Penn Central Service? NOT!

[Noel Weaver]

The biggest benefit that I received from Penn Central after their takeover
of the New Haven was the system pass signed by A. Perlman and good
from Boston to Chicago, St. Louis and everything in between in all
directions.

I still have my first pass from 1971. Because I was hired after the merger, mine had a slash with: LINES EAST OF BUFFALO and Not Good On Metroliners.

I still have all of the passes ever issued to me that were not turned back for some reason. The NHRR would require us to
turn in our old pass in order to receive a new one. I also have a lot of trip passes issued by long gone railroads (merged)
when we could get trip passes once a year. Some years my application required many pages with a segment here and there
and a lot of side trips. I always got what I requested, once a year.
Noel Weaver

[Dieter]

ThePointyHairedBoss- The Penn Central is an easy target when we're talking about bad service, but remember that there were hard working folks who tried the best they could under the conditions. This wasn't an army of misfits looking to intentionally run the railroad into the ground. You had so many factors that contributed to mess, from incompatible computer tracing systems, to poor track and equipment, to an upper level management that was too busy re-arranging the deck chairs to take action against the impending iceberg.

-otto-

Otto, that is quite the case, but that led to a bewildered and discouraged workforce that began to adopt the attitude; If management doesn't care, WHY SHOULD I??" That's the point when this Rome truly collapsed.

D/

[AgentSkelly]

The hogs died? I pictured them running around the DeWitt yard causing mayhem

[espeefoamer]

There was that New England shortline that had "borrowed" some PC boxcars. The cars were found on a siding on that shortline some 2 years later!