A musing about train travel in 1934
Posted by Caz3
on 6/16/2017, 6:37 am
I'm noticing on one of the Pennsylvania RR schedules I posted earlier today that steam engined PA train #303 from downtown Cleveland to downtown Pittsburg took just 3 hours with 4 intervening stops. When I drive that today, with no stops averaging about 65 mph, factoring city street travel to reach expressway and destination in Pittsburg, usual traffic and construction delays, it takes me about 2.5 hours. That train was haulin'. Kind of amazing when you think that freight traffic on that key PA route between those 2 industrial powerhouses was probably as heavy then as now or more so and signaling and dispatching much less sophisticated than today. Steam powered train with pre-streamliner coaches and parlor cars on jointed track. Despite diesels, streamlined cars and many other technological improvements, passenger train travel in this Country rarely improved on the speed and level of service of day trains like #303.
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