PENN CENTRAL RAILROAD 1968 PROMOTIONAL FILM "CALL US PENN CENTRAL" MD52184
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มิ.ย. 2020
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“Call Us Penn Central” is a circa 1968 color promotional film about the Penn Central Transportation Company, a railroad company created by the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads that operated from 1968 until 1976. In 1970, the company filed for what was, at that time, the largest bankruptcy in US history. The first few minutes are filled with scenes of railroad yards and locomotives before the narrator presents a litany of locations and job occupations ranging from resort complexes, basketball games, and amusement parks to research scientists and locomotive engineers before finally revealing at mark 03:38 that such scenes “and many many more are parts of the Penn Central, America’s largest transportation company.” Accompanied by graphics, the narrator goes on to say how the company has more than 20,000 miles of tracks serving 100 million people in 14 states, two Canadian provinces, and the District of Columbia. We see scenes of the company’s rail operations starting at mark 04:00 while being reminded that the company’s passenger service lines had lost revenue due to changing patterns in pubic travels. As a result the company would be refocusing efforts on shorter “Metroliner” commuter routes between Washington, D.C. and New York City, we are told, as scenes of workers reconfiguring tracks are shown. “Freight traffic, of course, is the backbone of the Penn Central,” the narrator says at mark 06:45. As scenes of rail yard traffics is shown, the narrator explains how the company is also working toward improving that aspect of the business, particularly in reaching out to new coal markets in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as the grain and automobile industries. A newly acquired diesel locomotive (one of 250 added to the fleet) is paraded before the camera at mark 09:30, considered another step in improving service, as is the addition of more than 3,000 freight cars. The film continues with a look at a new electronic classification yard in Albany, New York starting at mark 10:20, and automated car identification system in Denholm, Pennsylvania. There are scenes of research scientists working on new equipment and techniques (mark 12:25) and news of how the construction of Penn Center in Philadelphia over an existing station led to a successful urban redevelopment. The same is said of property in Pittsburgh, at Madison Square Garden, at Penn Plaza at a rebuilt Pennsylvania Station in NYC (mark 13:56), and around Grand Central Station. We visit Union Station in Washington, D.C. at mark 14:29, to learn of a planned redevelopment, as well as Chicago’s Union Station (14:52) for a quick look at new office buildings constructed over existing tracks. Penn Central also has diversified to hold partial ownership in everything from amusement parks to resorts, we are told. “We know that much remains to be done to reshape our rail system to meet its challenges, but we are on the move,” the viewer is assured at mark 17:40.
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Class I railroad headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1968 until 1976. It was created by the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads. The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad was added to the merger in 1969; by 1970, the company had filed for what was, at that time, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
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Just 6 years later they'd release a very, very different film, on their knees, hat in one hand, tin cup in the other.
I love watching the two films back to back, like a two act Shakespearean tragedy.
Yes! Yes! I saw that film. Wow what a difference 6 years makes. That 1974 film was sad 😭
So true they where begging the u s government like g.m and Chrysler did for tax bucks both company s should just when under and some 1 else buy them and it's there problem now. Not on my dollar or yours.
that film is sad. but now they are Norfolk Southern and everything is okay
🤣🤣🤣oh no!...fuked up but true!...aww man!
This film paints such an upbeat, optimistic picture of PC, which time would prove to be nothing but smoke and mirrors.
daf827 the narrator didn’t sound very upbeat or positive. 😉
yeah the narrator just went through the motions, privately hoping he will be paid before penny goes bankrupt@@Grainexpress
I remember my 8 the grade math teacher telling my class about his buying Pen central stock and what a great investment it was. He was sure that the company was big enough so that the Government would fail before P-Central ever would.
In high school business class, we talked about how PC was (at that time, 1991) the biggest business failure ever. Ha.
Call 'em Penn Central. For about eight years or so, anyway.
Sad but true 😂
I will dog on Penn Central for all it's worth, but I can't deny the genius of the logo. Sure, Mating Worms is a common term, but the way the P and C interlock like couplers shows the unity between the two fomer rivals. I almost say it rivals the Erie Lackawanna's logo
More like "Call Us Bankrupt."
then call us CONRAIL
@@RailfanVal then call us Norfolk Southern
they owned some of the most expensive real estate in the world and still went ass up
@@godoftheinterwebz or you can call us CSX
@@godoftheinterwebz that's the power of government overregulation
I'm glad to see that auto-rack cars are now surrounded by rock proof walls. Back in the mid-60's I remember seeing idiots throwing ballast rocks at automobiles on the open freight cars carrying them. That may be the reason someone came up with the idea to shield the automobiles from vandalism. On another note, the New York Central was my favorite railroad. I was born in upper Manhattan (Hudson Hgts) in May 1954. In 1957, my parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio and we went by a New York Central train to get there by what was called the Water Level Route.
Did you sleep well?
Back in the day. Cars were often shipped and exposed to the elements IE rain, snow, sleet, and Hale. Also, the vehicles were targets thieves and vandals. When the cars or trucks got to the other side. The cars had broken windows, graffiti, or slashed tires. The covered cars are a way to ship vehicles from the factory to the final destination. Insurance claims also got extremely high.
One of the silliest mergers in the history of railroads, they took over lines that basicly covered the same routes...
@Percy Harry Hotspur More complicated than that.
It wouldn’t have been silly if it hadn’t been for the corruption of New York central. The Pennsylvania would have filled in the areas that they hadn’t been serving due to the New York central operation. If they weren’t so corrupt it might have a going concern. The financial picture was so well hidden it covered up the mismanagement that had been going on. If they had gone bankrupt the Pennsylvania could have bought New York for fire sale prices and wouldn’t have had to assume their whitewash job. The only way way we’d know for sure is if we could rewind history.
Yep, they should’ve stayed two separate entities and just cut out unprofitable lines and routes, though they might’ve just died a slower death that could’ve been beneficial for the creation of Conrail rather than the rude awaking Conrail got when it took over PC
@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 they were scraping by until the gubmint forced the merger with the New Haven. that killed them
@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 the thing was, the strict regulations prevented railroads from truly abandoning lines. That’s why the staggers act was passed in 1980, when the government realized conrail was regulated to death.
Wow, that train at 2:00, probably had that "new train smell." Also interesting to see trains with NO graffiti.
Looks like the same train at the end. Both shots were on Horseshoe Curve over in Pennsylvania. The early shot of it at the beginning was the train going westbound around the Curve heading uphill on what was then track 4. Probably crossed over to track three at UN, went around the connector track to AR, and then came back downhill heading eastbound on track 1 for the shot at the end of the film.
No graffiti: That's the way it was - until the cancer of rap/hip-hop graffiti culture took root in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I hate it.
@@danielgolus4600 ok boomer
the nice thing about these old films is seeing trains not covered with some thug's graffiti
@@re49991 ok zoomer
Wow, three railroads are going to merge into one company! I hope the best for them.
Unfortunately, they only got the worst!
Then In 1976, 7 merged into one!
Proud to be a part of the PC community! 53 years later and the spirit still going strong!!
Nah, the spirit was torn to shreds in 1999!
only in ohio ☠️
Ye PC's spirit possessed NS
Nice to see a shot of a Metroliner with the PRR keystone logo.
Ahh i love these old railroad films. I wont speak negative, as a railroader who models this roadname in HO., O & N SCALE Its such a rich experience to view this railroad as a little boy growing up in the Melrose/ Mott Haven section in Bronx, New York with all that exciting equipment that railroad pulled even into the CONRAIL era. Who says railroading isn't an educational history. I love it dear to my heart every day I see any kind of railroad entertainment! This is really great!👍
The red team and the green team. The amazing thing is those at the top thought that combining two bankrupt railroads managed and staffed by people who hated each other would all work out just by painting locomotives black.
the green team could run a rail road. the red team never could run a rail road
@@dknowles60 gotcha baby boomer
@@SouthJerseyRailfan yep some one who was alive when the mess happan. some one who knew what Al perman could do. some one who was around and knew the PRR was a loser since 1945. Opps it was the management not the workers. the wrong people on the board of directors. not having the guts to take a strike
@@dknowles60 if we're talking post-WWII, no management had the balls to take any damage. that was a factor in every company nearly going under.
THE NYC WAS NOT BANKRUPT. HINT IT WAS MAKING MONEY. IT was the PRR that was BankRupt and the PRR had been losing money since 1946
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Notice how eager they were to invest in the Sun Belt, not the Rust Belt.
Yep, didn't support the industry that paid them. They invested in a lot of things, many of which were shady, and many of the investors didn't give a rip so long as they could "piggyback" on them to make an inside trade, at the expense of the company. This was the first wave of MBAs, by the way. People who had no vested interest in the business that employed them except as a way to make money. Look where we are today.
@@deadfreightwest5956 MBA programs should be abolished. Declaring that one is a true master of anything is rather unlikely. Seems that there's just as many MBAs that take down companies as are those that ever build them up. Snake oil salesmen in suits, working up the all important investors into a frothy lather.
Crazy to see this merge! Let’s hope it works out
I always preferred penniless-central or penncentless
The Metroliners had constant problems with electrical faults and never reached their design speed of 150 mph in service. In fact, the shape of the power cars caused a pressure drop when used with older MP54 cars at speeds over 80 mph, causing the sealed windows of rebuilt cars to rip right out of the frames. They only lasted about fifteen years in service, and that was with rebuilds that cost as much as the purchase price of the cars. The KarTrak ACI system turned out to be a disaster. The color bar codes were required on all rolling stock starting in 1967. it took until 1975 until about 90% of cars were labeled and sufficient trackside scanners were installed. Unfortunately, testing never included the effects of weathering. The labels themselves faded badly due to direct sunlight, and almost no testing was done for the effects of dirt and grime. The readers depended on visual identification of the stripes, and the dirtier a car got, the harder it was for the d=scanner to read the labels. By 1977, only about 70% of all labels were being read correctly, so humans were still having to read and record car numbers anyway. The whole system was abandoned by 1977.
The Milwaukee Road had a system called Car Scope that worked much the same way. They even promoted it on their stationery with a phrase along the lines of, "Car Scope tells you where your load is!" A Union Pacific employee allegedly amended it with "probably in the Saint Joe River." Which at the time was probably correct!
Though though were rebuilt again in the late 80s in push-pull and have been running since as cab cars. Likely the added years are worth their rebuild value by now.
they also did not work well in rain, fog or heavy snow
just think. something that required lights, scanners, perfect conditions, who knows how much hardware and computer center can now be held in the hand of a Walmart cashier
It is still possible today to occasionally see a car, usually a rebuild, with an ACI label on the side. Note that in 1968 "consolidated stencils" were still in the future.
6:17
Notice that the equipment is still in New York Central colors, but they removed the "New York" and put Penn. You can see where the removed the word "New".
I want that beautiful music soundtrack :)
50 Years of Great Railroading!
Interesting content. They didn't make it very long even with all those assets. They aren't showing the crap trackbed and duplicate routes.
The sugarcoating started to flake off in a matter of weeks!
A great film, thanks for posting this, would love to find a 16mm copy like this!
Finally! A video on TH-cam without any thumb-downs!
3:57
"Penn Central is first and foremost, a railroad"
Then why the hell do you own theme parks, a resort complex, and a trailer building company?
Always looked great when new and just painted !! I enjoyed seeing them, the engines and cars fresh painted.
But that didn't last long, as we all know now with major management issues, dets, poor track, multi routes, NYC-PRR men infighting, the 1970s RR scene etc !!
And of course as you see in this video, to many interests and projects other than the Railroad !!
I wonder if it could have worked if they started PC 10 years later ? Who knows
AL pearlman CEO of the NYC did not want the Merger
They literally lost track of the whereabouts of trains. Maybe pun intended. 😊
3:26 - 3:35 Rare shot of a Metroliner with its pair of Leslie horns actually sounding like they should ...
It sounds like a plane taking off-
@@wes1243 It really does! 😁
8:02 is the silo that existed on the old NYC Springfield to Indy branch a few miles west of Arcanum, Ohio.
This reminds me of the promo film for Detroit made in 1964. The film made Detroit seem like a perfect city. Three years later, the riots of July 1967 showed just what bad shape Detroit was really in. Penn Central radiated optimism in 1968. Two years later, it became the largest and most hopeless bankruptcy in American history up to that time.
The music is so exciting!!!
Very good, thanks.
6:02 a run between NY and Washington DC of just 2 hours 37 minutes…yep, that was (and is still) what we want
Even with increased speeds??
For the spirit of Penn Central let's say "Call us Penn Central."
Look! We merged so we can redundantly serve the emerging Rust Belt of the Northeast and Ohio Valley!
That about sums it up.
The Pennsy didn't need to merge with the NYC. The NYC needed the merger to survive, especially after they failed to take over the B&O a few years earlier.
Good stuff!
It wasn't all failure...the idea was good, but it wasn't until deregulation took place that Conrail actually was able to implement a lot of the PC's plan.
it was the NYC plan
@@dknowles60 True that.
Penn Central: Biggest train wreck in history.
No NS lol.
@@swpandwleandcsx459no, PC is far worse then NS
15:01
I believe this thrid new skyscraper is what destroyed the original entrance of Union Station.
Stayed at the Barclay in NYC. Did not know that Penn central had a piece of that. Nice hotel btw😀
My dad worked for the Pennsylvania. It was a bitter pill when New York central cooked the books to hide all the debt they were in. Pennsylvania was profitable line until they had to absorb all the hidden debt. This was such a famous occurrence that an accounting instructor spoke of it in a class nearly twenty years after it happened. And then a later chapter when government run conrail assumed control and ran it into the ground. Along with it the government raided the Pennsylvania pension plan and used it to shore up social security. I don’t think you’d encounter a single Pennsylvania employee that had anything but disgust for New York central.
that is a great big lie. from your own fed gov the Pennsylnania did all the book cooking. the Prr was going broke since the end of WW2 the Prr never got any thing done. the ncy build selkirk hump yard buckeye hump yard elkhark hump yard. front tier hump yard. CTC double track from nyc to chicago. what the the Prr get done. may be conway hump yard. if the Prr were so great then why is over 60% of it gone today. the NYC had al perman. he went on to the western pac. robert flanerry went on to the wp JOHN KENERFLICK. WENT ON TO BECOME ceo OF THE upRR. ON BODY ON THE pRR SIDE WENT ON TO DO ANY THING. THE pRR WANTED THE MERGER A LOT MORE THEN THE nYC DID. al perman did every thing he could to try to get out of it
@@dknowles60 . I think I’d be more inclined to believe an accountant over the word of the government. NYC was a more regional line as opposed to the PRR which had rail lines parallel to and extending much further in every direction than NYC. Since PRR was a top tier carrier it had more rail miles than many if not all other lines. Something you didn’t take into account was during World War II the government nationalized the PRR and took over where and how they operated. As a result the government ran the equipment and the track into the ground. At the end of the war, they hoped they’d get more compensation to repair everything but as in most cases government reneges on promises they make. Since they had more track miles any revenue they made was spread over a wider area. The Pennsylvania was always a frugal business, and some would say miserly. Unfortunately, with the reduction in ridership and freight after the war it became more difficult since everyone was using cars and trucks to move around. With PRR they began selling off assets and diversifying to other companies to survive. They were surviving but barely. In their endeavors to stay profitable they looked to NYC since most of their lines often paralleled the PRR. I’ll always believe based upon what information I’ve gathered that NYC was the one that didn’t know how to run a railroad through their mismanagement. As a result of their actions it pulled the PRR into bankruptcy which caused the government to take ownership of the company. As stated previously the government ransacked the PRR pension plan which resulted in a reduction in benefits for all involved. As the son of a PRR employee I lived with the results of what happened in one way or another. My parents tried well to hide these events but when they worried about the effects of losing income, job, or pension one knows there’s a reason they went through periods of worrying about the future. So if you can find a retired accountant or a former PRR employee that’s still alive perhaps they’ll be able to confirm what I’m saying. Just remember that democrats were in the majority when this occurred. Good luck getting the truth out of democrats. They have misinformation down to a science as evidenced by Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Biden deserves a second mention since he was in the senate, I think, at that time.
@@kevinstonerock3158 there was no Nationalizd Of the PRR in WW2. WW1 yes how young are you the NYC had the same damage but were able to fix then self's. the NYC went to the same places as the PRR did you were there i was . hint if the Prr so good why is 60% of it gone west of Pittsburg why did John Fishwick Not want the PRR What did the Prr do with all the Stock money it got from the Sale of N&W rr stock the NYC had more traffic between NYC and Chicago and had 6 tracks and no horseshoe curve. to fight the PRR was never a top Tier Carrier 3 people from the NYC went on to become CEO's of Other Rail roads. no one from the Prr ever went on to become a CEO or a other Rail road
In the interest of saving time I’ll copy from another source and add another quote from elsewhere: The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named for the commonwealth in which it was established. By 1882, Pennsylvania Railroad had become the largest railroad (by traffic and revenue), the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world. Its budget was second only to the U.S. government.[1]
Another listing has the following information:
Over the years, it acquired, merged with, or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies.[2] At the end of 1926, it operated 11,640.66 miles (18,733.83 kilometers) of rail line;[notes 1][3] in the 1920s, it carried nearly three times the traffic as other railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. Its only formidable rival was the New York Central (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of the Pennsy's ton-miles.
In 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its rival New York Central Railroad and the railroad eventually went by the name of Penn Central Transportation Company, or "Penn Central" for short. The former competitors’ networks integrated poorly with each other, and the railroad filed for bankruptcy within two years.[4]: Chapter 1
Bankruptcy continued and on April 1, 1976, the railroad gave up its railroad assets, along with the assets of several other failing northeastern railroads, to a new railroad named Consolidated Rail Corporation, or Conrail for short. Conrail was itself purchased and split up in 1999 between the Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation, with Norfolk Southern getting 58 percent of the system, including nearly all of the remaining former Pennsylvania Railroad trackage. Amtrak received the electrified segment of the Main Line east of Harrisburg.
Since it had three times the freight volume, integrated into that was the agreement to share railroad lines with other carriers. That means there’s potentially three times the freight on other lines which means their rolling stock could be spread over the entire country. Admittedly I missed that their rail system was nearly the same geographic limits for service areas but since PRR moved up to three times the freight there’s going to be more mileage per car and engine than any others. Any mergers that NYC executives did has the potential to just allow the lines to be taken over for their own benefit. If I’m reading it right PRR acquired rail lines instead of merging two other lines per occurrence. We all know that New York has a tendency to create shady deals for monetary benefit. That’s why I have to question the details as reported from certain circles. Time will tell.
@@kevinstonerock3158 fed gov over see the rail road. from your own fs gov, the Prr was losing money since the end of WW2 the Man who knew the Prr best John fish wick did not want the Prr, John fish wick CEO N&W rr
Too much capacity, too few carloads, too much bad order track, too many bad ordered freight cars, too many passenger obligations, too much government interference and too much managerial dysfunction. Forced to absorb the bankrupt New Haven in 1969, and to run trains at rates that did cover their fuel costs the Penn Central was doomed from the start. Still is my favorite railroad though.
wrong. could have made it if al perman had run the show
@@dknowles60 Mr Perlman was a legendary railroader but the facts are what they are and they are stated above.
@@EmpireBeltRR i just gave you the Facts. your facts are wrong. the AVG Prr rail roal worker try very hard the the PRR management were total losers. Al perman went on to be CEO of the WPrr. mike falanery A al perman VP went on to be come CEO of the MPrr. John kenerflick a very Great person on the NYC went on to become CEO of the UPrr. all management from the Prr side never work in rail road management. Stanley crane Ceo of Conrail got rid of the last of the PRR loesrs. the time to save the PRR was 1947 but no body had the guts to do it. how young are you
@@dknowles60 My facts are not wrong. You may not like them but they are not wrong.
#1 Too much capacity: Duplicate routes with many ex PRR routes in poor condition. ICC would not let PC abandon unprofitable routes. Antiquated freight yards that were in bad shape and labor intensive. Conrail was able to shed them and became profitable.
#2 Too much bad order track: Three days to run a train that should take ten hours is highlighted in the PC 1974 movie filmed for President Jervis Langdon to use in his approach to congress. Slow orders and derailments abounded.
#3 Too many bad ordered freight cars: PC video complains of a large percentage of freight cars out of service with no parts available. Wreck of the Penn Central reports that the PC led all class 1 railroads in per diem car payments because they could not field enough of their own cars. Big money loser for PC.
#4 Too many Passenger obligations: Amtrak bailed out Penn Central in 1971. PC was still responsible for inter city money losing commuter trains until they could be sold or dumped on a state agency.
#5 Too much government interference: ICC mandated PC haul trains that were not profitable for them with certain trains running at a loss. Could not raise rates to cover labor raises and rising fuel costs.
#6: Too much managerial dysfunction. You make my point for me.
#7 Doomed from the Start: PRR did not live up to it's pre PC promises to fix track and upgrade certain rail yards. Mr Perlman saw this as a takeover and not a merger. Mr Perlman was a reluctant participant who would not move to PC HQ in Philadelphia, instead remaining in the former NYC HQ with much of his staff further adding to the managerial dysfunction. Saunders brought back thousands of furloughed workers giving them employment for life. Bevan refused to invest in RR.
I am a big Penn Central fan as I stated in my original comments. The points I make are not intended to disparage the RR workers of the PRR-NYC-NH or PC. They worked hard and if not for them the whole rail system would have collapsed. I have a lot of respect for all those who soldiered on under dysfunction and bankruptcy.
My age is private. I was around while all this was happening but not in 1947..
@@EmpireBeltRR many facts are left out on you tube. the main fact is the PRR had been lieing to the fed gov about making money when it had been losing money since 1946. the fed gov force the merger even when al perlman did not want it. the cold hard fact was the NYC was making money and the PRR was not making money. the PRR people had no business runing penn central as the PRR never could run a rail road and the Dumb fed gov should have Put the NYC people in charge. the NCY did not need the merger
Almost positive the 4:00 mark is Pittsfield, MA. Looks like a transformer is coming outta the old GE plant that's just a few hundred feet west of where this is being filmed. If this is Pittsfield, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather gawking at trains in this very spot while he puffed away on his cigar. It was Conrail by this point, but there was still a lot equipment (especially cabooses) that hadn't been rebranded yet. Great times!
Wow. When America was unified for a common productive future. I remember the Penn Central railroad running through our farm in southwestern Ontario. It was the ultimate cool to me as a child to see American trains so close to what was a more isolated existence in Canada at the time. At around 3:50 the Penn central map shows a lot of rail lines it used in the late 20th century, some of which in the 21st century have been derelict or abandoned for over 40 years. Make America Great Again.
Yeah pen central was a miserable failure
Penn Central is a Heritage of Norfolk Southern and CSX Railroad history.
"12:01 AM, February 1st, 1968", a date that will live in infamy!
pency was great for me as a kid it went threw St Thomas Ontario Canada
1974: “call us bankrupt “
I truly enjoy these films/documentaries/newsreels, they are an excellent window back in time to our History and historical events, but I do wish someone would have told the scriptwriters that NOT everything American is the finest,safest,biggest,or advanced, etc etc. Ok, we all know that promotional films are merely propaganda by the companies etc aimed at selling more to the average American citizens, and you wouldn’t expect anything less than that, but when you have heard those statements so many many times it gets boring, repetitive, and depressing, and sometimes I wonder why there is so many people left in the world outside of the USA, the way it’s told I would have expected everyone (except the communists) to be living in the USA, so why aren’t we?.
Thanks P.F for another excellent upload, interesting and informative. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
Periscope simply posts these videos without content editing. You put yourself in that time everything American as the safest and most advanced , and Penn Central was the most superior rail service ever! Fast forward to the 21st century... well this is what history is all about.
Penn Central: Why have one bankrupt railroad when you can have two?!
or three if you count the New Haven
@@godoftheinterwebz ok... three bankrupt railroads...
@11:58 Yet they still had cars missing or abandoned all over the system!
Can't believe they tried investing in properties and large stock shares just to compensate for their losses. They were really strapped!
3:40 I wonder had the Kodachrome Merger out West in the mid 80's went through,would it suffer the same fate.The Espee had the PNW Market at Portland and the AT&SF had the Chicago Market,other than that,both Roads share the same Market between California and Texas
I remember penn central, am I old AF ?
No. I remember the Burlington Northern merger of about the same time. My granddad took me down to the roundhouse in Tacoma, WA, and we rode a freshly-painted switch engine on the turntable. I recall it had Harco spark arrestors on the stacks, so it was probably a former Great Northern unit. In the stalls were engines representing just about every contributor to the merger. But where the Penn Central failed the BN succeeded. The Hill Lines were all family, so the merger made sense. The Penn Central merger was a desperate move of two elephants to prop each other up.
“Call Us a Failure”
7:37 - So it's Ashta-bula? I always read it as Ash-tabula. Huh. Well, at least he didn't have to comment on towns in the PNW, like Puyallup and Sequim.
Was hoping this would be about the astonishing Penn STATION which was once above ground but is replaced now, shoved underground for Madison Square Garden. Fun fact: The rush to use up Planet Earth for profit has resulted in people who haven't bothered to think about caring for this Planet, eager to expand elsewhere.
The other planets we know about lack many things - one in particular makes living (guess where) all but necessary. Bit of irony for the thinkers.
Penn Central's logo and paint scheme were awesome, but everything else sucked.
except for that ugly ass turquoise NYC paint
@@godoftheinterwebz Passenger cars?
@@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory box cars
@@godoftheinterwebz I like the color though, I have one in O scale
"We're diversifying out of railroading because we can't make enough money railroading." -- clip not found in final version of film.
Gosh. What could possibly go wrong
in less than 4 years - would be the Largest bankruptcies in US history. the president of the company never rode the train, the US government forced PC to include 5 other failed railroads into merger, penn & NYC had 2 extremely different incompatible computer systems for tracking and managing freight and equipment, PC started a 'air transport' business in the middle of this mess
11:18 - LOL, ACI. Works great when the label is clean. Yeah, that didn't wear well, did it?
A great concept if it wasn’t for graffiti, road grim, coal dust and UV fading.
The music bed should have been "taps"
Penn Central! Even we’ve never derailed on the Horseshoe curve
If PC could’ve had new management take over and got rid of the New Haven burden it could’ve made it to the 1980s I still think Conrail would’ve ultimately happened but it would’ve have been so abrupt and without government intervention
I worked for both the NYC/PC and there is no better company then it.
Was it because of the unions?
Hated to see this logo on my New Haven ..
New Haven's VCedar point yard was a large piggyback yard. Thhey loaded by backing trailers on , no lift trucks for loading.I remember pulling trailers out of there for separation & distribution at Atlas wharehousing in West Haven
Well shit, this aged like fine wine, didn't it?
This fine wine tastes like milk!
This should be titled," How to ruin two railroads."
3:22 nice horn
Who else is here to see the coupling of the P and C that bsquikelhausen brought up in the Penn Central WTYP episode?
nice...... post vintage videos of other nations also..... if you have.
Train good car bad
btw what types of engines appaer in 0:43 and 0:51 respectively, i cant recognze the cuz of the lighting
Penn central my beloved.
The rebuilt penn station in NY?It was a glorius blunder
The Pan Am building, and jets ❤
Probaby the last time they did maintenance lol
I really wish I knew what song plays in the beginning
Just had the 50th anniversary of its section 77 bankruptcy filing after the Nixon administration turned down $200 mln in guaranteed loans.
Look for the video Penn Central 1974, produced to show Congress why it needed bailing out.
Wow, even Nixon looked fiscally conscious compared to the "modern monetary theory" times we are in now. Executives wipe their ass with $200 million guaranteed loans.
Had it been up to me, I would have combined UP + CNW + PRR (aka the US Highway 30 merger) and then would have put ATSF + NYC together.
How about "Call us a Railroad Birth Defect" as a better title
Sounds exciting whats the stock ticker would love to add it to my Robinhood portfolio.
What were those Amusement Parks called? Aren't these both now Six Flags parks?
They were always Six Flags. The Arlington park is the original, with Atlanta second.
Anyone know the source to the title song? I believe I’ve heard it in a US Steel film too.
With a lot of tracking, tracks are tracked by trackers.
Got glad that someone kept track of where that was leading to, and kept it from going off the rails.
Please familiarize yourself with the Staggers Act, that will help you understand why this happened, they also were getting over decades of having to serve passenger lines also that cost them dearly….
@0:55 They should have done a PRR train colliding head-on with a NYC train, with a piece of metal from the PRR engine carrying the "Penn" lettering landing beside a piece of metal from the NYC engine with "Central" on it, those who have seen the airline merger in the show "F is for Family" will know what I mean! @1:39 In 2 years, it'll be quite clear you've combined the worst of those roads! @1:45 In two years, we'll call you bankrupt! @7:21 They actually built new lines!? @9:49 *sigh* We know they won't look that pristine for long... @11:58 Again, yet they still ended up with cars missing or abandoned all over the system! @13:06 And just look at where those "bold steps" got you... @14:01 Don't you talk to us about that "rebuilt" Pennsylvania Station! @14:39 And, of course, we all know how that turned out! @15:12 You probably should have listened to them... @17:52 You can say that again! @18:26 Only for a year, maybe...
I can’t tell if the train passing at 3:30-3:35 has a Amtrak livery (livery=paint job), what does ironic because Amtrak is/was result for the consolidation of the railroads industry in the U.S.
It was the test Metroliner and it had the PRR livery (possibly with USDOT markings too as the agency was a sponsor). You see it again at 4:36
Consolidation was not the reason for Amtrak. Passenger trains would have been a problem at that time for freight railroads whether they had consolidated or not.
Probably spent more on this film and the slick new Saul Bass style logo than they did on rolling stock and road...'sixth largest corporation' couldn't even organise a grope at an office Christmas party!
I love how even in this video they said they were already broke lmao
After merging the 2 best railroads, they created the one WORST RAILROAD, so bad that Penn Central only lasted for 2 years and declared bankruptcy.
What a depressing end to two great American railroads
Is Shatner the narrator?
11:14 an early bar code basically.
Save yer money, 1968!
Wow what a difference six years makes!!
They probably divested too much and ventured to outward into real estate, amusement parks and other ventures and enterprises neglecting their core railroad infrastructure and equipment that lead to its downfall just a few years later. Then at that time when they would more properly say "Call Us Poor Central" when they were begging for a taxpayer funded government bailout.
At 12:50 what the heck are those first 2 cars in that train?
It looks like old NH steamliners
Penn Central started great in 1968. By 1974 it was rammed into the ground.
Pretty much everything was rammed into the ground by then!