PENN CENTRAL RAILROAD



NEW HAVEN RAILROAD

NYNH&H (New York, New Haven, & Hartford)



Facts About the New Haven RR:

The NH's lines ran in 5 US states-Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, with the longest main line being about 280 miles. The NH was one of the main American East Coast railroads, running along the Atlantic Coast. Major classification yards were found in or near most major cities. The NH's main service was passenger, and freight coming in 2nd. Some major cities the NH ran to were Boston, MA, New York, NY, Providence, RI, Hartford and New Haven, CT, and many others.

MAP Of The NH:(coming soon)



The Beginning (late 1800's):

The New Haven Railroad was formed in 1872 as a result of a few railroad mergers, and had a life span that lasted about 97 years. At one time the NH was responsible for almost all public transportation in the NE and Southern New England states. In its early years, J.P. Morgan was in control, then with Charles Mellen becoming president.

Thru it's career, the NH also owned other railroads, steamship lines, utility companies, street car and bus lines, and real estate. At one time the PRR controlled 25% of the NH.


Most Prosperous Times-The 1920's:

The 1920's were the most profitable years for the New Haven. But financial troubles started from bad practices catching up from the Mellen-controlled years, due to over-spending and such.


Trouble, Then Back On It's Feet (1930's-late 1940's):

As a result, and from other factors such as a hurricane in 1938 causing damage to property, and the increasing usage of major airlines instead of railroads by people for travel, from 1935-1947 the NH was bankrupt. Palmer at this time became the NH's major trustee. He, along with a good management team, helped bring NH out of bankruptcy by making cut-backs and making wise decisions; and in 1947, he was appointed president.


Trouble Again (late 1940's-early 1950's):

Short-lived financial success for the NH though, because by 1948, Pat McGinnis and Fred Dumain Sr. took control of the NH, by purchasing most of NH stock (at 1st with McGinnis not allowed to get involved with the railroad's management, because of being involved with 2 other railroads at the time). Dumain did many hurtful cut-backs in the maintenance of the RR, and the RR's real estate holdings, service went sour, and many of the good people in management were forced to leave (by 1950).


Some Help, But More Trouble, And A New Look (early to mid-1950's):

Buck Dumain (Fred Jr.) took control of the NH after Sr.'s death in 1951. He tried to turn things back around for the good of the New Haven RR. By 1952 all steam locomotives were retired on the NH.

By then, Dumain was booted thru McGinnis's tactics, and McGinnis took full control of the NH, but for only almost 1.5 years. During McGinnis' rein, he cut the RR's maintenance back more, cut back on the RR's electrification, purchased new diesel locomotives (FL9's, SW1200's, GP9's, RS11's, and H16-44's), purchased 3 high-speed passenger trains, and a new black, red, and white paint scheme arrived on equipment, with the new block-style NH logo (a Swiss artist actually came up with the scheme, and the electric EP-5 locomotives were the 1st locomotives to receive it. Also note that this scheme had many variations and trials in the beginning). Because of the many loans, spending, and trying to mostly please the stock holders, the NH slumped even further into financial troubles, and in 1955 another hurricane caused a lot of problems, and disrupted service on the NH.


More Help Tried(And Another New Look (mid 1950's):

1956 saw the ousting of McGinnis by the NH directors (who then went to the B&M for about 7 years, and did similar things with that railroad, then went to jail for certain illegal financial practices involving the B&M). Alpert was appointed as president by this time, and 1956 was the final year the New Haven would ever show a profit on its books. He helped the NH by performing the proper cut-backs, and increased maintenance.

But around this time, the NH's piggyback service was found to be incompatible and expensive to run, especially was difficult to compete with trucks on the newly-built Connecticut Turnpike, which ran along side of most of the NH's mainline (talk about a major completive disadvantage for the NH!). Passenger and freight profits were decreasing, operating costs were increasing, most of the major New England State factories that depended on the railroads were gone, or went to trucks instead. Also a fact that most of the New Haven Railroad system was made up of yards, with a short main-line of about 280 miles, and with most freight being inbound instead of outbound.

Alpert's further cut-back on the RR's electrification by using diesel locomotives more, yet still paying for the un-used electric also did not help. Other cut-backs made were closings of some shops, removal of some excess track, many locomotives (especially poorly-maintained locomotives) were put out of service (and stored long enough to cause further damage to the units), a more less expensive paint scheme was used on locomotives (orange/red and black with white lettering). Also the last 30 of the FL9's were purchased (using government loans), and some FA units were rebuilt.


Another Bad Time, But A Major Change Approaching (1960's):

Then on 7/7/61, NH filed for bankruptcy for the 2nd time. The NH went down hill with no return from here. Harry Dorigan was appointed by court to take control of NH's operations (until the 1969 merger with PC). NH continued to loose money on freight and passenger service. They also were being put in a tight spot due to the proposed Penn Central merger of the NYC and PRR, because this would have left the NH surrounded by a large railroad, in a hopeless competitive position. Upon predicting their doomed future, in 1962, New Haven requested the ICC to allow them to merge with the up-coming Penn Central.

By 1965, NYC and PRR agreed to merge the NH into the PC, but they did not want to continue the NH's passenger service however. PRR and NYC were denied that request and were basically forced to merge with the NH by order of the ICC. From 1962-1969, the NH continued to loose money, tried more cut-backs, such as restarting some of their electrification services for freight trains, to help cut-back on diesel locomotive fuel spending in those electrified areas. The NH bought 11 and re-built (10) GE EF-4's from the N&W, and also rebuilt some of their EP-5 electric locomotives. The final locomotives NH purchased were GE U25B's (26) and Alco C425's (10).


A New Final Change, With A New Name (late 1960's-on into PC):

On 12/1/68, the ICC ordered the PC to merge with the NH by 1/1/69, which then came about. Much of the NH's equipment could still be seen on the PC for some years in NH paint after the 1969 entry. In 1969 and the early 1970's, there were many 1st-generation ex-NH locomotives that could be found in retired/stored locomotive lines in the New Haven District of the PC, not yet scrapped. Also PC adopted a short-lived paint scheme where their PC logos had an orange "C" with a white "P". Many believed this was to introduce the NH into the PC, being the NH could be seen as the "orange" part of the railroad. Yet others believed this (if not also) helped introduce the NYC into the PC, by highlighting the "C" for "Central" (but why then not a green "C"?). And by 1970, the PC itself went bankrupt, and operated per court order until 1976 when Conrail took over.


Final Thoughts About The NH:

There are many opinions about the New Haven. Some say the NH was a major factor contributing to the fall of the PC, being it was mainly a passenger service railroad, and a run-down and money drain railroad when it arrived into the PC by 1969, and also because it was forced upon the PC by the ICC. But even the NYC and PRR were in financial trouble by the time they merged in 1968, to form PC. As discussed further in the Details About The PC section of this site, many factors led to the downfall of the PC as well, if not similar to the downfall of the NH-too much spending, natural disasters, changes in transportation and the economy, poor and corrupt management practices, and governmental red tape and uncooperation. But the New Haven lives on with those who were part of and its fans.



Word About NH's Red-Orange Paint

The New Haven used a "red-orange" color on their McG. and Alpert-Era paint schemes. Some argue the color was "always" a "red-orange", but that is NOT 100% accurate. By studying many colored photographs, and paying attention to details, it's been discovered that the NH had used some tint variations with their red-orange, red, and orange paint. Some photographs have shown the paint being more ORANGE, and other equipment being more RED -faded OR brand-new paint jobs. Even on locomotives with old and faded paint, you still could tell it use to be more red or orange, because usually the reds faded to pink, oranges faded to orange, even though some photos do show the more of the red-oranges also fading to more orange tint. Regardless, they used different tints of their "red-orange" paint-being either a more red-orange, red, or orange-used on any of the paint shames that used these colors.

The more ORANGE variation in tint goes for their GE U25B's, Alco C-425's, FA's, S's, and RS locomotives.

The more RED variation could be found usually on the EMD GP9's and FL-9's, GE 44-tonner's and some U25B's, and the same Alcos as listed above.

Again, nothing was 100% exact in following documented procedures. The New Haven used paint they had, and some companies they ordered it from had their variations in color tint. Pay attention to details.




PENN CENTRAL's EX-NEW HAVEN DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE ROSTER:

PC UNIT No.: Ex-NH UNIT No.: MODEL/MAKE: INFO.:


1330-1333 0401, 0418, 0416, 0428 FA1/Alco Used in service, retired early 1970's.



(More to add later on this roster)





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©2001-2009-2016 pcrrusa; All Rights Reserved. This site has no affiliation to the real Penn Central Company (now has a different name), but is intended to help preserve the history of the PC (mainly the railroad). All info was gathered from webmaster's own extensive research and time.

[2003-3]