1 L NEXT MONTH WE HAVE THE HONOR OF PUBLISHING ... READERS' SERVICE We do not stock the following items, but as a reader convenience we can order gold rush days, illus. Far Wheels, Charles Small. Off beaten $4.50 Frisco Folks. Wm. E. Bain. Stories of UP Coal $2.50 1911 il $3.00 L&N Steam Locos. 128 pgs., 240 photos Locos of the SP. Angel's Flight Railway. Illus. history Denver & Interurban Ft. Collins Hawalian Tramways. 32 pg. illus. trolley 76 pgs.. $3.00 76 pgs., Locos and Cars since 1900. A picture packed plan book. Rare photos. $5.00 Locos of the PRR 1834-1924. 135 photos, 25 dwgs. old prints. 40 photos, 15 rare lines. 80 pgs. -$3.00 Album $1.10 New Jersey Short Line Railroads. Men, Cities & Transportation (2 volumes) $12.50 Mixed Train Dally, 4th edition. 370 pgs., 300 photos on short line roads. $9.50 Monorails, Botzow, Jr. Types, cars, track, structures 104 pgs., Illus. $3.95 Pacific Electric Railway. 8" x 11" pictorial history, map. $3.75 Policy Formation in Railroad Finance. Steps in Burl. refinance $4.50 on the Pacific Coast. Rights of Trains. Peter Josserand 480 pages, rules $10.00 Portfolio of American Locos 1870-1880. $3.00 Recordings 578 pgs. Comstock Mining and Miners. Covered Bridges Middle Atlantic States. Foreign RR Magazines 12", 33% rpm unless otherwise noted B&O (10"). Switcher and EM-1's on Potomac Edison (10"). Box motor Reading 2124. Famous loco Iron Horse Soo Line, IC Steam Power (10). Westside Lumber Company (10) $4.50 $4.50 Whistlos in the Woods. Shays, Heislers $4.50 Railroad Movies Canadian National (10′′). Variety of (10′′). $4.50 Rocky Mountain Railway Guide 1906. Trains. Henry. Electronic Age Edition. 152 pages, 9′′ x 12′′ (U.S. and Possessions only) 350 ft., 8 mm. $12.25 300 ft., sound, 16 mm. $18.25 On the Pennsylvania. Variety at Horeshoe Curve. 150 ft., 8 mm. $5.25 300 ft. sound, 16 mm. $18.25 Railroading in the East (1897-19061. 12 early trains, 200 ft., 8 mm. $7.25) Steam Trains Out of Dearborn. 175 ft., 8 mm. $6.25 Ten-Wheeler to Duplex. 300 ft., 8 mm. $12.25 Trolley Cavalcade. City & interurban ac tion. 8mm, 200', b&w $9.50, color $19.50 Readers' Service Dept. 2385C, Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1027 N. 7th St., Milwaukee 3, Wis. Engen. NEWS & EDITORIAL COMMENT edited/DAVID P. MORGAN NYC+PRR AND THE I.C.C. I THOSE who thought it was im possible to further complicate the Eastern railroad merger picture received a surprise November 8, 1961, when New York Central and Pennsylvania jointly declared their intention to marry - just four years and seven days after their first courtship began back in 1957. No one disputed then (or will now) estimated savings of 100 million dollars a year from consolidation of the nation's two largest railroads, nor has anyone contested the acute need for such savings (both roads expect to wind up 1961 in the red). What concerned many was the fact that so huge a proposition as NYC + PRR automatically ruled out any possibility of two or more competitively balanced railroad systems in the East. By all indices of size but route-mileage and profits, NYC + PRR overshadows any other railroad, proposed or in being, in the U.S., to say nothing of the East. Indeed, size was a publicly acknowledged reason why Central quit dating Pennsy in January 1959 and its President A. E. Perlman suggested that the Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference explore the possibilities of voluntarily creating three or four balanced systems from among its ranks. The ERPC ignored that proposal, Central couldn't find another partner, and finally the nation's No. 2 railroad found itself unable to crash the party of C&O-B&O and panicked by the "gargantuan empire" it felt Pennsy was constructing through the agency of Norfolk & Western (in which PRR has a third ownership interest). Renewal of NYC+PRR merger proceedings resolves some present problems in the East, namely Central's stern and weighty objections to C&O control of B&O as well as N&W's bid for NKP and Wabash. But Chesapeake & Ohio's joy would surely be of brief duration. Suppose Chessie acquires control of B&O and subsequently absorbs it - what next? Every other road of consequence in the East has now been spoken for. And despite protestations of independence from both parties, Pennsy and N&W must be considered blood relatives so long as the former owns a third of the latter. Chessie, then, is not confronted with simply NYC + PRR but rather NYC + PRR+N&W +NKP+Wabash. Plus Erie-Lackawanna as well as little Pittsburgh & West Virginia, which have dropped their objections to N&W's empire building in exchange for a promise to be included in the ceremony. The only palatable alternative, it would appear, would be to merge all Eastern railroads, which is at this date unthinkable. Either that, or have Pennsy dispose of its stock interests in both N&W and Wabash, which is also unthinkable. Less than a month before NYC and PRR began holding hands again the man who knows more about railroad mergers than anyone else in the country issued a prediction which may turn out to be more meaningful as a result of the news. Said John W. Barriger: "I venture to predict that the next great step in mergers will be a regional plan for the East, promulgated or sponsored by the Interstate Commerce Commission. If the Commission defaults in performing this duty, then some other Governmental body will of necessity undertake it. The public interest will ultimately be served." Barriger's enthusiasm for a master plan stems from the fact that all roads would merge simultaneously whereas what he terms the "present, piecemeal, incomplete and nationally and regionally irresponsible approach to consolidation on a 'pick and choose' basis" means that "railroads excluded from major mergers and their service areas . . . become 'orphans of the storm,' doomed to inferior status, with the only prospect of rescue from it coming from the cheerless possibility that their resulting fiscal deterioration may finally make these properties available for acquisition on a fire sale basis. . . ." Exactly. What exposes so many merger proposals to criticism is the fact that they are designed for the exclusive benefit of the participants and make little if any allowance for the fact that railroads are an interdependent industry. Earnings stem from and could not exist without the interchange of traffic which makes national freight service possible. No other region, for example, so urgently requires the financial therapy of a merger as New England, yet consolidation discussions there ended in a stalemate because relatively prosperous Bangor & Aroostook was aghast at the idea of mixing its securities with those of boundfor-bankruptcy New Haven. And yet should NH disappear, followed by B&M and Maine Central, BAR would die in a vacuum. Naturally no strong property wants to buy into the debt of Central, say, or the commuters of C&NW or the thinly trafficked Pacific extension of Milwaukee Road, and yet such "orphans of the storm" are the roads which need merger benefits most critically. The Interstate Commerce Commission reacts rather than acts in our time and thus far it has considered only merger proposals submitted by individual carriers and has thereby defaulted on its legal right to draw up regional plans of its own design. We would prefer that the Association of American Railroads acting nationally, or such groups as the ERPC operating regionally, would face up to the inevitable and blueprint over-all merger THIS holiday season seems an appropriate occasion to tell you what we've just found under our tree from you. The circulation department tells us that TRAINS has just posted a 77.5 per cent subscription renewal average. It's regarded as the millennium in magazine circles when better than 7 out of every 10 subscribers sign up again upon receipt of their renewal notices, so you're quite correct — we are as pleased as can be. For the essence of the 77.5 statistic is that all of us have been able to share, in word and photo, the very worth-while world of railroading. So here's to a smoky, cindery, clicketyclack holiday season; may all of your signals be "high green" throughout the New Year we're entering. Kalmbach Publishing Co. 1961. Title reg. Pat. Off. Published monthly by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1027 N. 7th St., Milwaukee 3. Wis., U.S.A. BRoadway 2-2060. Western Union and cable address: KALPUB Milwaukee. A. C. Kalmbach, President. Joseph C. O'Hearn, General Sales Manager. Ward Zimmer, Advertising Manager. TRAINS assumes no responsibility for the safe return of unsolicited editorial material. Acceptable photographs are held in files and are paid for upon publication. Second-class postage paid at Milwaukee, Wis. Printed in U.S.A. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $6; 2 YEARS, $11; 3 YEARS, $15. For life, $60. Outside the Americas, 50 cents a year additional (for life, $5 additional). BI MEMBER ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES HOT: Burlington's hotshot, Advance CD, covers the 1000-plus miles from Chicago to Denver in 21 hours 45 minutes (pre-Zephyr limited of 1935, the Aristocrat, took 25 hours 45 minutes), and fastest-ever freights CN-7 and NC-8 of Illinois Central are now scheduled over 928mile Chicago-New Orleans run in 28 hours flat. EQUIPMENT: For hauling tobacco in hogsheads, Southern has come up with world's biggest box a 92-foot 121⁄2-inch job so long it needs skylights in roof at each end to illuminate recesses of interior. Illinois Central recently purchased seven 60-foot postwar (Pullman 1946) streamlined coaches from C&EI for $8050. Each car cost $60,000 total (purchase price plus overhaul) vs. an estimated $176,000 apiece for brand-new cars. Numbered 2500-2506, they're in service on City of Miami (four), City of New Orleans (two), and Green Diamond (one). HURRY UP, I.C.C.!: There's been another train-tanktruck disaster. On June 21, 1961, a tractortrailer with 6200 gallons of gasoline failed to stop at a grade crossing in Bettendorf, Ia., and was struck by a Burlington freight moving 10-15 mph with headlight on, horn blowing, and bell ringing. Resultant fire killed engineer, fire man, head brakeman, and driver. I.C.C. investigation of all such accidents is pending. ON UP: Although carloadings generally were off 7.6 per cent in the first 46 weeks of 1961 vs. the same plans which would simultaneously allocate every railroad, no matter how small or weak, a place in the sun. Unfortunately, such statesmanship has not been exhibited in spite of such deafening alarm bells as the financial deterioration of Eastern roads in general and of New Haven in particular, so the Commission must act. And if NYC + PRR doesn't get the regulatory body off its duff, nothing will. Can railroading survive? "I am one of those pessimists who believes that the railways can disappear and that they may well disappear unless railway management is able to find solutions for the many problems that now beset us." So Dr. O. M. Solandt, a Canadian National vice-president, described himself last November in a speech to the Railway Systems and Management Association, the industry's liveliest forum. He then defined his vision of railroading in the next 10 to 15 years - providing technology keeps pace: FREIGHT TRAFFIC - It has "great potential" because no other means of transport can move so much so far so cheaply. Except pipelines. Solandt thinks it's likely the rails will lose substantial tonnage in certain commodities to pipelines as the movement of solids in pipes is perfected, but he thinks the losses will not be lethal. PASSENGER TRAFFIC "The short-term outlook is not encouraging." Still, he sees "clear indications of a steady and rising demand for improved urban and suburban rail services, and of an increased willingness to pay for them." Also, as highways and airways grow more crowded, "some of you may live to see an active revival of the [long-distance] rail passenger business." THE FUTURE-Solandt sees in his crystal ball a "relatively simple network of main lines carrying relatively long-haul traffic at very high density. All thin traffic branch lines and many industrial sidings will have been abandoned." Rail and highway services will be integrated with piggyback trailers or containers providing door-to-door delivery. Fundamental to such railroading will be a low-cost, thoroughly reliable freight car truck, which will mean radical changes in such components as wheels, brakes, and bearings. Next, he wants a "reliable automatic coupling that will couple the air hose and the draft gear without human intervention" as a first step toward automatic train operation. We accept automatic vertical transportation (i.e., elevators) without question, so Solandt thinks train operation with no hands is quite practical — if not imminent. Also needed: a data processing system that will permit a "central memory" to provide from one source accurate, up-to-date data on every freight car's number, type, load, origin, destination, revenue, location, shipper, and consignee. Moreover, railways should own compatible data processing systems. One result which could save "a great deal of time, money, and irritation" would be a central clearing house for all interline charges, whether for freight car service, rental, or repair. Another benefit could be the operation of a car and locomotive pool whereby equipment could be moved, continentwise, from areas of surplus to areas of shortage; most roads today own more diesels and cars than they need simply to meet traffic peaks of short duration. As for locomotives, Solandt sees no threat to the diesel in "existing cycles of transformation of nuclear energy to heat, heat to steam, and steam to electricity or mechanical energy" but direct nuclear energy-to-electricity transformations might "radically alter the picture." Also on the horizon: direct-drive gas turbines, with either free-piston or gasturbine gas producers. CN's man believes the threat to such technological progress lies in the industry's "pitifully small" research budget. He'd like to see the Association of American Railroads undertake "a vastly expanded research program to be paid for by the railways on some assessment basis and probably with substantial help from the Government." Sums up Solandt: "An initial budget of 10 million dollars a year would be a useful target. This is an astronomical expenditure for research when compared with past performance by the railway industry but is small in comparison to the expenditures for research now being made by some of the growth industries and by the Government. It would represent roughly one-tenth of 1 per cent of the gross revenue of railways. Many industries consider that they must spend from 1 to 5 per cent of their gross revenue on research in order to remain in business." His implication was all too clear for comfort. RS&MA delegates received small solace from another forthright speaker, North American Car's Director of Planning Aaron J. Gellman. "The pressure to conform in railroading is all but irresistible, and I believe, has cost the carriers dearly," he declared. He points out that because all lines are interdependent and must work in concert to provide national service through interchange of traffic and equipment, "it becomes possible for a few strategically placed carriers to stifle completely certain innovations that might otherwise be incorporated in the equipment subject to such interchange. Gellman defines the attitude of these obstructionists as "automatic generalized rejection" and he cites as evidence singleaxle trucks.* "There are railroad officials," he said, "who willingly tell you that four-wheel cars simply won't work - won't stay on the rails - if their axle centers are more than a relatively short distance apart. I have had the frustrating experience of listening to such people say, 'It won't work and we know it won't work because it hasn't in the past and because it violates basic design principles.' And such people persist in this even after the presentation of test results which conclusively prove that it can and does work when appropriate engineering techniques are employed." Gellman *North American Car imported the German-built AutoPorter last year, a 4-axle, 8-wheel, 119-foot 2-inch double-deck flat of articulated construction. The car, which utilizes single-axle trucks, is now a-testing on B&O see page 11. 8mm. MOVIES (All Listed Movies Are in 8mm., Black and White) AND 2′′ x 2′′ COLOR SLIDES LARGEST SELECTION OF RAILROAD LOGGING RAILROADS OF THE WEST Photographed by Mac Owen Here is beautifully photographed and extensive coverage of steam power on three of the important logging_railroads of the West Southwest Lumber Mills out of Flagstaff, Arizona; both the Clallam and the Grays Harbor operations of Rayonier on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State; and the West Side Lumber Company out of Tuolumne, Calif., this latter operation just recently having been transferred to highway trucks. You'll see narrow gauge and standard gauge steam power Shay and Heisler geared steam locomotives -Mallets saddle tank jobs! Sharp curves high trestles long trains of logs rocking and rolling along through cuts and gashes in the forest! 810-276, 8mm. black and white version, about 300-feet, pp-21c 620-88, 16mm. silent black and white version, about 600-feet, pp-19c $9.98 $29.98 thinks the container may well become the dominant method of moving goods, that "it is possible, even probable," that the optimum container car will be of singleaxle configuration or articulated or both, and that those who reject such equipment out-of-hand may be "irreparably harming the entire industry by such tactics." Gellman concedes that Government regulatory and depreciation policies have helped to stifle equipment innovations as have labor pressures (e.g., "useless running boards cannot be eliminated and some long-travel longitudinal cushioning devices cannot be freely applied because of unreasoning labor demands which can only serve to reduce still further the railroad share of the transport market and in turn bring about the elimination of even more railway labor jobs"). But he reserved his sternest criticism for management, and in particular those who employ what he termed "panoramic oversight." This malady, he explained, is "perhaps displayed most dramatically when a railroad spokesman publicly blames all the woes of this industry of ours on external factors beyond the control of the industry and fails to recognize that in spite of all the unfair regulatory, tax, competitive, labor, and other handicaps imposed upon us— - which I deplore as much as any man we have had and still retain within our own hands the means by which to press home the inherent advantages possessed by steel rails traversed by steel wheels." Our sympathies We hope the eyesight and hearing of I.C.C. Examiner Paul C. Albus haven't been impaired by the nearly 11 weeks' worth of public hearings over whether Santa Fe or Southern Pacific should win control of Western Pacific. Albus opened the hearings last July and wound them up in time to hurry home (on SP's City of San Francisco) to Washington, D.C., for a belated Thanksgiving dinner. During that time he heard in five western cities the testimony of 485 witnesses who introduced 320 exhibits and gave 221⁄2 million words of opinion on who should control WP. And now Albus is poring over 9500 pages of blue-bound transcript in order to arrive at an opinion for the Commission to approve or reject. Now, if 1188-mile WP can generate 22 million words, will the proposed 24,000mile Great Northern Pacific & Burlington Lines case produce 50 million words? Passenger points All of a sudden it seems that everybody and his brother are alarmed lest anyone think they don't want to stay with the passenger business. For example: "Our passenger traffic is holding up very ... well in the face of mounting competition," declares President Ernest S. Marsh of Santa Fe. In late November, Christmas season reservations were running 10 per cent ahead of December 1960 and the Super Chief was scoring a "whopping 43 per cent increase" in advance sales. In 1960 Santa Fe managed to reverse declining passenger revenues when sales climbed 1.3 per cent over those of 1959 and for the first three quarters of 1961 the business continued to hold its own. . . Missouri Pacific raised eyebrows just before Thanksgiving by kicking off a three-year program to rebuild its entire fleet of almost 600 passenger cars at its Sedalia (Mo.) shops and announcing plans to buy 50 new mail and express cars in 1962. "These two programs should spike rumors that the Missouri Pacific is trying to get out of the passenger business,' said newly elected President Downing B. Jenks. . . . President W. Thomas Rice of Atlantic Coast Line was just as emphatic when he told his passenger reps that we "are living in an age in which the average American would tell you that the railroads are not interested in passenger business . . . that they are trying to downgrade it . . . but that is not true on Coast Line, and don't let anyone tell you it is. We are constantly endeavoring to serve the traveling public just as much as we are the freight shipper." Elsewhere on the passenger front: "I'm afraid Ihra's escort days are over," says Burlington's P.T.M. of his chief ticket-seller in Chicago, Ihra Frank. While escorting the road's week-end excursions to Colorado, Ihra met and began talking to a Rosemary Kolle of Chicago. That was on a "Trip to Paradise" tour over the last Labor Day week end. And that was followed by a December 2 wedding, with a reception at the Fred Harvey Canterbury Room in Union Station and a ride on the Kansas City Zephyr to Aurora to begin their honeymoon at the Hilton Inn. ¶At year's end the A.A.R.'s statisticians were predicting a 1961 total of 19.5 billion passenger-miles for the rails whereas bus travel has recovered from a long decline and is expected to total more than its 1960 figure of 20.4 billion passenger-miles. ¶Little 465-mile Detroit, Toledo & Ironton is proposing Detroit-Frankfort (Mich.) passenger service if it acquires even smaller 294-mile Ann Arbor, presently freight only and Wabash owned. ¶Effective October 29, 1961, B&O's Baltimore-St. Louis National Limited began operating through Cumberland, Md., instead of bypassing that city on the Patterson Creek Cutoff. Strange but true: Canadian Pacific's new credit card covers its airline, steam ships, and hotels, but excludes rail services. Company says nonrail services are "more manageable in terms of billing and accounting" but says the matter is "still being studied from a number of angles." Footnote: Rival Canadian National issues travel credit cards covering rail transportation, TCA air space, hotels, excess baggage charges, sleeping and parlor car space, and meals. ¶On November 8, 1961, Burlington's Denver Zephyr celebrated its 25th anniversary. Since 1936 the streamliners have carried some 51⁄2 million passengers, rolled 19.8 million miles, served more than 6 million meals. Re-equipped by Budd five years ago, today's domed Denver Zephyrs have netted a 9.1 million dollar operating profit on gross revenues of 22.7 million dollars since 1956. At the blackboard In his monthly printed chats with his employees, onetime schoolteacher Wayne A. Johnston, now Illinois Central's president, proves himself one of the industry's more articulate spokesmen. Recently he did a little figuring about 40 years' worth of railroading, the length of time it takes an IC man to get a lifetime pass and, in Johnston's words, a "good working lifetime." In 1920, a prosperous year, IC employed 62,750 persons with an average annual wage of $1713, paid 107 million dollars in paychecks, and earned a bit more than 131⁄2 million itself. Since then commodity prices have risen by about one half. In 1960 IC employed 24,500 persons with an average annual wage of $5950, paid out 146 million dollars in paychecks, earned a bit more than 11 million itself. Thus during four decades, railroading on the IC has worked out like this: Today's company takes 39 per cent fewer people to operate, yet the over-all payroll is up because these men and women are earning almost 21⁄2 times more (even though average prices are up by only half). Including fringe benefits (e.g., IC pays $27 a month per employee toward his retirement, $14 on unemployment taxes), the average annual wage is really $7080. And the company is earning somewhat less itself. Of course, IC has earned as high as 26.5 million a year (in 1955) since the war but also as low as 7.4 million (in 1946). Again, in view of the high retail prices prevailing in 1920, $1713 may not be regarded as a decent wage. Still, one might draw the conclusion (which Johnston did not) that in 1960 the employee was getting his fair share of the company's gross. Indeed, if present trends continue, the road will need just 10,000 people by the year 2000 but each will receive $14,500 or so, fewer fringe benefits; IC itself will earn a bit less NEXT MONTH: AN EXCLUSIVE FIRST-HAND FIELD REPORT ON D&RGW'S GERMAN DIESEL-HYDRAULICS |
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