Penn Central, Volume 3

Things were a little different on the Penn Central during every one of the eight years of its brief existence. By mid 1971, nearly all the locomotives of the predecessor Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads had been repainted into somber dark, dark Brunswick green. The railroad was mired deeper and deeper in bankruptcy, as a new national rail passenger carrier, Amtrak, was starting to emerge from the shadows of the PCs paint scheme following its launching on May 1st, 1971.

Emery Gulash had his movie cameras trained on the rail action. He starts with a series of scenes in America’s Railroad Capital, Chicago, as Amtrak and Penn Central trains burnish the rails in and out of Union Station.

The old Michigan Central depot at Detroit serves as an anchor for Emery, as he returns again and again from his travels to photograph trains at the formidable structure. Amtrak demonstrates its United Aircraft Turbotrain at Niles and Kalamazoo. Toledo comes in for its share of pulsating train operations, as do Ypsilanti, Dearborn, Jackson, Chelsea, New Buffalo, Ann Arbor, Westland, and Delhi Mills, Michigan.

Our very full program winds up with scenes of two special passenger trains operated in November 1972 by the Chessie System for General Motors executives bound for a business conference in West Virginia.