Grand Trunk - last steam powered passenger run, March 27, 1960

John3inDC
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4,812 views Sep 6, 2011
Grand Trunk & Western Railway was the last rail line in the United States to run regularly-scheduled steam-powered passenger trains, ending on March 27, 1960. Here we have that last steam train coming through Birmingham, Michigan. (Apologies for the thumb - blame my father!)

Grand Trunk Western Railroad

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Locomotives

Steam

Grand Trunk Western was one of the last U.S. railroads to employ steam locomotives. It ran the last scheduled steam passenger train in the United States on March 27, 1960, on its train #21 from Detroit's Brush Street Station north to Durand Union Station. The run drew thousands of rail enthusiasts. With 3,600 passengers holding tickets, train #21 had to be run in two sections (as two separate trains) to accommodate the excess of passengers. GTW U-3-b class 4-8-4 Northern-type locomotive 6319 led the first section of train #21 with 15 passenger cars, and GTW 4-8-4 Northern 6322 pulled the second section with 22 passenger cars. Steam was used on some freight trains until 1961.

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Retirement of steam locomotives by country

Beginning in the 1920s, steam locomotives were gradually retired and replaced by diesel and electric locomotives. The timeframe of this process varied by country.

North and South America

United States



Northwestern Steel and Wire locomotive number 80, July 1964

The first diesel locomotives appeared on the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1925 and on the New York Central in 1927. Since then, diesel locomotives began to appear in mainline service in the United States in the mid-1930s. Compared to steam, diesel power reduced maintenance costs dramatically while increasing locomotive availability. On the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, new units delivered over 350,000 miles (560,000 km) a year, compared with about 120,000–150,000 miles (190,000–240,000 km) for a mainline steam locomotive. World War II delayed dieselisation in the US until the late 1940s; in 1949, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad became the first large mainline railroad to convert completely to diesel locomotives, and Life Magazine ran an article on 5 December 1949 titled "The GM&O puts all its steam engines to torch, becomes first major US railroad to dieselize 100%". The manufacture of new steam locomotives for stateside use decreased as dieselization continued. The Lima Locomotive Works was perhaps the last commercial builder of steam locomotives, with the final order completed being for ten 2-8-4 “Berkshires” for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad in 1949. The last steam locomotive manufactured for general service in the United States would follow in 1953: a Norfolk and Western 0-8-0, built in the railroad's Roanoke Shops. 1960 is normally considered the final year of regular Class 1 main line standard gauge steam operation in the United States, with operations on the Grand Trunk Western, Illinois Central, Norfolk and Western, and Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railroads, as well as Canadian Pacific operations in Maine. The Grand Trunk Western did, however, use some steam power for regular passenger trains until 1961, the last instance of this occurring unannounced on trains 56 and 21 in the Detroit area on 20 September 1961 with 4-8-4 6323, one day before its flue time expired. The last steam-powered standard-gauge regular freight service by a class 1 railroad came little over a year later on the isolated Leadville branch of the Colorado and Southern (Burlington Route) on 11 October 1962 with 2-8-0 641. Narrow-gauge steam was used for freight service by the Denver and Rio Grande Western on the 250-mile (400 km) run from Alamosa, Colorado, to Farmington, New Mexico, via Durango until service ceased on 6 December 1968. The Denver and Rio Grande Western would keep its narrow gauge steam power active, however isolated from its main network, until in 1981 when Florida business man Charles Bradshaw bought the Durango and Silverton line from the D&RGW and renamed it the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad with its first season starting in 1982.

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