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As the 1980s dawned, the number of American heavy-hauler railroads had dropped dramatically from where it had been a decade before. There was good reasons for that - there had been too many railroads and simply not enough traffic to support them, but things had started to change.
Indeed, the 1980s opened with a political bang. President Jimmy Carter had found himself facing many problems, and to the shock of many, Carter found himself against a primary challenger, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Many had predicted Ted Kennedy would follow in his late brother's footsteps, but few had predicted he'd do so in 1980, as the United States faced economic and social problems at home, and the messages of his competitors, former California governor Ronald Reagan, looked like they would take hold and well. That didn't stop Kennedy, however - and facing the likelihood of a party split and the likelihood of him not being able to get re-elected, Carter backed off, announcing he would not seek re-election. Kennedy easily won the primary, but he had a long road to take on Reagan.
Long road or not, Kennedy went for it, and even when taking into account his own personal problems and past history, he still worked his best to move past it - and the 1980 election went from being a Republican walk to a real fight. Kennedy blunted Reagan's major strength with regards to defense with his choice of running mate, Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington. Reagan was up for the challenge, however, and 1980 turned into one of the wildest political fights in modern times. Reagan ultimately came out ahead, but with Democrats holding both chambers of Congress, Kennedy still had the clout to make Reagan listen to him, even after his presidential loss. But 1980's political season, and a wide range of political opinions and ideas, had captured imaginations, and much like the 1960s, the 1980s really saw the country pick up where it had left off. Political scholars would call the 1980s the decade "Where the concerns of business and labor, rural and urban, Democrat and Republican, left and right, found themselves in more than a few cases chasing common goals." Kennedy and Reagan had been bitter rivals, but America's demands soon forced them to think outside of their ideological leanings, in both cases.
Reagan early 1980s tax cuts and supply-side economics faced concern in Congress, and demands from the American left to help fix inequalities. While at first there was much bitterness - a rolling series of strikes in 1981 and 1982 caused substantial problems in much of the America's union-dominated industries, railroads included - by the mid-1980s, many businessmen were finding out that unions and labor were not as hostile as many of them believed, and many unions found themselves willing to sacrifice constant wage rises if it would ensure the jobs of members. Combined with growing consumer confidence, deregulatory efforts and a weaker US dollar helping exports, it led to a massive surge of economic growth in the United States in the 1980s. Many Democrats, including Kennedy himself, admitted that Reagan's economic plans were working, but that he didn't pay enough attention to the needs of poorer and working class Americans, which the Democrat-controlled Congress was quite willing to work for. In cases, the two goals dovetailed - Reagan's passing of landmark healthcare reform legislation in 1982 had been significantly shoved along by Kennedy and House Speaker Tip O'Neill, and Reagan signed the bill into law after economists made it clear to him that such bills would end up helping America's industrial and working class sectors - which proved to be true. While Reagan held steadfast to his belief that the malaise of 1970s America was in large part related to excessive regulations and misguided welfare programs, he found himself unable to swing an ax - but found Congress and both parties willing to make changes.
With this confidence, the economy booming and industrial output growing every day, the 1980s saw every transport industry trying their damndest just to keep up, and the railroads were no exception. After the 1970s oil shocks, plans for electrification of rail lines moved rapidly in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Conrail took the lead here, with its electrification being stretched from Harrisburg, PA to Cleveland and Columbus, OH, as well as the Pacific Extension's electrification being extended from Seattle and Tacoma, WA to Glendive, Montana, including closing the Milwaukee's electric "gap", taking advantage of the extensive hydroelectric power of the Pacific Northwest. electrification was particularly appealing in mountainous areas, especially with the raft of powerful electric engines that entered the market in the 1970s and 1980s, including GM's potent GM10B and AEM-7 units, and General Electric's E60, which had proven a failure in passenger service but ultimately would become a major success as a freight locomotive. In addition, Conrail's fleet of WWII-era GG1 electrics went into their expansive Altoona, PA, shops for reworks between 1981 and 1984 - the old monsters had racked up many miles, but Conrail studies found that even with the high costs of refurbishment - removing PCBs from electrics and asbestos from the engines were expensive jobs, and frame cracks were becoming an issue in many of them - they would be saving money against the cost of new engines, and Conrail easily recognized that the legendary engines were still status symbols. Alco, now formally allied with Caterpillar in the locomotive business, focused its efforts on diesels, with their new "Millenium" series diesels first rolling out of its Schenectady, New York, plant in the summer of 1981, powered by potent Caterpillar 3654 turbodiesels
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Qui Fev 21, 2013 8:39 pm
