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The day all the trains stopped running at South Station - and everywhere else

Redcap Charlie Hughes of Roxbury sits dejectedly at South Station

The caption for this photo from the May 24, 1946 Boston Traveler reads:

"I Been Workin' on the Railroad"--but that was once upon a time. Redcap Charlie Hughes of Roxbury sits dejectedly alongside the South Station's deserted tracks and wonders how long the strike will last. He is but one of thousands throughout the country whose livelihood stopped when strike began.

Railway workers, who had agreed during the war not to strike, decided May, 1946 - after both VE and VJ day - had been more than enough time for the nation's railroads to meet their demands for pay and when that didn't happen, and after a federally mandated 60-day cooling off period had expired, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers went on strike across the country on May 23, halting both freight and passenger service, including on lines that ended and started at South Station. The strike was a rejection of both what the railroads were offering and a "compromise" pay increase proposed by Truman.

On May 25, the Globe reported panic buying at area supermarkets as customers tried to get the last of the fresh meat, fruit and vegetables that had come mainly by train before the strike. Army troops were put on alert that they might be called in to run the trains, local subway and bus systems added extra capacity to handle riders who otherwise would take commuter trains and kind-hearted motorists picked up even more hitchhikers than usual.

In the end, Charlie Hughes didn't have to wait too long to return to his job ferrying passengers' bags from the South Station doors to their trains: On May 26, the unions, under intense pressure from Washington, gave in and accepted Truman's offer, as did the railroads.

Photo from the BPL's Boston Herald-Traveler Photo Morgue. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

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Comments

The railways are the arteries of America, still. Lord help us if they strike again.

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They wanted to strike recently and were forced back to work by congress and the president without the dangerous conditions they noted being remedied.

And then there were exploding trains, as feared.

They still don't have sick pay. They still don't have safety demands met.

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I don't have sick time. Corporate renamed it something else. What can you do?

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What can you do?

You can organize, and you can strike.

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I come from a strike busting tradition. USAF then Metropolitan International Security Services. I've trained for that. I think MISS was the first spinoff from the Pinkertons.

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Washington trained to lead a British Army, what's your point?

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Actually, most of the major Class 1 railroads later negotiated new sick leave policies:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/01/railroad-workers-union-...

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The recent labor dispute was because the workers have an *abysmal* leave policy, with essentially no sick leave. If it stays that way, we're going to get another strike, and I sure won't say anything against that.

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More than 90% of New England's freight arrives by truck today. The degree to which the railroads have declined is reflected in the myriad abandoned lines all over the region. Some have been converted to rail trails; others have been built over or allowed to return to nature.

American railroads are a pitiful shrunken remnant of what they once were, and they have mostly themselves to blame. Over 100,000 miles of track have been abandoned since 1945.

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More than 90% of New England's freight arrives by truck today.

What definition are you using for "arrives"? Delivered to the door? Delivered to a warehouse in the city? Neither trains nor container ships roll up (or float up) to a warehouse door, but if what we're talking about is a truck taking a load across town from a warehouse where a train or container ship has unloaded, I suppose you could say it technically "arrives by truck", but does that really tell the story?

American railroads are a pitiful shrunken remnant of what they once were, and they have mostly themselves to blame.

I know that's true for passenger rail. I don't think it's equally true for freight.

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There's another good photo from the strike by the same photographer, Ernest Hill.

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