Penn Central 1974 - Movie used to get federal funding

This has to be one of the most honest corporate films ever made. It's like they filmed their own funeral.

"Its destination could be disaster." From the looks of this video, the Penn Central had already arrived and disembarked.

I worked for PennCentral on the Detroit division starting in 1971. On the Vassar-Caro local (Bay City branch -- Michigan), we didn't dare travel over 5 mph on most of the track, with some rail so bad that I could get out and walk faster than the locomotive. You could watch the far end of the rail describe a figure 8 when the engine set foot on the other end. That job was a 6 day, 12 hr job to service a half dozen sugar beet farms and a couple very small industries ... our glory was usually less than a dozen cars. It's where I learned the practical application of manual block signal territory rules. Although there was never anything out on the rail behind us, I still had to drop a fusee every 5 minutes. We went through a LOT of fusees on that job. And we died for time nearly every day. (I was working the extra list and in two weeks, IIRC, we died every day save one. We would cheat ourselves out of time in order for our rest to clear for the next day. Good money for us (the equivalent of 84 hours a week worth of straight time), a real loser for the company.

25:15 - There was a man who cared about "his" railroad. Undoubtedly he could remember when it was in first class condition. It had to be painful for those fellows to watch what PC had become. One can hope he lived to see Conrail's success.

Penn central- “We need federal funding we’re a mess!” Government- “ Conrail take or leave it”

The main reason pc went belly up is after the merger they did not invest in the railroad, they went into the the real estate business and purchased land and buildings all over the east coast, read the book called the wreck of the penn central it tells it all in there.

An incredibly insightful video, with input straight from the employees. This illustrates perfectly WHY it's so important to listen to the people who work for your company. They don't complain just because they have nothing better to do.

The equipment and infrastructure has gone to shit while management still continues to get raises.

and this is the result of when the Pennsy left our eyes.

The Penn Central was a metaphor for how the whole country was doing in the early 1970s. I remember watching cars on the Penn Central pass by at grade crossings and the way they rocked from side to side vividly. And, I was only a pre-teen at that time. Most of those who made it through this in their prime and middle years and were much more cognizant of this unpleasantness than I are now dead. Few today would believe how bad it was and the very reason why we can have something like this again. There are thin margins between what what we take for granted today and something like this.

My dad has a friend who worked for PC when he was young. He was telling us how some trains coming into the yard he worked rocked so much that the wheels were coming off the rail so only the very edge of the flange kept the cars on the track.

Do your cars keep coming off the track? Maybe you should model Penn Central!

"So, what makes your new repair shops so superior compared to the old ones?" "Oh, now we have roofs . And that's not all, we got walls, and even 'doors'. It's really the latest word in rail maintenance!" Pretty sad when that is the best improvement you can come up with. I guess 'repair shop' was more like a concept than an actual building. Then they built an actual shop .

Actually this is what is also going on today with our nations water pipes,roads and bridges, it's kick the can down the road let someone else handle it,problem is for decades no one is handling it.

Leasing came too late in the day. The PC was still a 19th century rail system in the 1970s.

An astute observer will notice the facilities cited as in "good" condition were previously part of the New York Central while those in "bad" condition were formerly part of Pennsylvania and New Haven.

My great grandpa worked on the Pennsy. He was a fireman. My grandma says that he would always be talking about his favorite engine, the K-4.

I appreciate how penn central was open about this. This actually saved all of the anthracite roads via conrail

Imagine creating a documentary for showing off how shitty your railroad is doing.

They should have switched to geico, the would save 15% or MORE!!!