End of an Era: 1968-1972

[MrCzechers]

Today all of that old dining car stuff (dishes, glasses, silverware) sells for good money on EBay. I have some ACL, SAL, SCL, FEC, Southern, & Amtrak silverware & dishes. They're all beautiful.

[wrailfan]

0:08-0:10 Lancaster, PA!

[wicky201]

What a depressing song!!

[gothpapa]

@wicky201 Yes, well for many of us it was the End of An Era and a sad time, the song does reflect that rather well.

[Automcanic]

1:56 Toledo, Water Level Route, Central Union Terminal (not a terminal lol)

[01indianpacific]

love seeing the balt an ohio pic's i use to film that train at the forest glen crossing in silver spring maryland

[Northeastern292]

0:49-is that the D&H station in Plattsburgh? I thought I saw some shots from the Laurentian and the Montreal Limited.

[gothpapa]

@Northeastern292 I rode the Laurentian during the winter of 1970-1971. I believe that's Plattsburgh, but will leave it to someone who know's the D&H better than I to confirm it. For those who may not know it, the D&H was one of three railroads that opted out of AMTRAK in the early days (the other two were the D&RGW and Southern). I managed to ride all three before they succumbed. I was dissapointed that the Laurentian did not have the PA's on the day I rode, but I did see them next day.

[howardkevinm]

@Northeastern292 ya its the Plattsburgh station. ive been passed it on the Amtrak Andirondack

[TheLifeOfEpic]

It's sad to look at Denver and see so many tracks with only one train a day in each direction.

[abooboo4u]

At 1:37 ... I have seen thousands of pictures, Hundreds of books and spent 37 years on the ATSF then BNSF......I don't recall ever seeing a lash up as is shown on the ATSF train.....FP-45...U-30CG...U-2­8CG...All in the Warbonnet paint scheme.....I wonder what train that is...judging from the heavyweight baggage car on the head end.....we can rule out the Super Chier.......I have been enjoying all your RR videos gothpapa....thanks for posting these gems...Best Wishes.......El Fat Boy Texcino

[gothpapa]

@abooboo4u Made that picture at Dearborn St. in Chicago, 1968. It was one of the Texas trains I believe.

[glasscitadel12]

Amtrak is cool, but Santa Fe and Rock Island were super cool!!! i miss the good old days of catching the railroad out of the Polk street station/chi-town.

[ACLTony]

Seaboard Coast Line NY to Florida trains offered decent, clean, courteous service. Not mentioned often is that SCL passenger trains were profitable right up until the formation of Amtrak. Had it not been for the big 1968 Winter Haven wreck, SCL might have opted out of Amtrak. Southern Pacific and Penn Central managers, reportedly worked to discourage the public from riding their trains.

[gothpapa]

@ACLTony I can't say that PC manages were working to discourage the public from riding their trains, but they sure as hell weren't doing anything to encourage it. Without a doubt the worst trains I rode during the end times were on the PC -- mostly the former Pensy trains. I think it was the 63-64 that ran thru Cleveland, it was pretty decent to the end. Also the James Whitcomb Riley and the Broadway were OK. Didn't have much experience with the corridor trains.

[gregrudd]

What I would be interested in is what was the worst roads for passenger service. From what I read Mopac, L&N, PC and SP had the worst reputation while ATSF, SCL and SOU had the best. Would that be a fair assumption to make.

[gothpapa]

@gregrudd That's pretty subjective, hard to answer. I assume that you are talking about the "end times." Speaking from my experiences in the late 60s: PC would definitely be somewhere near the top of the pretty awful list -- especially the former Pennsy trains, although the Broadway stayed pretty classy to the end, by PC standards. Also the SP Coast Daylight, except that it kept the parlor-obs. I didnt experience the L&N. (To be continued.)

[gothpapa]

@gregrudd (Continued.) ATSF and SOU definitely, I didn't experience the SCL. Also, UP should be somewhere near the top of the best list. I rode the KC-to-Denver train shortly before it came off: full service lounge, diner, two coaches and a sleeper, everything clean and functioning. Hard to beat in 1969. The Zephyrs, Empire Builder, and Capitol Ltd were still enjoyable train riding experiences in my opinion. And then there were some anomalies like the D&H Laurentian.

[gregrudd]

@gothpapa

The reason why I put SCL in as they were thinking of doing a SOU and staying out of Amtrak but went in at the last min.

[howardkevinm]

can someone tell me where that GG1 is leaving from?

[gothpapa]

@howardkevinm Lancaster, PA.

[endrizzi5]

i hate amtrak because it ended the el captin and the congressinal :(

[3rdStreetStudio]

spectacular video friend.

thank you so much for sharing it with all us train fans.

[gothpapa]

Glad you enjoyed it.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those involved in creating the internet and YouTube for providing me with the means to share this stuff with such a large and appreciative audience.

[incidious13]

Thanx for another piece of history!!!

[VilquinProductions]

RIP Utah!

[VilquinProductions]

I really hate the fact that Amtrak took over passenger train service, the colorful paintschemes and service basically everywhere is now a memory, quickly being paved over with double-decker, silver blahness. One good thing about it is, passenger trains were saved in bits and pieces of what they used to be, and the government found Amtrak so slow that their planning high speed trains through major cities that Amtrak forgot (like Madison, Wisconsin!). Thanx fur sharin'! 5 thumbs up!

[gothpapa]

Well, in the late 60's and early 70's when I was riding and filming these trains I thought it was the end of American rail passenger service. Period. And even when Amtrak became a reality I never thought that it would still be around for my grandchildren. So I guess we can be thankful for small favors.

[AODProds]

I think so too. Back in the 50's, we had all kinds of different railroads serving LAUPT, from SP to ATSF, but now its just Metrolink and Amtrak, and that's really it. Unfortunately, when the automobile and airline businesses started to hog the limelight in the late-1950's, the railroads couldn't do much about it.

-Alex

[Neville6000]

@AODProds: And the reason the airlines took over is because of the subsidies given to them, as well as the facet that nobody ever invested in high speed passenger rail-which Amtrak is now trying to catch up to with the Acela.

[AODProds]

Such a sad time for railroads...

-Alex