Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, to their successor "bullet trains". Less the term is applied to faired recumbent bicycles; as part of the Streamline Moderne trend, the term was applied to passenger cars and other types of light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles, but now vehicle streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic. In land speed racing, it is a term applied to the long, custom built, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels; the first high-speed streamliner in Germany was the "Schienenzeppelin", an experimental propeller driven single car, built 1930. On 21 June 1931, it set a speed record of 230.2 km/h on a run between Hamburg. In 1932 the propeller was removed and a hydraulic system installed; the Schienenzeppelin made 180 km/h in 1933. The Schienenzeppelin led to the construction of the diesel-electric DRG Class SVT 877 "Flying Hamburger".
This two-car train set had a top speed of 160 km/h. During regular service starting on 15 May 1933, this train ran the 286 kilometres between Hamburg and Berlin in 138 minutes with an average speed of 124.4 km/h. The SVT 877 was the prototype for the DRG Class SVT 137, first built in 1935 for use in the FDt express train service. During test drives, the SVT 137 "Bauart Leipzig" set a world speed record of 205 km/h in 1936; the fastest regular service with SVT 137 was between Hannover and Hamm with an average speed of 132.2 km/h. This service lasted until 22 August 1939. In 1935 Henschel & Son, a major manufacturer of steam locomotives, introduced the 4-6-4 DRG Class 05 high speed streamliner locomotives for use on the Deutsche Reichsbahn Frankfurt am Main to Berlin route. Three examples were built during 1935-36. Built for top speeds of over 85 mph, they soon proved much faster in test runs. DRG 05-002 made seven runs during 1935-36 during which it attained top speeds of more than 177 km/h with trains up to 254 t weight.
On 11 May 1936 it set the world speed record for steam locomotives after reaching 200.4 km/h on the Berlin–Hamburg line hauling a 197 t train. The engine power was more than 2,535 kW ); that record was broken two years by the British LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard engine. On 30 May 1936 05-002 set an unbroken start stop speed record for steam locomotives: During the return run from a 190 km/h test on the Berlin-Hamburg route it did the ~113 kilometres from Wittenberg to a signal stop before Berlin-Spandau in 48 min 32 s, meaning 139.4 km/h average between start and stop. In the United Kingdom, development of streamlined passenger services began in 1934, with the Great Western Railway introducing low-speed streamlined railcars, the London and North Eastern Railway introducing the "Silver Jubilee" service using streamlined A4 class steam locomotives and full length trains rather than railcars. In 1938 on a test run, the locomotive Mallard built for this service set the official record for the highest top speed attained by a steam locomotive, reaching 126 mph.
That record stands to this day. The London Midland and Scottish Railway introduced streamline locomotives of the Princess Coronation Class shortly before the outbreak of war; the Ferrovie dello Stato developed a three-unit electric streamliner. The development started in 1934; these trains went into service in 1937. On 6 December 1937, an ETR 200 made a top speed of 201 km/h between Campoleone and Cisterna on the run Rome-Naples. In 1939 the ETR 212 made 203 km/h; the 219-kilometre journeys from Bologna to Milan were made in 77 minutes, meaning an average of 171 km/h. In the Netherlands, Nederlandse Spoorwegen introduced the Materieel 34, a three unit 140 km/h streamlined diesel-electric trainset in 1934. An electric version, Materieel 36, went into service in 1936. From 1940 the "Dieselvijf", a 160 km/h top speed five unit diesel-electric trainset based on DE3, completed the Dutch streamliner fleet. During test runs, a DE5 ran 175 km/h; that year the similar electric Materieel 40 were first built.
In the 1930s, NS developed a streamlined version of the class 3700/3800 steam locomotive, nicknamed "potvis". In Czechoslovakia in 1934, Czechoslovak State Railways ordered two motor railcars with maximum speed 130 km/h; the order was received by Tatra company, producing first streamlined mass-produced automobile Tatra 77 in that time. The railcar project received streamlined design. Both ČSD Class M 290.0 were delivered in 1936 with desired 130 km/h maximum speed, although during test runs one car reached 148 km/h mark. They were run on Czechoslovak prominent route Prague-Bratislava under Slovenská strela brand; the earliest known streamlined rail equipment in the United States were McKeen rail motorcars built for Union Pacific and Southern Pacific between 1905 and 1917. Most of them sported a pointed "wind splitter" front, a rounded rear, round porthole style windows in a style, as much nautically as aerodynamically inspired; the McKeen cars were unsuccessful because internal combustion drive technology for that application was unreliable at the time and the lightweight frames dictated by their limited power tended to break.
Streamlined rail motorcars would appear again in the early 1930s after the internal combustion-electric prop
Empire State Express
The Empire State Express was one of the named passenger trains and onetime flagship of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. On September 14, 1891 it covered the 436 miles between New York City and Buffalo in 7 hours and 6 minutes, averaging 61.4 miles-per-hour, with a top speed of 82 mph. The train soon gained worldwide acclaim, its route would stretch to 620 miles, to Cleveland, Ohio; the Empire State was the first passenger train with a schedule speed of over 52 mph and the first to make runs of 142.88 miles between stops. The 1893 Guide shows an 8 hr 40 min schedule for 440 miles New York to Buffalo. On December 7, 1941, the New York Central inaugurated a new stainless-steel streamlined train, powered by a streamlined J-3a Hudson steam locomotive. Like many long haul passenger trains through the mid-1960s, the "Empire State Express" carried a 60-foot stainless steel East Division Railway Post Office car operated by the Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department, staffed by USPOD clerks as a "fast mail" on each of its daily runs.
Mail handled by the "Empire State's" RPOs was canceled or backstamped by hand applied circular date stamps reading "N. Y. & CHICAGO R. P. O." and the train's number: "TR 50" or "TR 51". The train was distinctively the most limited in stops in the New York City to Albany section. Beyond 125th Street, it only made a stop at Croton-Harmon, the location for switching from electric to diesel power, made no other stops until Albany. From the post-war 1940s to the 1960s the train split at Buffalo. One section went along the south shore of Lake Erie to Cleveland. Another section went through Canada to Detroit, Michigan. From the early 1960s the Buffalo to Detroit section was a separate connecting train. In 1967 the train was extended from being a day train to continuing to Chicago, Illinois as an overnight train. With the December 1967 schedule the Empire State Express name was gone, #51 was shortened to Buffalo to Chicago, via Cleveland; the eastbound #50 was from Detroit to Buffalo. When Amtrak took over the nation's passenger service on May 1, 1971 it consolidated trains on the New York—Albany—Buffalo corridor into the "Empire Service".
Amtrak revived the name, although not the route to match, on January 6, 1974 when it gave names to Empire Service trains. The Empire State Express returned as a New York—Buffalo train, numbers 71 and 78. On October 31 that year Amtrak extended the train to Detroit via Southwestern Ontario. On April 25, 1976 Amtrak renamed. Amtrak brought the name back in 1978 as a New York—Buffalo service, which in 1979 was extended to Niagara Falls. A few years Amtrak dropped train names on the Empire Corridor; the key to the Empire State's initial fame was a 37-foot -long American-type 4-4-0 steam locomotive built in West Albany, New York to haul the train. The handmade unit had 86" diameter driving wheels and was the first of its kind to have brakes on the front truck; the bands and trim were polished. After touring the nation and making appearances at numerous expositions including the Chicago Railroad Fair, the unit was retired from service in May, 1952, at which time it was relegated switching service in western New York shuttling express service milk cars.
The New York Central donated the locomotive to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in 1962, where it has been preserved and placed on display. It lacks its original 86" drivers, which were removed sometime after the historic speed run and replaced with smaller driving wheels. An early heavyweight consist: Buffet Coach Sleeper Note: The Vice President's private car was attached to the end of the train for excursions. In 1941 the New York Central ordered new lightweight stainless steel cars for the ESE trains from Budd. A Hudson with matched streamlined stainless steel panels was used; the NYC planned their first day of operation with the new fluted equipment as December 7, 1941, but drew little fanfare as the US was focused on the attack of Pearl Harbor. A set of the 1941 cars is owned by the Genesee Valley Railroad Museum. On 12 October 1896, The Empire State Express, a short documentary film made in the experimental 68mm American Mutoscope Company process, premiered at Hammerstein's Olympia Music Hall Theater in New York City.
The film was described by the critics of the day as "the greatest train view taken."In 1965, blues singer and guitarist Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. at the time a New York Central employee, recorded "Empire State Express" at the New York Folk Festival: Went down to the station, Leaned against the door. Went down to the station, I...leaned against the door. I knew it was the Empire State, Can tell by the way she blows. Asked the depot agent, "Please let me ride the blinds." Asked the depot agent, "Please let me ride the blinds." He said, "Son, I like to help you...you know, But the Empire State ain't mine". The Empire State...you know she, Rides on Eastern time. The Empire State, She rides on Eastern time, She's the "rollingest" baby, On the New York Central line. Excerpt from "Empire State Express" by Son HouseNo. 999 was the inspiration for the eponymous steam engined-shaped space
Henry Dreyfuss
Henry Dreyfuss was an American industrial designer. Dreyfuss and his firm received worldwide recognition for numerous designs for a wide spectrum of consumer and commercial products, including their long-time association with the Western Electric company and the Bell System for designing telephones from the 1930s through the 1960s, his design philosophy was based on applied common sense and scientific principles and resulted in significant contributions to human-factor analysis and consumer research. Dreyfuss was Jewish and a native of New York; as one of the celebrity industrial designers of the 1930s and 1940s, Dreyfuss improved the look and usability of dozens of consumer products. When compared to Raymond Loewy and some other contemporaries, Dreyfuss was not a stylist, his work both popularized the field, for public consumption, made significant contributions to the underlying fields of ergonomics and human factors. Until 1920, Dreyfuss studied as an apprentice to theatrical designer Norman Bel Geddes, his competitor, opened his own office in 1929 for theatrical and industrial design activities.
It was an long-lasting commercial success. His firm continued to operate as Henry Dreyfuss Associates in Ann Arbor, for four decades after his death before shutting down. Dreyfuss and his associates designed some of the most ubiquitous and iconic products of twentieth century America. Among them: Hoover model 150 vacuum cleaner Classic Westclox Big Ben alarm clock New York Central Railroad's streamlined Mercury train, both locomotive and passenger cars NYC Hudson locomotive for the Twentieth Century Limited Popular Democracity model city of the future at the 1939 New York World's Fair at the Trylon and Perisphere Styled John Deere Model A and Model B tractors Wahl-Eversharp Skyline fountain pen Royal Typewriter Company's Quiet DeLuxe Bell System telephones: Western Electric 500-series desk and wall telephones, Princess telephone, Model 1500 10 digit touchtone, Model 2500 12-digit touchtone, the Trimline telephone Two American steamships, S. S. Independence and S. S. Constitution for American Export Lines Honeywell T87 "the Round" circular wall thermostat Spherical Hoover model 82 Constellation vacuum cleaner which floated on an air cushion of its own exhaust Hoover model 65 convertible vacuum cleaner John Deere 1010, 2010, 3010, 4010 tractors Bankers Trust Building at 280 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, with Emery Roth & Sons American Airlines branding Polaroid SX-70 Land camera In 1955, Dreyfuss wrote Designing for People.
A window into Dreyfuss's career as an industrial designer, the book illustrated his ethical and aesthetic principles, included design case studies, many anecdotes, an explanation of his "Joe" and "Josephine" anthropometric charts. In 1960 he published The Measure of Man, a collection of ergonomic reference charts providing designers precise specifications for product designs. In 1965, Dreyfuss became the first President of the Industrial Designers Society of America. In 1969, Dreyfuss retired from the firm he founded, but continued serving many of the companies he worked with as board member and consultant. In 1972 Dreyfuss published The Symbol Sourcebook, A Comprehensive Guide to International Graphic Symbols; this visual database of over 20,000 symbols continues to provide a standard for industrial designers around the world. On October 5, 1972, Dreyfuss and his terminally ill wife Doris Marks Dreyfuss were found in their garage after having taken their own lives, dead from intentional carbon monoxide poisoning.
Dreyfuss was survived by two daughters. Notes Bibliography Dreyfuss, Henry. Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1984. ISBN 0-471-28872-1 Dreyfuss, Henry. Designing for People. Allworth Press. ISBN 1-58115-312-0 Flinchum, Russell. Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit. Rizzoli, 1997. ISBN 0-8478-2010-6 Innes, Christopher. Designing Modern America: Broadway to Main Street. Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-300-10804-4 Video on Dreyfuss's design for Honeywell thermostat and for his Bell Telephone, at Wikimedia Commons
Firebox (steam engine)
In a steam engine, the firebox is the area where the fuel is burned, producing heat to boil the water in the boiler. Most are somewhat box-shaped, hence the name; the hot gases generated in the firebox are pulled through a rack of tubes running through the boiler. In the standard steam locomotive firetube type boiler, the firebox is surrounded by water space on five sides; the bottom of the firebox is open to atmospheric pressure, but covered by fire grates or a firing pan. If the engine burns solid fuel, like wood or coal, there is a grate covering most of the bottom of the firebox to hold the fire. An ashpan, mounted underneath the firebox and below the grates and collects hot embers and other solid combustion waste as it falls through the grates. In a coal-burning locomotive, the grates may be shaken to clean dead ash from the bottom of the fire, they are shaken either manually or by a powered grate shaker. Wood-burning locomotives have fixed grates. Wood ash is powder which will fall through the grates with no more agitation required than the vibrations of the locomotive rolling down the track.
The fire grates must be replaced periodically due to the extreme heat. Combustion air enters through the bottom of the firebox and airflow is controlled by damper doors above the ash collection pocket of the ash pan. A locomotive that burns liquid fuel - "Bunker C" fuel oil or similar heavy oil - does not have grates. Instead, they have a heavy metal gauge firing pan bolted tight against the bottom of the firebox; the firing pan is covered with firebrick and the firebox has a firebrick lining up to the level of the firebox door, all the way around the firebox. The oil burner is a nozzle containing a slot for the oil to flow out onto a steam jet which atomizes the oil into a fine mist which ignites in the firebox; the oil burner nozzle is mounted in the front of the firebox, protected by a hood of firebrick, aimed at the firebrick wall below the firebox door. Dampers control air flow to the oil fire. There is a large brick arch attached to the front wall of the firebox beneath the firetubes; this extends backwards over the front third to half of the firebed.
It is supported on thermic syphons, or circulators. The brick arch directs heat and smoke back over the fire towards the rear of the firebox. Visible smoke contains unburned combustible carbon particles and combustible gasses; the purpose of this redirection is to cause more complete combustion of these particles and gasses which make the locomotive more efficient and causes less visible smoke to be emitted from the stack. Without the arch and visible smoke would be sucked straight into the firetubes without having been burned, causing visible smoke to be emitted at the stack; the brick arch and its supports require periodic replacement due to the extreme heat. Firetubes are attached to one wall of the firebox and carry the hot gaseous products of combustion through the boiler water, heating it, before they escape to the atmosphere. Firetubes serve the additional purpose of staying the flat tube sheets so that only the top of the front flue sheet and the bottom of the rear flue sheet must be separately braced.
The metal walls of the firebox are called sheets, which are separated and supported by stays. The stays brace the "sheets" against pressure. Ideally, they should be located at right angles to the sheets, but since the outer sheet is radial and the top of the firebox is flat by comparison, such a relationship to both sheets is impossible; the actual location of the stays is a compromise. Since stay breakage is hidden, the stays have longitudinal holes, called tell-tales, drilled in them which will blow water and steam, revealing if they are broken. A boiler with more than 5 broken stays, or two next to each other, must be taken out of service and the stays replaced; the fusible plugs located in the highest part of the crown sheet, have a soft metal alloy core which melts out if the water level in the boiler gets too low. Steam and water blowing into the firebox both alerts the locomotive crew to the low water condition and helps put out the fire. Not all locomotives are equipped with fusible plugs.
Fusible plugs should be replaced at regular intervals, about every three months for a locomotive in regular service, because the soft metal alloy core will melt out over time if the boiler water is carried at proper levels. The "mudholes," or washout plugs, allow access to the interior of the boiler for washing and scraping away boiler mud and scale; the sheets on the left and right are called "side sheets" while the sheet in the front of the firebox is the flue sheet. The "front flue sheet" is at the rear of the smokebox; the "rear sheet" has the door opening in it. The crown sheet is the top of the firebox; the crown sheet must be covered by water at all times. If the water level drops below the crown sheet, it will become overheated and start to melt and deform sagging between the crown stays. If the condition continues, the crown sheet will be forced off the crown stays by the pressure in the boiler, resulting in a boiler explosion; this condition caused by human error or inattention, is the single greatest cause of a locomotive boiler explosion.
The top of the boiler over the firebox is radial to match the contour of the boiler.
North America
North America is a continent within the Northern Hemisphere and all within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16.5% of the earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, the fourth by population after Asia and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population, if nearby islands are included. North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge 40,000 to 17,000 years ago; the so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago. The Classic stage spans the 6th to 13th centuries.
The Pre-Columbian era ended in 1492, the transatlantic migrations—the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the Early Modern period. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants. Owing to the European colonization of the Americas, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, their culture reflects Western traditions; the Americas are accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a world map, in which he placed the word "America" on the continent of South America, in the middle of what is today Brazil, he explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio:... ab Americo inventore... quasi Americi terram sive Americam.
For Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespucci's name, but in its feminine form "America", following the examples of "Europa", "Asia" and "Africa". Other mapmakers extended the name America to the northern continent, In 1538, Gerard Mercator used America on his map of the world for all the Western Hemisphere; some argue that because the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries, the derivation from "Amerigo Vespucci" could be put in question. In 1874, Thomas Belt proposed a derivation from the Amerrique mountains of Central America. Marcou corresponded with Augustus Le Plongeon, who wrote: "The name AMERICA or AMERRIQUE in the Mayan language means, a country of perpetually strong wind, or the Land of the Wind, and... the can mean... a spirit that breathes, life itself." The United Nations formally recognizes "North America" as comprising three areas: Northern America, Central America, The Caribbean.
This has been formally defined by the UN Statistics Division. The term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with context. In Canadian English, North America refers to the land mass as a whole consisting of Mexico, the United States, Canada, although it is ambiguous which other countries are included, is defined by context. In the United States of America, usage of the term may refer only to Canada and the US, sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands. In France, Portugal, Romania and the countries of Latin America, the cognates of North America designate a subcontinent of the Americas comprising Canada, the United States, Mexico, Greenland, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Bermuda. North America has been referred to by other names. Spanish North America was referred to as Northern America, this was the first official name given to Mexico. Geographically the North American continent has many subregions; these include cultural and geographic regions. Economic regions included those formed by trade blocs, such as the North American Trade Agreement bloc and Central American Trade Agreement.
Linguistically and culturally, the continent could be divided into Latin America. Anglo-America includes most of Northern America and Caribbean islands with English-speaking populations; the southern North American continent is composed of two regions. These are the Caribbean; the north of the continent maintains recognized regions as well. In contrast to the common definition of "North America", which encompasses the whole continent, the term "North America" is sometimes used to refer only to Mexico, the United States, Greenland; the term Northern America refers to the northern-most countries and territories of North America: the United States, Bermuda, St. Pierre and Miquelon and Greenland. Although the term does not refer to a unifie
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad known as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968, dominating the region's rail traffic for the first half of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1890s and accelerating in 1903, New York banker J. P. Morgan sought to monopolize New England transportation by arranging the NH's acquisition of 50 companies, including other railroads and steamship lines, building a network of electrified trolley lines that provided interurban transportation for all of southern New England. By 1912, the New Haven operated more than 2,000 miles of track, with 120,000 employees, monopolized traffic in a wide swath from Boston to New York City; this quest for monopoly angered Progressive Era reformers, alienated public opinion, resulted in high prices for acquisitions, increased construction costs. Debt soared from $14 million in 1903 to $242 million in 1913, while the advent of automobiles and buses reduced railroad profits.
In 1913, the federal government filed an anti-trust lawsuit that forced the NH to divest its trolley systems. The line became bankrupt in 1935, was reorganized and reduced in scope, went bankrupt again in 1961, in 1969 was merged with the Penn Central system, formed a year earlier by the merger of the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. S. until the Enron Corporation superseded it in 2001. The remnants of the system now comprise Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line, Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, Shore Line East, parts of the MBTA, numerous freight operators such as CSX and the Providence and Worcester Railroad; the majority of the system is now owned publicly by the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was formed on July 24, 1872, through the consolidation of the New York and New Haven Railroad and Hartford and New Haven Railroad, it owned a main line from New York City to Springfield, Massachusetts via New Haven and Hartford and leased other lines, including the Shore Line Railway to New London.
The company leased more lines and systems forming a virtual monopoly in New England south of the Boston and Albany Railroad. The first line of the original system to open was the Hartford and New Haven Railroad, opened from Hartford to New Haven, with steamship connections to New York in 1839, to Springfield, with rail connections to Worcester and Boston, in 1844; the New York and New Haven was built as it ran parallel to the Long Island Sound coast and required many bridges over rivers. It opened in 1848, using trackage rights over the New York and Harlem Railroad from Woodlawn in the Bronx south to Manhattan. With the opening of Grand Central Terminal in 1913, New Haven's New York City terminal was moved there/ About the beginning of the 20th century, New York investors led by J. P. Morgan gained control, in 1903 installed Charles S. Mellen as President. Charles Francis Murphy's New York Contracting and Trucking company was awarded a $6 million contract in 1904 to build rail lines in the Bronx for the New York, New Haven, Hartford Railroad.
An executive at the railroad said. In response to this contract, the New York State Legislature amended the city's charter so that franchise-awarding power was removed from the city board of aldermen and given to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which only became defunct in 1989. Morgan and Mellen achieved a complete monopoly of transportation in southern New England, purchasing other railroads and steamship and trolley lines. More than 100 independent railroads became part of the system before and during these years, reaching 2,131 miles at its 1929 peak. Substantial improvements to the system were made during the Mellen years, including electrification between New York and New Haven. Morgan and Mellen went further and attempted to acquire or neutralize competition from other railroads in New England, including the New York Central's Boston and Albany Railroad, the Rutland Railroad, the Maine Central Railroad, the Boston and Maine Railroad, but the Morgan-Mellen expansion left the company financially weak.
In 1914, 21 directors and ex-directors of the railroad were indicted for "conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce by acquiring the control of all the transportation facilities of New England." Under the stress of the Great Depression the company became bankrupt in 1935, remaining in trusteeship until 1947. Common stock was voided and creditors assumed control. After 1951 both freight and passenger service lost money; the earlier expansion had left NH with a network of low-density branch lines that could not pay their own maintenance and operating costs. The freight business was short-haul, requiring switching costs that could not be recovered in short-distance rates, they had major commuter train services in New York and Boston, but these always lost money, unable to recover their investment providing service just twice a day during rush hour. The demise of the New Haven may have been hastened by the opening of the Connecticut Turnpike in 1958 and other interstate highways. With decades of inadequate investment, the New Haven could not compete against automobiles or trucks.
In 1954 the flashy Patrick B. McGinnis led a proxy fight against incumbent president Frederic C. "Buck" Dumaine Jr. vowing to re
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