Passenger Trains > Who Shot the Passenger Train?

Hi all,

Does anyone know exactly when the famous "Who Shot the Passenger Train" issue of Trains was published? I seem to remember it being 1958 or 1959 but could be off a couple years.

Secondly, does anyone have the said issue and would they be willing to copy it for me?

Thanks for the help,

May 1958 TRAINS; a very prophetic work as DPM envisioned a separate company (likely provate sector knowing DPM)to operate passenger trains.

DPM also pointed out that mail contracts were the lifeline of most trains. Cut it, and the train off request would follow. Right on that, too.

Lackawanna4-8-4, please contact me off list at
mharriso@iland.net.

Marty Harrison
MP208.1 on the UP\'s Sedalia Subdivision

"Who shot the passenger train?" the landmark issue-length examination of the passenger problem, appeared in the April 1959 issue. I have it in front of me.

(Capitalization as shown for the cover blurb; all caps in the article title.)

Seems like two issues of Trains have been mentioned. Just returned from the file cabinet and it is April 1959.

Went to my own file cabinet, and stand corrected.
Concur that such is April 1959; and that it is truly a landmark piece of journalism.

My other DPM "top picks":

If I Ran the Pssenger Tains
Chico Calls it Quits
Excuse the First Person

Also read Fred Frailey\'s book published by Kalmbach entitled "Last of the Great Streamliners". It\'s a balanced presentation about the demise of the private passenger in the 1960s.

Agree with Mr. MLC--

The Frailey work is balanced, especially with regard to the CB&Q, which "in season" during the "sixties" would operate a Denver Zephyr of two sections 20 cars each.

As many here know, when Lou Menk showed up, first order of business was to downplay the Q\'s quite healthy passenger service. Be assured, "Menk the fink" was one of the nicer epithets fans had for Lou.

However, Frailey noted that Menk could read the writing on the wall. The equipment would need replacement (having observed such on several occasions, the second section was laregely "prewar" lightweight equipment, and trains such as the Twin cities and Kansas City Zephyrs had heavyweight cars in consist.

Lou Menk may have been the "housemother that clicked the lights before all the Brothers were sloshed", but he did have the vision to recognize what had to be done and the fortitude to do it.

Frailey\'s book is superb and deservedly award winning. I would be THRILLED if he would do a sequel and cover some other lines. I know he covered the more prominent passenger carriers and among them sampled lines whose opinions ran the gamut from hating passengers to dearly wishing they could afford to keep running the trains and feeling the heart and soul of the company vanish when economics required them to sign up with Amtrak.

So while a sequel might be to some extent more of the same the fact is that each line was unique and these stories ought to be collected and told before too many of the principles are no longer with us.