PENNSY'S SUNNYSIDE YARD

摘要

The sky was decidedly not sunny when I had the good (or maybe bad?) luck to get my first close-up of Pennsylvania Railroads Sunny-side Yard. It was March 19, 1956, and the huge yard was all but smothered and inoperative under the second-heaviest snowfall in its 46-year history. If not for the indefatigable yardmas-ters and resourceful staff of Sunnyside, it would have been quits for sure. Air and bus lines had given up; private cars and even commuter trains were stranded. Consequently, long-distance travelers by the thousands were return- ing to "good old mother railroad." Even the railroads' now-familiar "foul-weather friends" expected that somehow the trains would see them through (and they did). Few of those who complained about crowded trains, or enforced short rations in dining cars, however, realized the valiant struggle that went on behind the scenes―particularly in Sunnyside―enabling any trains to run at all that day.