Lost Trains

I recently got a forward from my friend Dwight that one of the big names in toy trains, the German manufacturer Marklin, is in trouble. (Link to NPR story.) It is now in the German version of Chapter 11 and is actually owned by a British private equity firm. They are hoping that they can attract a new generation of train lovers.



Which first got me thinking about my toy train when I was a child. It was an American Flyer. It had realistic two-track layouts, not the three tracks of Lionel. It is now long gone- both mine and the company. (Train can be seen on the left side in the Christmas morning picture from around 1955 or so. pmPilgrim at much younger age on the right.)

Then I started looking through some of my slide scans of some of the now lost railroads of the east coast where I grew up....

First is the Reading (pronounced redd-ing). (Picture 1974, near Allentown, PA)


This engine shows signs of two other great, classic, and doomed railroads, the Pennsylvania (PRR in the red keystone just showing behind the cab) and the Penn Central merger of the PRR and the New York Central (NYC). (Picture 1982, near Allentown, PA)

Here are two more: the CNJ, Central Railroad of New Jersey, with its logo just showing on the boxcar on the right and the Lehigh Valley (LV) on the yard engine. (Picture 1974, near Allentown, PA)

These of course were the major roads folded into the Consolidated Rail Corporation- Conrail. (Picture 1983, Rockville/Harrisburg, PA)

They are all gone now. Conrail was basically split and sold in 1999 to CSX and Norfolk Southern. There are still some of their engines and insignia around. But they are left to history. These companies helped make the United States the industrial power they were. They had robber barons running them, true, and in that were the seeds of their destruction. Conrail never stood a chance.

Someday they will be forgotten in everyday life. But let's hope history keeps their rightful place alive.