Full Version: Southern Crescent NBC 1978

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10 жыл бұрын

This is the longer version that ran on the Today Show. The shorter version on this channel was cut down to air on NBC Nightly News that same day.

Пікірлер: 75

@jslasher1 8 жыл бұрын

Travelled aboard this train whilst employed by Amtrak in 1972. The finest passenger train in the USA, better than anything Amtrak could offer.

@GuyjKite 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent video. My grandfather was an engineer on the southern railway. He lived in alexandria va. He ran the crescent in the 1960s. Back then sou. Engines were painted black and white. He gave southern railway 47 years dedicated service.

@tonypanzarella9387 7 ай бұрын

I rode the Southern Crescent in the 1970s, and it never carried any ... unclaimed freight. ;)

@wesleyhymbaugh1450 2 ай бұрын

This Is Great Seeing The Southern Cresent On NBC 1978 Which This Is A Time Machine With The Historic Southern Cresent snd Piedmont 😊😊😊🚂🚂🚂

@sonnydean3187 7 жыл бұрын

We lost a piece of Americana when we lost class 1 rail passenger service. We travelers gave up customer service for speed. Shame on us. The airlines still cannot touch this level of passenger service; Amtrak tries. SR family member.

@UnionPacific1997 Жыл бұрын

the same generation and generations before it that made rail travel great in this country are the same generations that opted to kill it with the highways. Im only 25 and yall could have pushed to have these lines electrified and upgraded to have highspeed rail. I did my part and got a degree in mechanical engineering but without any industry to work that builds high speed rail there aint fuck all i can do. Thanks

@roadmaster720 Жыл бұрын

@@UnionPacific1997 mickey d's is hiring. go for it, boy!!!!!!!!!!!!

@UnionPacific1997 Жыл бұрын

@@roadmaster720 I work in Construction asshole so Im pretty pre occupied atm. Thanks for the tip though. Heard the hospice has a room open if you wanna check in

@roadmaster720 Жыл бұрын

@@UnionPacific1997 you are an educated idiot. rectal thermometers have degrees and we know where they go.

@UnionPacific1997 Жыл бұрын

@@roadmaster720 only a moron could put idiot and educated in the same sentence and pass it off as an insult. you cant even explain to me how my statement is wrong.

@cojim96 8 жыл бұрын

Rode the Crescent to Atlanta to visit a close friend during the Summer's in the early 70's from Alexandria, VA. Loved that train! Loved the roar of the 4 E8's as they charged into the station. Great piece! Thank you.

@jbainsr1 5 ай бұрын

As some know, I did this report for NBC's Today Show and Nightly News, but the back story is that a few years earlier, when my wife and I married, we took the Crescent to go to Washington to work for NBC and raised our kids in Arlington and Alexandria, VA. We stiull take the Crescent back to Atlanta to visit our home town!

@samueledgarpegram7088 2 жыл бұрын

My father was a SR conductor out of WS, NC. Saw the Crescent come through Greensboro. The passenger train from Greensboro to North Wilkesboro stopped in the late 1960’s.

@davidwiegand2004 9 жыл бұрын

Great video and report! I regret to this day that I never treated myself to a ride on the Southern Crescent.

@barroningram7286 7 жыл бұрын

in 1966 at12yrs old i got toride the Southerner before it was the Southern Crescent from Philadelphia to Greensboro i'll never forget that trip as long as i live,even to this day i take this train when ever i can especially when i get a sleeping car ,to me there's no other way to go.

@nikerailfanningttm9046 Жыл бұрын

I was born in 1976 so I was 2 when this aired. I vaguely recall seeing this on our tv, but I was a toddler playing with my pop and his Lionel Southern Set. Damn has the time flied, today we call passenger service “Amtrak” and it’s a fucking shame to call it “America’s Railroad” when it’s not.

@thesevenbridgesgrouptsbgsp1841 5 ай бұрын

Man this brings back a lot of memories from my summers in Meridian, MS. My granddad used to take me down to Key Field on Sundays after church to watch the Delta arrival and departure and the Crescent headed down to Laurel along US11.

@jbainsr1 5 ай бұрын

That is really a great memory with your Dad. Thank you for sharing. As you saw here, we were in the cab with the engineer as he left Meridian, headed for New Orleans.

@ModernClassic 3 жыл бұрын

I rode this train as a kid in 1976, in an open section car. Amtrak never took any of those cars (that I know of) from Southern or any other railroad, so that was the first and only time I got to experience that and I still remember it. Have photos from the dome car of the train stretching out forward and back, with those green and white E8 locomotives clearly visible.

@Greatdome99 Жыл бұрын

Section cars (upper and lower berths . .) allowed travelers to deduct their ride from business expense taxes; full sleeping cars were not.

@andrewhurricane 9 жыл бұрын

Thank you very kindly for posting this entire report. I'm very glad to see that this chronicle of a forever-gone railway tradition can at least be kept around in this form for more to see.

@jbainsr1 8 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much! Books can describe it, videos and films can show it, but riding this great train was a magnificent and moving experience!

@andrewdutton3831 3 жыл бұрын

Rode this train as a 9 year old in 1977. It was one of the most exciting trips of my childhood.

@centredoorplugsthornton4112 7 жыл бұрын

Southern Railway operated the Southern Crescent daily on an overnight schedule between Washington and Atlanta, then three times weekly Atlanta-New Orleans. Until 1975 it ran daily to Birmingham. Amtrak conveyed through cars to and from New York, allowing for travel NY-Atlanta-New Orleans, plus even a transcontinental NY-LA sleeper via New Orleans and Amtrak's Sunset Limited. Note Southern had a total of 4 trains when Amtrak began and Southern stayed out in 1971. By Thanksgiving 1976 the Southern Crescent was the only one left. Two years later Southern applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission to discontinue the train, though semi officially the goal was to convey it to Amtrak.

@axeandrail 10 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for posting this. I really enjoyed it! That was filmed during the last year that Southern ran the Crescent and it is a shame to loose such a high end passenger train. Thanks again for posting.

@johnowen627 9 жыл бұрын

the Southern Railway was responsible for the operation of the train and it was a credit to Amtrak back then. Southern did everything right till the end. While the Crescent still runs the Viewliners, Amfleet coaches will never be the Crescent.

@hawghead4596 Жыл бұрын

I was a Fireman on #1 and #2, from Meridian, Ms to New Orleans, La., during this time. You could set your watch by the train, it was always on time. Freight trains did not delay “The Silver Slipper”. My engineer smoked cigars and one time the rope on the train horn broke while he was blowing for a crossing and he nearly swallowed his cigar.

@jbainsr1 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for that memory and that story! We got one chance to film the engineer at the stop to change crews in Meridian. He said, "We're fueled and ready to go. Number One's leaving"

@hawghead4596 Жыл бұрын

Yeah, we swapped out with the Crew from Birmingham, Ala. Depart Meridian, Ms at 3:20 pm and get back the next day at 11:00 am. Loved those E8 engines, never had any problem with them. The food on the Crescent was great, had their own cooks, not the microwave meals.

@MultiMatt75 8 жыл бұрын

A fabulous 'time capsule' piece. Fantastic to see what you made of it all those years ago. Who would have dared to guess it would still be running nearly 40 years later! I've found this video because in a few weeks we're going to be travelling on the Crescent, all the way, from New Orleans. We're coming from the UK to do it!

@scenichanger Жыл бұрын

Rode one of last runs in '78, 1/2 price because I was a trackman on the also-fabled D&H. Ended up mentioned in an article in Time Mag. Glorious trip. Food was some of the best I have ever had, before or since- and cooked on a wood stove, if my ol' man memory is intact chancey!).

@moosesmart 9 жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed this report Jackson. Thanks for posting the original full version.

@scottdowney4865 3 жыл бұрын

Rode the Crescent many times as a kid Alexandria to Atlanta. My Dad worked for Southern so got to ride free. Oct '79 I was 13 first time riding by myself when it derailed in Spencer Yard. Dad retired in '84 after the merger.

@mikeredenius425 8 жыл бұрын

I remember watching this broadcast on NBC. It unfortunately was when I was 12 years old and, unlike on the farms and rural communities of Iowa back then, 12 year olds could not drive the distance required for me to have been able to ride it. That didn't keep me from trying and pleading to get my parents or grandparents to take me to Washington to ride it with them. Unfortunately none relented and I was never able to ride a pre-Amtrak train other than the Illinois Central's Hawkeye. We rode that many times to and from Chicago including its last run.

@jbainsr1 8 жыл бұрын

Mike, thanks for your comment. The Crescent was very popular on the East Coast. I rode it to Washington with my wife and kids when I took the job with NBC in DC.

@timnewman1172 3 жыл бұрын

You & I are about the same age, growing up in Iowa I wish I had gotten to ride the Rock Island before it dropped passenger service... I remember going to Perry to pick up my uncle for Christmas of 1970, seeing the "City of Denver" stop is my only real memory of pre-Amtrak passenger service.

@samuelt3236 4 жыл бұрын

I wish I could’ve rode this train. It’s hard to believe someone of the people on this train have passed away, it’s sad to think about.

@jamesaandf 3 жыл бұрын

2021 still the southern party train

@SOU3120 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for posting this. Absolutely phenomenal.

@ScottJohnson4449 4 жыл бұрын

It lives(in N scale) on my KZfaq video "1976 Southern Crescent." More to come. Also, one of these days there will be 4 restored E8s at various museums in the southeast. Let's get them together at Spencer NC for a photo shoot, or even, dare I say, a fan trip!

@markgoodrich941 5 жыл бұрын

Well done. Thank you for sharing this with the world.

@TheAtlantaRailfan Жыл бұрын

Amtrak still runs the crescent, but they run it with the run-of-the-mill amfleet and viewliner coaches, although 4 locomotives that hauled the crescent, Southern 6900, 6901, 6910, and 6914 are all preserved with engines 6900 and 6901 operational and restoration of 6914 nearing completion and several of the coaches that ran the train are preserved in museums all across the southeast such as the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and the Southeastern Railroad Museum.

@milepost4846 4 жыл бұрын

Now Amtrak, not only on the Crescent, but all overnight trains in the eastern half of the U.S. no longer offer fresh cooked food in the diner, instead it's airline style box food only, thanks to budget cuts and their latest CEO Anderson. Waiting for the western long distance trains to get hit with that crap at some point.

@mikeandre9903 2 жыл бұрын

This is one beautiful piece of History love the paint scheme

@FreedomLovingLoyalistOfficial 2 жыл бұрын

For a train that is 99% from the 1950s, this is pretty eerie and nostalgic to watch something filmed in 1978.

@daninthedome 4 жыл бұрын

great look!! thanks

@SOU6900 2 жыл бұрын

I wish I had been a few decades earlier. Maybe I could have experienced this gem of a train then.

@coast_to_coast_photos 2 жыл бұрын

My parents met in college at UNC Chapel Hill in the late 1970’s and my Dad’s parents were living in Atlanta at the time, therefore he would drive down to see them. To this day, of his biggest regrets is knowing about the Southern Crescent because if he had, he definitely would’ve ridden it instead of driving.

@jjstrains4547 6 ай бұрын

We used to run freight trains in to Pot Yard and I can still here that southern draw asking ….Who’s on the motor, over. RF&P B&O CR D&H and the Southern. Trains we had where 685 / 682. 84 / 85. FLTT / 682. Latter came things like 403 / 402 or red train blue train. CP power and GATX power. And the Orange Blossom and WLTT. Elsmere put the skids on that one.

@jamesrussell6123 Ай бұрын

I didn't know that a engineer for Southern railway's crescent blows the horn before leaving the station

@jbainsr1 Ай бұрын

That horn departure salute was because the Crescent had just changed crews in Meridian, Mississippi. As you probably know, the Crescent was called Train Number One on the Southern Railways Line.

@tommythomason6187 4 жыл бұрын

I rode it several times. Great train, and superior to the Amtrak trains of the day.

@brandongaines1731 2 жыл бұрын

@JacksonBain, it may interest you to know that one of the engines that pulled the Southern Crescent in its final days of operation has been preserved - in operating condition - by Norfolk Southern, the descendent, by way of merger, of the Southern Railway!

@ScottJohnson4449 4 жыл бұрын

E8 #6900 is alive and well at the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. E8 #6901 is at the Southeastern Railway Museum just north of Atlanta. #6913 is at the South Appalachia Railway Museum in poor shape, but restorable. #6914 is cosmetically restored at the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum . So...there is hope!

@nicolascalvache8102 4 жыл бұрын

Indeed, I volunteer at SE, 6901 is still operable, needs a new coat of paint!

@ScottJohnson4449 4 жыл бұрын

@@nicolascalvache8102 I looked at some recent videos of it after it got back from Altoona. It doesn't look bad, not too different from when I watched them in the late 70s going into and out of DC. I put a quick video of my 4 N scale E8s pulling a Southern Crescent on KZfaq, "1976 Southern Crescent." I got the the last two E8s at Trainmaster's Models up in Buford. I teach over in Anniston a couple times a month and fly into ATL, so one of these days when you're open I need to get up there and say howdy and see one of my favorite locomotives. Maybe a volunteer could get me in sometime when my schedule permits, even if it's closed? i am not usually there over the weekend. As I type I am looking at my print of Robert West's "Christmas Morning," which has #6901 leading a Southern Crescent into snowy Atlanta. Under it is my letter from Graham Claytor to a teenaged me in 1977 about how the Bicentennial decals had been removed from the 1977 calendar photo, and job opportunities on the Southern. Ah, the good old days. Thanks for replying, I will get down there one of these days.

@williamorton7600 Жыл бұрын

Yes, the 2 at Spencer are nice, but I see they are painting over rust. They need a bit of metal work, but they both run. Yes there's hope...maybe a reunion run

@ScottJohnson4449 Жыл бұрын

@@williamorton7600 I am gonna try to get down that way this month. Stay tuned! Scott

@RailPreserver2K 2 жыл бұрын

Kind of sad looking at this because back when this train was running with original equipment it had class now it's just another amtrak train with nothing special about it at all.

@gordonsnell6735 3 жыл бұрын

Down in Spencer NC, they have one of the Southern Crescent locomotives #6900

@DAPchatt 2 жыл бұрын

they have two can’t forget 6133

@gordonsnell6735 2 жыл бұрын

@@DAPchatt True, didn't forget that one, I like them both, they cool locomotives 😊😊

@DAPchatt 2 жыл бұрын

@@gordonsnell6735 sure are and tvrm has 6914 and someone else

@gordonsnell6735 2 жыл бұрын

@@DAPchatt Cool 😎😎 I remember like years & years ago, 6133 was brought down to Greensboro NC for an event that was going on that day, think there is a video of it too

@Brianrockrailfan 5 жыл бұрын

why don't the freight railroads runs passenger train's any more in lower 48 USA ? like ex brightline doing with f.e.c. Ry ?

@SOU3120 3 жыл бұрын

There’s no money in it. Look at Amtrak. It loses money on every single route it runs other than the northeast corridor. That’s why railroads gave up passenger service to begin with.

@Artessnow 2 жыл бұрын

Even if anyone wanted to ride a train today it would be slow and impractical.

@davanmani556 7 жыл бұрын

What was it about moving from a CBS affiliate like WAGA to NBC national? I thought folks stay within their affiliate then move up national like the late Michele Clark?

@jbainsr1 7 жыл бұрын

Davan Mani, thanks for remembering where I came from before NBC! Atlanta was my home town, and WAGA was wonderful, but I also worked for NBC affiliates elsewhere before the DC bureau hired me. Today, as you know, newscasters hop around way more than I did!

@davanmani556 7 жыл бұрын

+Jackson Bain I noticed that Jane Pauley did the same thing at WISH CBS8 affiliate before moving to WMAQ Chicago NBC5 then Today. Whereas Carole Simpson, Geraldo Rivera, and Pat O'Brien stayed within their affiliates from beginning then moved after getting big to other affiliates?

@robertbrown9147 Жыл бұрын

Maybe back then it was good but, We just took this train ride from New Orleans to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and it SUCKED!!! The train was always violently shaking, rocking back-and-forth and at times felt like it was going to roll over! It sucked so bad that the first day we got off the train we couldn’t even walk. We felt like we were beat up by a professional boxer. We were told there was a dinner cart and there wasn’t one, the only thing they had was a microwave hotdog or hamburger with very little of anything else. We didn’t even ride the train back we booked a flight as bad as I hate to fly I couldn’t take a beating like that again for 30 hours again. Not only what was mentioned above but the water stopped working so we were limited to one restroom for the entire train and they only let us off 2 times in 30 hours to stretch and get fresh air!! Never again. Don’t believe these videos saying how good these train rides are going to be because they suck!! Especially the Crescent 20 route!

@Mrfrenchy6883 Жыл бұрын

Yea back then things had quality like the southern crescent, not the amtrak crescent, only in name not in comfort or style

@kevinhoward9593 3 жыл бұрын

Passenger rail travel after WWII became useless. Faster modes of transit came into being. Even an Amtrak today doesnt make a profit. In fact Amtrak can sell out 90% of long distance trains and STILL wont make a profit. The only part of Amtrak that makes any profit is the NEC.

@mikeweaver8790 Жыл бұрын

Amtrak exists because it is in the national interest to have a viable passenger rail transportation system. It would be foolhardy not to. Airlines and automobiles alone are not adequate. All you have to do is look at the chaos in the airline industry lately and the price of gas to see some of their weaknesses. Amtrak exists because we need a strong passenger rail system and not necessarily to make a profit. Missile defense systems don't make a profit either but we have them because we need them.