and improved in New England, given the state of the business in 1950. Access to the Midwest, Southeast and Canada are crucial.

With the exception of New York Central, all of New England's railroad never got much beyond the Hudson River. As subsidiaries of Canadian National, the Grand Trunk and Central Vermont were part of a system stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but they didn't serve any major New England cities.

IMHO, the key merger would have been one that technically occured in the early 1970s - B&M/D&H/EL. (Of course EL was two separate companies in 1950, the Erie and the DL&W.) This would have provided single line service to Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland and Montreal, albeit probably not as fast as NYC's Water Level Route. It also would have provided connections for southern gateways like Potomac Yard and Hagerstown (as well as Pittsburgh) via the Pennsylvania at Wilkes-Barre or Elmira. Through Boston-Chicago passenger service could have offered by connecting cars at Binghamton to Erie trains out of Jersey City.

A B&M at or near parity with its New York Central rival would have led to a bidding war for the New Haven, whose freight operations would have most likely been reoriented toward feeding traffic to Selkirk, West Springfield or East Deerfield, depending upon who won the battle. Most likely, the Pennsylvaniawould bid for the New Haven, as well, since it would have wanted to protect its gateway to New England, in particular the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route.

Thus, New England could have been served by three strong railroads. Eventually, they would be acquired by western or southern railroads.

Losers most likely would have been the Rutland (which died anyway) and either the CV or Grand Trunk. However, I suspect the Bellows Falls - Rutland segment (today's Green Mountain RR) would have been acquired by the B&M/D&H/EL as an intermediate link between the Connecticut Valley route and D&H mainline to Canada.

Okay, Joe, I'm gonna change one thing: Not the early fifties, but it is modern times. (Just gonna go down the list here)

In my mind, this is a good route system. Although it's an enormous amount of trackage, I would carefully look at how many customers and what volume those customers bring in, then possibly looking at shredding some tracks. I would take the New Haven in, even though I believe I should have a system that avoids Southern New England. Some of the NYNHH would be sacked, however.

To go as far west as Chicago I would probably do in time, but I would concentrate on making sure my railroad could get off the ground even on one line, not a jumble of New England lines and then a whole other mainline to Chicago. It would probably be valuable to, but thinking about having to maintain an enormous locomotive fleet to move freight all those miles. To start, I would interchange with CP, and possibly in time buy up some abandoned mainlines and "go west!"

My primary freight mainline/feeder system would be the Boston and Maine from Rotterdam Junction (Dunbar Rail System - my railroad) would have trackage rights on there from CSX to Selkirk and then south to Binghamton. The Boston and Albany would be retained and would handle traffic to Maine, also, but B&M would prevail over B&A because it's a shorter distance and less of a grade to my traffic gateways to Northern New England than the other route. Most empty trains to Maine (i.e. empty paper boxcars) go B&A because of the shorter grades (lighter trains!). The Ayer intermodal facility would be a base for your current AYMO train, but also for one to Worcester and Boston, where more B&A traffic would originate. The primary mainline would be Mohawk-East Deerfield, then either north along the Connecticut River or east to Ayer then Maine.

In the northcountry, the Rutland would be spun off to an inner-formed shortline that would be operated by itself, but would be 25-50% owned by DRS, for me to get revenue off that line. Same goes for the Lamoille Valley. Most likely, no lines would be completely sold to passenger agencies, but many would be operating to reduce obligations for the DRS to keep locomotives and trainsets in certain places and take up crews doing passenger service. Like the current MBTA-CSX arrangement, and MBTA-GRS, mine would have a passenger agency running over my rails in the greater Boston area, which would see a boost in freight service due to more reliable service.

The only long haul passenger services would be running ex-NECR from Palmer, up the Palmer Sub, and north to St. Albans, in place of the Vermonter over NECR. I would look and decide what to do with these two lines, as the southern end of GRS's Conn. River Line has more industry, but NECR is a nicer route. The train would cross over at Millers Falls, MA. (things would be able to get altered here, depending on feedback and impeding freight schedules).

Major shops would be in East Deerfield, MA, North Billerica, MA, Bellows Falls, VT, and Waterville, ME. CCLG Leasing Facilities would be in the ex-Alco plant in Schenectady, NY. A facility in Boston would be utilized by the passenger commuter services, with my Boston switchers, through freights, and the like to be serviced there. The main deadline area and major shop would be North Billerica instead of Waterville because of the fact that NB is closer to the action and center of the system than Waterville is, unfortunately. Dead locomotives would also be stored at North Billerica.

For yards, the Hill Yard at Ayer, MA, would be kept in service as a local base, with the wye. No through freights would terminate there, however, and Lawrence Yard would be used as overflow for Ayer, and through freight terminating point. East Deerfield would retain its title as major yard, having both a revamped hump and class yard. Main west end facilities would be based here. Norht Billerica, lacking the yard, would have eastern railroad facilities and offices. Rigby in South Portland, ME, would be redone and used as a hump yard and a major Maine sorting point.

Locals would be based at East Deerfield, Ayer, Beacon Park, and Danville Junction, Maine. Through freights would terminate at all yards, but the ones cited for local action would probably be kept free for the locals. Dunbar Rail System would follow Guilford's lead in planning locals in existing areas to start with, and build off of that.

The paint scheme is RailAmerica/BC Rail type Red, White, and Blue, but in a schnazzy scheme, eye catching. Locomotives rostered would be six axled SD40-2's, 45's, and the like for road freights, and GP9's and 40's, as well as high hoods, for yard work and the occasional road freight train.
Logo is a complicated D that I sketched out a long time ago. The only heritage power that is preserved would be GP9's and GE U18B's, two of which were ex-MEC 404 and 407.

Keep in mind that this is always a work in progress, and as I iron out foggy details, think of more things, and use this more carefully, this post will be edited. Thank you, Joe, for providing this very helpful writing prompt for us to all share our fantasy railroads with. At the Dunbar Rail System, we say Forward.

And, Noel and LT loco, keep in mind that this is fantasy. Have some imagination, guys!!

I have explained the reality of the railroad situation in New England in
great detail, if you want to continue to fanticize here, go ahead.
Nothing that you put here is ever going to happen, believe me.
I do not think you either need or want any more from me on this one so
this is it.
Noel Weaver

Yes, you have, and nice job. But, however, the purpose of this thread is a fantasy. Make one up, show us how you'd run it, since you seem to think it's not being run well. It's also pretty obvious that nothing's going to happen; that's why we fantacize.