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(erielack) Re: 1974 AC Tower Trainsheet

As Phil said, this was the last hurrah for EL. Business remained strong, 
especially intermodal, until the second half of  1974 when it fell off 
significantly. This prompted EL trustees to abandon their plan for 
independent reorganization. The date is also significant because the 
previous day (May 8), the Poughkeepsie bridge burned. The NE-97 on this 
sheet was the second last train over the bridge, and this day's NE-74, 
already running 3 hours late, will be the third to detour via Utica. PC 
initially stated they were going to repair the bridge, but this never 
happened, of course, and frankly they were glad to be rid of it. This was a 
pivotal event at a pivotal time, and this sheet shows EL at the tipping 
point. It spelled doom for Port Jervis yard, which had been kept fairly busy 
with Maybrook traffic. The downward spiral accelerated from here: the 
Delaware div'n was reduced to a handful of trains, traffic fell off, trains 
were cancelled or combined, and slow orders precipitated.

Despite having been in bankruptcy for nearly 2 years, the mainline was still 
in good enough shape to keep most of the east coast trains close to 
schedule. A few comments on other trains:

PB-100 and TC-100 are still both present, but PB-99 and TC-99 have already 
been combined. New England had less outbound than inbound TOFC; another 
problem was that B&M had deteriorated to the point where second-morning 
Boston-Chicago was unattainable, so there was little point running a 
dedicated TOFC schedule. The EB trains would be combined later that year.

Several WB manifests have originated at Meadville rather than Marion: 
CNW-97, RI-97, BN-99, MD-97. I'll speculate that the exacerbation of 
Marion's high water table with the spring thaw (it was essentially built on 
swampland) has a portion of the WB classification yard closed for 
resurfacing, so some this is being done at Meadville.

CX-99 is ahead of schedule and right behind a late-running ACX-99. However, 
CX-99 will give it some breathing room as it sets off at UPS's GSA ramp 
several miles to the east, accounting for the extended time in block. The 
advance section does not have a Marion setoff at this time.

MC-3 is actually Meadville-Marion; Meadville-Cleveland was MC-1. 93 is 
another Meadville-Marion train which appears on earlier schedules. SC-99 
often terminated at Meadville, but the fact that it went on to Marion 
despite the plethora of WB's originating at Meadville gives an indication of 
heavy traffic.

Were FB-4/FB-5 also known as the "Ashland Turn"?

some of the PC symbols:
TV-6: TOFC, E St Louis-Boston
TV-6IN: advance section, Indianapolis-Syracuse
NY-6: E St Louis-Selkirk
TV-5: TOFC, Boston-E St Louis
VO-5: Selkirk-Columbus (Buckeye Yd)
VAS-5: Selkirk-E St Louis (Alton & Southern's Gateway Yd)
SLX-1: "St Louis Express", Weehawken-Indianapolis (Big Four Yd)

Steve, can you elucidate the other PC symbols from your 1974 schedule?

Paul B

From: Philip Albano <palbano_@_earthlink.net>
Subject: (erielack) 1974  AC Tower trainsheet

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Here is a 1974 trainsheet from AC Tower Marion, Ohio for comparision with 
the 1970 trainsheet posted last week: 
http://lists.railfan.net/listthumb.cgi?erielack-11-21-07. There have been some 
big changes in 4 years. Amtrak has taken over most of the nation's long 
distance passenger trains and there are no longer any passenger trains 
through Marion. The EL declared bankruptcy in 1972 due to the damage done by 
Hurricane Agnes and is trying to reorganize as a private system on an income 
basis under section 77 of the Bankruptcy Act. As the recession of 1974-1975 
deepens and freight traffic revenues drop, EL trustees will decide in 
January 1975 that the EL cannot be successfully reorganized as an 
independent carrier and will ask the U.S. Railway Association to be included 
in the planning under the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973. This 
will ultimately result in the abandonment of the main line to Chicago. But 
for now on May 9, 1974, AC Tower's trainsheet shows a lot of freig!
 ht traffic.

EL eastbound symbols include a combined CO/MF74, TC100, PB100, NY100, NY98, 
PN98, 2ndNY100, 62 with F7 7134 (Marion - Cleveland train), two BH78s (BH78 
is for Brier Hill yard, Youngstown), DN98 (Dayton train), MF74 (sometimes 
humorously referred to as "Mighty Fine 74", a phrase attributed to veteran 
Erie/EL engineer, Johnny Kessler) with E8 812, FB4 with RS-3 1029 (train for 
Fisher Body plant at Harding Yard near Mansfield, Ohio) and NE74.

EL westbound symbols include MD97 2560(Dayton Branch train that originated 
at Meadville and changed crews at AC), FB5 1033(westbound train from Fisher 
Body), 61 2512 (Cleveland - Marion train), ACX99, CX99, NE97, another MD97 
2454 that also changed crews at AC, BM7 (Buffalo - Marion) that evidently 
was running short on time and was put in the siding at Martel Tower (RM), 
CNW97 2462, DN97 2552(another Dayton train), PB99, 61 with E8 828, MC3 
(Meadville - Cleveland), 93 with E8 831 (not in freight schedule, probably 
originated at Meadville or Youngstown and terminated at Marion), RI97 
3607(crew outlawed), SC99 E8 809(from Scranton), BN99 3613(outlawed at AC), 
NY99 3645, plus numerous yard engine moves. You can see how the domino 
effect comes into play at AC with the heavy westbound traffic. It just took 
one "event" to totally screw up your railroad. And remember, this trainsheet 
does not include the N&W or C&O trains!






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