This 1928 Saturday evening Post ad reads: A new fleet of thoroughbreds to haul the new York Central limiteds This winter a new fleet of thoroughbreds of the rails - the giant "Hudson" type locomotives - is being placed in service...
That is a bunch of trains. Remember this is at the time that the depression was starting and the auto was starting to emerge as THE mode of transportation. It mentions how many sections were run and this brings to mind a story an engineer told me how they would run between Elkhart and Toledo. The Century at that time was running with about 2 or 3 sections and the signals were about 1 mile apart not the 2 miles as they are today. The mile spacing was why they had the advance approach signal,so that you could be brought down to the correct speed at the second signal. Now these sections were running on each others block,meaning an approach indication. The engineer on the following section was watching the signal indication that the train in front of him was getting,the track between the two points was almost straight,because they were running that close to each other. they did do some railroading back then.And the second engineer would be running on a clear signal but as he hit that signal it would come up approach and flip to clear and so there was not a violaton of the rules. LEW
We would if Amtrak had been allowed to operate as a federally subsidized independent non-profit corporation. With that freedom, Amtrak management would be allowed to operate efficiently with long-term strategic planning and annual incentives based on how close to a zero dollar loss each fiscal year ended. This concept is simple...a block of money would be defined in the Federal Budget and set aside for Amtrak's operating deficit each fiscal year. At the end of the fiscal year, the deficit would be paid from this set-aside. Any money left over after the deficit had been paid would then be awarded as incentive bonuses. The smaller the deficit, the larger the bonus. Annual incentives would guarantee the deficits were as low as possible. As it is now, Amtrak is a starving orphan stepchild micro-managed by Congress, forced to beg for budgets before each fiscal year begins, and with no incentives for doing a good job, all of which is a guarantee for inefficient operation and failure.
Roger, thanks for posting that. We are both about the same age and so have actually witnessed the last years of these magnificent Hudsons. Wouldn't it be great to have been about 25 years old back when they started, armed with today's digital cameras? We could have collected some treasures. Ah, but then we would have had to live through the depression. I still think the NYCS Hudsons were the most beautiful steam locomotives to operate here in the USA.
