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God Bless America
By Jerry L. Ginther
If you are less than 30 years old, you are probably unaware of the vast railroad system that spread over this country like a web prior to the mid 1980s. There are few visible reminders these days. Many of the rights-of-way where the rails laid were abandoned after the steel was retrieved; others were abandoned leaving the rails to rust in place.
The high centers of the rail beds where the tracks once laid are still visible in many parts of the country, running through the landscape like a scar and a fading reminder of these once busy railroad corridors. Some may still be seen along a few of our nation's highways, but in time nature will erase all evidence of a roadbed. If you are over 30, perhaps you have called attention to these vacant rights-of-way in the area where you live as you traveled about with your children or grandchildren.
So, why have so many of these rail lines, which were the most efficient movers of all sorts of freight, disappeared from the landscape? There are several contributing factors, but I'll discuss a few, which I believe were the most significant.
First of all, let me explain that in their most profitable era, railroads provided many needed services, which became less and less attractive, and in some cases seldom used, as our nation modernized. Passenger train service is just one of those many faceted services that suffered due to increased airline service. The famous passenger trains of the era, with their elegant dining and club cars, provided more than hauling passengers. The other facets, to which I alluded, were the transportation of the U.S. Mail, Railway Express Agency (REA), transportation of human remains and some special, perishable products. The railroads continued to operate these passenger trains for several years after it was no longer profitable from the revenue of passengers alone. Government contracts for carrying the U.S. Mail and the revenue from the express companies kept them running for a while. The proverbial final nail in the coffin, which brought about the demise of the passenger train, was the awarding of the government mail contracts to the airlines. Immediately, the railroads began to petition the Interstate Commerce Commission for relief of the passenger train service, which wasn't long in coming. One by one they were eliminated, and that ushered in the government take over of the service we now know as Amtrak.
Freight service was another matter, but still a competition problem. From the railroad's perspective they were not only competing with the air-freight services, but with the advent of the interstate highways, big trucks, and more of them, were acquiring an ever increasing share of the available freight business.
To exacerbate the problem for the rail carriers, many of these interstate highways were built along side the existing rail corridors from one end of the country to the other, which directly affected businesses within the towns through which both transportation systems passed. Even businesses located along side railroads that had previously serviced them began to ship and receive goods by truck due to faster and more frequent service.
As a result of the foregoing, railroads began to cut back on local freight services, which lead to the closing of many depots serviced by a freight agent. Next, came the suspension of freight services on many branch lines serving mostly small towns. As the rail carriers continued to focus on a streamlining campaign most of those lines were subsequently abandoned.
This focus also concentrated on the concept of single commodity trains that didn't necessarily need rapid movement. Some of those commodities included coal, ore, grain, oil and stone. However, carriers with lines between ocean ports and major cities continued refrigerated car services for perishable products such as fruits and vegetables. "Piggy-back" trains hauling semi-trailers and large containers mounted on special flat cars became a new concept for railroads.
The loss of so much business brought about mergers of railroad companies in order to survive. Merging allowed the surviving companies to abandon even more lines by pulling up parallel tracks of their one time competitors, thus alleviating the expense of maintenance and taxes on the properties.
I was a telegraph operator and train dispatcher during the downsizing era of the 70s and 80s that left in its wake many small and mid-sized cities and towns with no rail service. Along with the loss of services, thousands of rail jobs from the top down were lost. This is, at best, an over simplified account of the "disappearing railroad blues," but offered just in case you were wondering, "What Happened to our Railroads?"
Copyright © 2002 - 2023 Jerry Ginther, All rights reserved worldwide
