I was here at my desk looking at my B&O calander and what did I see for todays date... mg: ... :angry: ... :sad: ... The B&O lasted 160 years and 5 days until the Chicken **** eXpress officially merged the classiest Railroad of all times into a fallen flag on April 30th, 1987. Ouch!!
It is a shame to think back to when the B&O operated Big Sixes, T3 Mountains; beautiful Alco FA2s in blue, gray, black, with gold lettering hauling freight over some of the most pristine and well maintained track and roadbed in the entire country. I'll never forget standing with my father by the brick two-story depot at Garrett Indiana, watching the Capitol Limited coming in to the station being pulled by those great E7s and E8s. What a wonderful sight, and especially the sound, of those 12-cylinder diesel engines idling - and then hearing the engineer notch up the throttle as they pulled out of the station. I spent as much time as I could in the mid-1970s watching for the last of the B&O F7s, and then I would send my reports to Jim Edmonston so that he could write about my reports in his monthly column in Railroad Magazine. I believe his column was called "Trackside in the Diesel Age". It is a shame to see possibly one of the greatest Class One railroads in the country - once run by great men such as John Garrett, Daniel Willard, and Jervis Langdon, Jr., now run by Harvard Business School-types who consider the employees to be expendable and easily replaceable "liabilities". These "Masters-of-Business" degreed bean-counters who are only concerned with their own "golden parachutes", and look no farther ahead than the next business quarter - and make decisions based on their own investment portfolios, and not the health, safety, or welfare of the CSX employees and families. Now the once proud, the blue and gray and gold, the railroad that used this nation's Capitol Building as it's herald - now a cold-hearted corporate-conglomerate that seeks out and hires crafty lawyers to extort a dollar from someone who wishes to produce a simple tee-shirt using a herald or logo of a fallen flag that CSX has no real interest in preserving - except for those dollars they extort to grant "permission" for use. A once great railroad that recognized that railfans were part of the public that the railroad served. Now we have to deal with thick-headed maintenance crews that drive onto private property to challenge us as railfans - and they dare remind us not to trespass on CSX property while they themselves are trespassing. But then again, these crews would not act this way if they had not been "trained" and told to do these things by their managers. But still, for the most part, the crews in the cabs of today's AC4400's are still quite friendly to the average railfan - most of them being railfans and model railroaders themselves. 160 years and 5 days. Lo, how the mighty hath fallen.
That is what I lament the most- the impersonalization of CSX. The B&O had a "good neighbor" policy that recognized they and the community were inter-connected. Nowadays CSX is content to skulk its way through the areas it traverses. I have not had a problem with the CSX bully boys yet, but I figure the day is coming.
I had called CSX a long time ago to ask if I could get permission to walk onto the CSX property by the depot at Thurmond West VA to take some pics of the remaining buildings. I explained that I had been given permission in the past by the Train Master in Grand Rapids to access CSX property - and even had signed a waiver that stated that I was responsible for any injury I might incurr. I also told her that I maintained a website for the Garrett Historical Society and was a member of the C&O Historical Society. Here was the "Public Relations" lady's answer: "Absolutely not!!! If you cross onto CSX property, you will be arrested and prosecuted for trespassing. The Train Master in Grand Rapids has no authority to permit non-CSX people on the company property." mg::angry: A really pleasant experience. :thumbs_down:
This is policy on most railroads today. The big disconnect, began with frantic closings of depots/agencies. Doing all business remotely via 1-800 numbers. It supposedly saved money. (In many cases it did not.) But most important, severed their direct ties to that community. Nowadays, you'll find too many towns, where there's not even a resident who ever worked for the railroad. Most folks don't even remember the history. (Also fault of our lousy schools.) UP uses their steam program, in a limited fashion, to cultivate some ties. Otherwise, the only direct communications mostly seem to be lawsuits over crossings, or people working at forcing the RR out, to bring in a trail... Boxcab E50
