The "Blue Goose" Flies on the NYC

Editor’s Note: Taken from the June, 1972 “Trains Magazine”, the following is a letter from John Edward Wiltz of the Department of History of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Professor Wiltz grew up in Washington, Indiana, where his father was in engine service for the B&O. He says he thinks that the flood was in 1944, but records show that it was most likely the flood in May of 1943 when the Wabash crested at a high level that has not been matched since then. There was another flood in 1950 that affected the railroad and the B&O then raised the roadbed of the St. Louis Division across the Wabash River flood plain. When the Wabash flooded again in 1958 and during several since then, the railroad was high enough above the waters that there was no disruption of service.

Fanatically loyal to the B&O, I was keenly aware that B&O’s best trains did not compare favorably with those of the NYC and PRR. When I would go to St. Louis or Cincinnati to see a ball game, as I often did in the early 1940s, I would look over the lightweight coaches of the Central and Pennsy streamliners with admiration tinctured by envy. By comparison, my favorite train – the National Limited – looked almost tacky. And of course, there were similar comparisons to be made between B&O’s light USRA Pacifics and the J’s and K4’s. (One day, when I was about 10, I noticed that the Central’s Hudsons were numbered in the 5200 series, the same as B&O’s P-5’s, and I had a fleeting hope that my eyes had deceived me and that the Hudsons were not bigger than the P-5’s. Then came my deflation when Dad told me that an NYC 5200 and a B&O 5200 were not cut from the same cloth.)

But there was a day- in 1944, I think – when we B&O types were given the opportunity to hold our heads above those of our rivals. It came when the Wabash River went on a rampage and washed out the B&O west of Vincennes, Indiana. During the flood, B&O trains were detoured from Cincinnati to St. Louis via Indianapolis on the NYC and PRR. Everyone was aware that by and large B&O equipment was no match for that of Central and of Pennsy. But B&O had one thing its rivals didn’t have, namely diesel-electric locomotives. Well, maybe not many of them; but in 1944 the National Limited was hauled by EMD’s finest. Naturally, the men of the Central did not think that anything on wheels could compare with a J, and hence they were not inclined to be impressed by the National’s power. Then came the big day. On that morning at Indianapolis, an NYC engineer who had been assigned as a pilot climbed up into the cab of the National’s power. On steam engines, the pilots normally operated the locomotives on such detours and the B&O engineers stood by. But NYC and PRR hoggers were not qualified to operate diesels, so they merely passed on signals and instructions. Well, this particular pilot, proud of the NYC and doubtless a little contemptuous of the B&O, announced, “Now this is a high-speed railroad, and we want to get this train down the track.” Whereupon the B&O engineer, a notoriously quiet fellow, worked the EMD’s throttle out to the full eight notches. Before long the National was zooming down the NYC’s beautifully maintained roadbed toward Greencastle and Terre Haute. Unaccustomed to the comparatively smooth ride offered by the diesel, the pilot was unaware of the speed. Then, as B&O men told the story, the pilot nonchalantly asked, “How fast are we going?” The B&O engineer responded: “There’s the speedometer.” The old needle was edging past the 100 mark.

“Shut this damned thing off before we both get fired!” shouted the pilot. For a short time the dispatcher apparently lost track of the National and, so the story went, the Blue Goose (as NYC men called our pride and joy) clipped off 55 miles in under 45 minutes. The pilot and the engineer were reprimanded, of course, and notices were posted everywhere that speed regulations would be adhered to strictly. But B&O had had its day, and henceforth nobody doubted that the B&O had a locomotive on the St. Louis Division which could run with the J’s.