Are there are any publications/books/stories dedicated to covering the cultural and societal impacts of the steam-to-diesel transition?

While it seems common to know the technical and mechanical stories behind the transition and adoption of new motive power, I can't easily recall anything that discusses the job losses, infrastructure abandonment, scrapping, union politics and workforce upheaval, etc associated with it.

At most, there is the expected sentimentality and resistance to change by some (i.e. "the railroad was never the same...") but I'd like to know more...

"Are there are any publications/books/stories dedicated to covering the cultural and societal impacts of the steam-to-diesel transition? "


Are you talking about within the locomotive industry (see "from Steam to Diesel, by Albert Churella, tough to find on paper, was once offered for sale @$585) or railroads or among employees/society at large?

There might just be a Phd thesis for a Sociology doctorate in there...

Several copies available around $195 here: http://www.abebooks.com

There were similar issues even just when steam engines became articulated. Longer trains, fewer crews. The result tho, engine crew when operating an articulated got a higher pay.

Make me recall a little story I heard somewhere about an engineer running 3 geeps on the NKP, he could barely make it up some hill, before he ran the same train with a berk and handled it with ease....hmmmmmm

It's well documented that among other societal impacts of Dieselization, towns that had major locomotive shops had their work forces decimated by the labor savings of the change. Specifically, I know that Cumberland, MD, and Willard, OH on the B&O lost thousands of shop, as well as T&E jobs in the change. Guys with 20+ years of engine service found themselves unemployed, and many never found as good of a job again. Cumberland still suffers from a lack of high-quality jobs. For most, it's either retail or a job as a guard at one of the several prisons in the area. It didn't help that they also later lost the Kelly-Springfield plant, as well as other industries.

Paul,

Can you point me to some of that documentation you speak of? Those are the stories I'm interested in mining.

Thanks!

A visit to the Railroader's Memorial Museum in Altoona will provide some background on how intensive the PRR's presence was in that town during the steam era. What shops remain there now, impressive though they may be, are but a tiny fraction of the massive employment required by steam propulsion.

One two-volume set I could refer you to is When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment by Joseph P. Schwieterman. I can't get at my copies right now, but as I recall at least a few of the towns examined were "shop towns" on the railroads. It may not be specific enough to answer your precise queries, but if you were doing a doctoral thesis on the topic this would be mandatory background material on the general theme of community change as the rail industry changed.

Kelly,

This paper, hosted at the 5AT Group's website, is mostly focused on the economics of the steam-to-diesel change within the railroad industry, but it does have some information on the resulting cultural impacts:

"The Economic Results of Diesel and Electric Motive Power on the Railways of the United States of America" by H.F. Brown, Ph.B., Fellow A.I.E.E. Copyright held by proceedings of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (London) Volume 175 No. 5 1961 (7.5 MB).

http://5at.co.uk/uploads/Articles%20and ... motive.pdf

The bottom line is that Mr. Brown's detailed analysis found no overall economic benefit resulted from the change to diesel power. Mr. Brown was not some dedicated steam enthusiast either, he was an electrical engineer with extensive railway experience.

Thanks, Sandy. That sounds like a good source.



Thank you! Very interesting.

I second the recommendation for Altoona. They have a ton of material in the museum and a lot more upstairs in the archives.

Have you looked around the Depot Museum in Dennison (Ohio)? They have a good many pictures and such, but they also have a lot of former rails who used to volunteer there before age got the better of them and I'm sure the current staff could tell you who's available.

I figure you've already looked through the Strasburg materials. One thing you might think about is local newspapers when a roundhouse closed or shops went out of business. Even granting the usual chamber of commerce "don't worry, we're rearranging the deck chairs to take advantage of the new ocean view" attitude, local papers often have man on the street interviews, and, if you have time to keep thumbing through, notes about this or that local industry cutting back or closing because it's no longer needed.

Dennison and Altoona are favorite haunts, indeed. I should probably also turn to the Classic Trains archivist, too...

I thought of a couple more:
West Virginia Northern Community College has a lot of material in its archives. I don't know whether Joan has retired or not, but somebody's still in charge. As you may know, WVNCC is headquartered in the Wheeling B&O station and has just recently opened the freight warehouse as another class building. Also, the Intelligencer and News-Register are both on microfilm at the library, and the Intel is complete from August 1852 on (including the grand dinner menu that next January when the B&O celebrated the track closing.)

Pittsburgh should have stuff at the Heinz History Center archives. Really, so should any big division point, because they would have the biggest impact in terms of sheer numbers of jobs lost. Smaller towns might lose more in percent of jobs, or in secondary effects, even including losing the town itself, but it's going to be easier to find articles about the big ones.

Kelly:

The other day I stumbled across a Time magazine cover when this was the 'hot topic'. Looks like March 9, 1962 for one article:

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/a ... 78,00.html

And that cover that is just incredible in todays world: July 1963:
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,1 ... 26,00.html

When this was NATIONAL news.

Here are the reflections of a relatively new and young rail enthusiast on this subject:

http://www.friendsoftheflange.com/2014/ ... .html#more