Why Did the Railroads Abandon Steam So Quickly in the 1950s?

Comments · 171

• HE

  @henryostman5740 · 7 days ago

  I'm 85, so as a young kid I saw and rode behind a lot of steam, we regularly rode out to Grandma's house in Hackensack NJ on the SuzieQ usually riding one of their AMC railcars but occasionally they'd have a steamer with regular coaches.  Took a vacation trip to Deposit NY (Catskills) with a Looong Pass. train with a doubleheaded steam in front, engineers, had to back up at stations to put slack in train to get the load started.  Remember a trip on the LIRR to a county fair on the island with a Camelback doing the pulling, must have been fun for the engineer in summer heat.  Long before I arrived my father was a draftsman apprentice with ALCO at their Patterson (NJ) works.  He explained steam to his young son,  I made a trip to the Grand Canyon a few years ago and the steamer at the station was an ALCO with a builders plate of 1910, a time when he worked there, it was a Patterson locomotive.   On a trip to DC I got to pick between the Pennsy GG1 or the B&O's diesel, I picked the diesel.  I was a Coast Guard officer, on our larger steam cutters in the 60s, we had a fuel consumption chart on the bridge, diesel cutters didn't.  I rode the QE2 over from Europe before it was converted to diesel, that added twenty years to the ships life and made it faster using far less fuel.

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• LA

  @larrybremer4930 · 8 days ago

  A diesel locomotive is essentially something you can walk up to, start, and put to work. &nbsp;A steam locomotive could take hours to prepare for service, and that preparation had to be repeated every time it was taken out of service. &nbsp;That alone represented a huge labor and utilization advantage for diesel, even before considering anything else.<br><br>Then add double-heading. With steam, each locomotive required its own crew. &nbsp;With diesel-electrics, multiple units could be coupled together and controlled from the lead locomotive, allowing one crew to operate the entire consist.<br><br>The operating differences went well beyond that. &nbsp;Steam locomotives had limited range between water and fuel stops, consumed enormous quantities of water, and required frequent lubrication and hands-on attention. &nbsp;They also needed substantially more maintenance and servicing between runs. &nbsp;Diesel-electric locomotives eliminated or greatly reduced much of that infrastructure and labor. &nbsp;Fuel could be loaded relatively quickly, there was no need for water towers every few dozen miles, and multiple locomotives could effectively function as one power unit under the control of a single crew.<br><br>The economics weren&apos;t even close once diesel technology became sufficiently reliable and powerful. &nbsp;Early diesels had some disadvantages, but their operational flexibility and dramatically lower labor and servicing requirements gave railroads an enormous incentive to make the transition.

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• KC

  @kc4cvh · 7 days ago

  Diesel power meant many jobs could be abolished, for the same reason railroads were early-adopters of computers to cut clerical jobs. Between 1950 and 1975, railroads succeeded in eliminating more than two-thirds of their employees and today there are less than one-fifth as many railroad jobs compared to 1945.

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• ST

  @stevenfd123 · 5 days ago

  I was born in 1946 and saw the end of steam on the NYC Big Four in the early 1950s between Indianapolis and Chicago. I remember watching the James Whitcomb Riley passenger train go through Earl Park, Indiana when I was at my grandparents home.

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• LA

  @larryblack1944 · 6 days ago

  I was born in 1951. By 1960 steam was already gone where I lived in Iowa.

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• JO

  @jovanweismiller7114 · 7 days ago

  I was born in 1947. I remember when a diesel engine was enough to make people rush to the window to see it. My sister, born in 1952, doesn&apos;t remember ever seeing a steam engine under steam.

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• GA

  @gaylespencer6188 · 7 days ago

  A steam loco - required two employees minimum; high maintenance after every run; required large infrastructure with watering &amp; coaling stations every xxx number of miles; long start-up time; and filthy.

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• RO

  @robertbraden4478 · 8 days ago

  As a kid I used to see L&amp;N&apos;s 0-6-0 switchers moving cars on the track behind our house. &nbsp;I could also walk down our street to Southern Railway&apos;s 4h street station and watch L&amp;N diesel and steam trains cross Southern&apos;s single track.

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• ST

  @steveoffringa · 7 days ago

  My grandfather William Lynch &nbsp;was a towerman for the Erie Railroad. &nbsp;Erie&apos;s last steam passenger runs ran on what was the New Jersey/New York line, now New Jersey Transit&apos;s Pascack Valley line to Spring Valley, NY. &nbsp;I remember them running in 1953. &nbsp;And I remember an Erie 2900 heavy pacific still on the main line to Port Jervis, NY in the same year. &nbsp;I used to go with my grandfather to his last tower job in New Jersey, where the Erie Northern branch, the Susquehanna, and the NY Cenral West Shore ran parallel to each other by North Bergen, NJ. &nbsp;The Susquehanna also had RDC&apos;s. &nbsp;I remember steam there just before it was gone. &nbsp;I live in Middletown, New York and serve as the Pastor of the Howells Church. &nbsp;Our present sanctuary was built in 1850, just up the hill from where the original Erie mainline went through in the same year to Port Jervis, NY. &nbsp;I am now 84, and I clearly remember steam from my boyhood years. &nbsp;In 1954, my birthday gift from my grandfather was a trip on Erie Limited No. One to Port Jervis, pulled by twin E8&apos;s. &nbsp;One 2900 Pacific previously pulled that Chicago bound train by itself. &nbsp;God bless you all! &nbsp;Jesus is Lord! &nbsp;Pastor Steve Offringa. &nbsp;(845)283-3730.

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• LA

  @larryblack1944 · 6 days ago

  Too bad. The steam locomotive was a classic machine, but the cost savings are indisptuable.

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• KO

  @koiyujo1543 · 7 days ago

  I miss steam I wish they would bring them back to some degree

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• RI

  @richardmassoth8237 · 8 days ago

  You might want to look at the statistics for what happened to Class 1 Railroads over the same timeframe. &nbsp;There was terrific consolidation over the same timeframe. &nbsp;I remember 1959, where my father was a telegrapher for the SLSF (Frisco) Railroad. &nbsp;They still had a steam switcher in the local yard. &nbsp;But it eventually disappeared, as did the infrastructure to support a steam engine.

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