First run of Amtrak's version of the Broadway Limited - May 1, 1971

 

The original photos are 120 Ektrachrome transparencies. The've never been projected, and the only way I've ever seen them before was to hold them up to the light.

 

On May 1, 1971, Amtrak's much-watered-down version of the former flagship of the Pennsylvania Railroad made its first stop in Fort Wayne. I was there to document its 45-minute-late arrival with a broken-down locomotive, and the splicing on of a Penn Central freight unit to help it on its way.

 

While I was waiting at the former PRR depot, I took a photo of the Wabash depot across the tracks and a block east. The Cannonball, last train to stop there, had made its last run the previous day.

 

 

Train 40 arrives:

 

 

 

Until I scanned these transparencies this evening, I never realized that the elderly gentleman in the brown suit, walking toward the camera, was the man who became my next-door neighbor a year later when I bought my first house.<br>

 

 

 

 

Takes us back to the time.  Great shots!

Great photos Rob. Thanks for posting them.

 

I was four years old. I had my first train ride that year at Strasburg, PA. I never recovered....

This is so awesome, Rob.  I love it when you scan your film because the photos are old, but they are so preserved that they look like they were taken just yesterday.  This must have been before Amtrak adopted a color scheme, right?

The various roads stopped operating passenger trains one day, and Amtrak started up the next. The only major passenger-carrying roads that didn't go in with Amtrak at the outset, I think, were Southern and Rio Grande. Of the approximately 4,800 pooled pieces of "Heritage Fleet" rolling stock (cars and locomotives), only about 1,200 pieces were deemed fit for use or worthy of rehabilitating. The Broadway Limited consist that day included Penn Central locomotives and fluted stainless steel Penn Central cars, and some smooth-sided Union Pacific cars in Armour Yellow. Those continued to show up in the Broadway for quite some time.

 

The mix-and-match consists were problematic in some cases, because despite the basic similarities, each railroad had some of its own unique features. Maintenance and on-board crews didn't always know how to operate or trouble-shoot things like temperature controls, for example.

 

My first long-distance trip on Amtrak was to San Francisco in 1973. I went coach (never again!), and the car I rode in was former Santa Fe, still in its original livery and with its original seating. It was v-a-a-a-astly superior in comfort to anything Amtrak operates today. The seats had springs and deep padding and full leg rests, and reclined waaay back. The coach would have been quite adequate for overnight travel if not for the troop of long-unshowered Boy Scouts who boarded in the middle of the night someplace in Colorado and proceeded to remove their shoes.

very cool rob.

 

you know the first one really got me thinking about that great piece of americana, the wabash cannonball, which of course had it's very own theme song. here's a verse:

 

    I have rode the I.C. Limited, also the Royal Blue

    Across the Eastern countries on Elkhorn Number Two

    I have rode those highball trains from coast to coast that's all

    But I have found no equal on the Wabash Cannonball.

The various roads stopped operating passenger trains one day, and Amtrak started up the next. The only major passenger-carrying roads that didn't go in with Amtrak at the outset, I think, were Southern and Rio Grande.

 

Actually, there were six railroads that didn't join Amtrak:

 

Southern (joined Amtrak in 1979)

Rio Grande (joined Amtrak in 1983)

Rock Island (discontinued its trains by 1978)

Georgia Railroad (discontinued its mixed trains)

Reading (discontinued its trains)

Central of New Jersey (discontinued its trains)

 

The last two railroads jointly operated the Crusader and Wall Street trains between New York City and Philadelphia which were little more the glorified commuter trains at the end.

I recall an article that said that the Wabash Railroad named its train for the song, and not vice versa. I haven't seen any confirmation or refutation of that elsewhere.

 

The Wabash and PRR tracks through downtown are eleveated, and the Wabash waiting room was one storey above street level. It had lots of large windows. The interior was finished in white terra cotta tile, making for a very bright, open-feeling space.

 

The Wabash Depot was razed about 1973, and had a fire at night after demolition began. I know of at least three demolitions by that contractor that burned after work was started. The fires expedited demolition and consumed large quantities of materials that otherwise would have had to have been hauled away and disposed of. I wouldn't want to imply anything illegal or environmentally irresponsible; the fires probably were just coincidences.

 

Those open vistas along the Wabash and PRR rights-of-way are now completely overgrown and choked off by ailanthus altissima (stink trees/trees of heaven), the former PRR has been single-tracked, and the PRR platforms have been bulldozed.