For me it's the mix of old and new. Brand new stainless passenger cars
mixed with 1920's heavyweights. Same with the mix of steam and diesel. Plus
lots of boxcars, seemed that everything except liquids moved in boxcars.
Again a mix of more modern steel cars with older wooden outside braced cars.
Another characteristic was pride in the physical plant- locomotives and
passenger cars were kept very clean, and the right of way was well
maintained. Stations with beautiful lawns and flower beds. I've seen photos
of the mainline west of Banff and the ballast is neatly sloped with the
larger stones in a finishing row at the bottom of the slope. You'd never
see that today. Another feature is the sheer number of people living and
working along the line, so many section houses and other buildings that are
all gone now. In the NFB film about CP's Mountain sub, I think they said
150 employees lived between Field and Revelstoke, from operators to
sectionmen to telegraph line maintainers. Again, all gone now.
Craig
On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 6:12 PM Jeff Pinchbeck <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Railways are businesses and constantly dealing with the dynamics of the
evolving transportation market place.
The recent conversation about Dominion(Fowler) cars got me thinking, what
are the features of the 1950s transition period? Specifically, 1950 to
1959. Diesels are obvious but their roll and influence weren’t felt the
over the entire 10 year period. Plus it appears to me that everyone has
their own interpretation of the features and nuances of the era.
So, what do you think are the principal features of the decade?
Jeff
