PRR EMD GM10B
Saunders to the employees of the PRR: I saw 14 million futures
“Which one do we win in?”
Saunders: one.
The Pennsy had thought that passenger travel would rebound after the war, but that never happened. By the 1950s, people were preferring more and more to drive now since the interstate system was built. The Pennsy’s market was also changing rapidly as the industry shifted away from them as the decline of heavy industry in much of the Midwest and northeast was underway. They relied on high volumes of lower value goods such as coal and depended on traditional shippers in heavy manufacturing such as steel and automobiles. In 1958, they realized that long-distance passenger trains were taken over by the airlines and they canceled them as fast as the ICC would let them, focusing solely on commuter routes. The last Broadway Limited ran in 1962.
The PRR had grown too large, having overlapping lines, they needed to take action and be quick. To stay competitive and not be outdone by their archrival, they embarked on a modernization effort in the 1950s. They stopped investing in non-rail assets and they transformed their busiest yards into efficient hump yards, implemented CTC on their lines, and concentrated on a single route instead of multiple ones. Downsizing was challenging due to regulations, so they met with Congress in Washington to request deregulation of the railroads. They argued that paying property taxes for their stations was directly funding their competitors and they were at an unfair advantage. With the interstate system providing widespread road connectivity, everybody had a connection to the other cities and so their service was no longer needed. If they wanted them to keep running their long-distance passenger trains then they would need to be heavily subsidized to keep running.
Recognizing the issue, the government decided to deregulate the railroads, acknowledging that the rules in place were outdated and that it was time to update the regulations.
The Pennsylvania Railroad immediately reduced its entire system by half, abandoning, selling, or spinning off many branch lines. Although it was a blow to their pride, it was necessary for survival. They continued to compete with the Central based on cost efficiency rather than speed. When Amtrak was created in 1971, they had taken over what the PRR had left still in passenger operation. They handed over its remaining assets to Amtrak, this included a fleet of GG1s, Metroliners, and the P86
(which is just an Amfleet but with PRR markings. More on that later. It’s my new mod I’m working on. The way that the PRR named their passenger cars was that they added a P for the suffix (for passenger) and had a number in there to denote how long they were. The Amfleet is 85ft long and so I can’t name it the P85 because the P85 already exists, so It’s called the P86.)
By 1975, they had escaped bankruptcy. It was at this time EMD was producing a new electric freight locomotive, and New Haven was set to be the launch customer. The Pennsy’s E44s still had some life in them, but they agreed to test the GM10B while New Haven received the GM6C. The GM10B was designed specifically for high-priority, high-speed intermodal freight, while the GM6C had a more versatile role. The Pennsy focused on high-priority intermodal freight throughout its system and developed plans for long-distance freight transport to the Pacific through other carriers.
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I already finished this like two days ago but I just wanted to take good pictures
It was originally just the GM6C, but I added an extra bogie to turn it into a GM10B. This thing also has the same sounds as the SDEL9, because I think the sounds are cool
The PRR LRC I made does not take place in this timeline, I just figured I should point that out
