Penn Central’s Fort Pitt in Canton

It may be a Penn Central passenger train but the westbound Fort Pitt had a pair of Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives pulling it as it arrives in the station in Canton on May 30, 1968.

Nos. 4309 and 4304, a pair of E8A locomotives, are on the point today.

No. 4309 had been built for the Pennsy in January 1951 as No. 5809. It would later become an Amtrak unit, work for Conrail and end up becoming Juniata Terminal 5809 wearing a PRR livery.

The Fort Pitt, however, would not have the same history. The Pittsburgh to Chicago train survived until the coming of Amtrak when it was discontinued.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

The Fort Pitt in Canton

Penn Central E8A No. 4309 is heading the westbound Fort Pitt through Canton on May 30, 1968. You’ve already noticed that it still wears its Pennsylvania Railroad markings.

Indeed, it was built by EMD for the Pennsy in January 1951 as No. 5809. This unit would later join the Amtrak motive power roster where it held roster numbers 315 and 498.

It then became Conrail 4020 and helped to pull that railroad’s executive trains. It then became Juniata Terminal No. 5809 where it was repainted back into PRR colors and markings.

In the image above you can also see Wandle interlocking in the background where the Norfolk & Western (former Wheeling & Lake Erie/Nickel Plate Road) crossed the Fort Wayne Line of the Pennsy.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

The Fort Pitt in Canton

The Fort Pitt was one of the most photographed Pennsylvania Railroad passenger trains in Northeast Ohio because of its schedule.

Most of the Pennsy’s passenger trains came through Canton and Massillon in the dark but the Fort Pitt was a daylight train from Pittsburgh to Chicago.

It is 1969 and the Fort Pitt is now a Penn Central train even though it still appears to be a PRR one.

On the point is E8A No. 4252. Built by EMD for the Pennsy in May 1952 as No. 5792, it would eventually receive a Penn Central livery as well as new number.

Amtrak would acquire the unit and renumber is 278. It would serve the nation’s intercity passenger carrier until being retired in May 1976.

In the photograph above, the photograph was standing on the eastbound passenger platform in Canton.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

The Way It Was in the Late 1960s

By the late 1960s the intercity passenger trains that were still left were not much.

Many trains had shrunk to two or even one passenger car with a head end car or two.

Such was the case with the westbound Fort Pitt, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train operating through Canton to Chicago.

It was the late PRR or early Penn Central era at Alliance when the Fort Pitt was captured while waiting in the station on a cloudy afternoon.

There probably were not many passengers on board on this day and the railroad no longer cared what image a worn Keystone made.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

When Varnish Was Common in Massillon

Penn Central was still running passenger trains through Massillon, Ohio, in the late 1960s. Here is the westbound mid-afternoon Fort Pitt with PC 4292 on the point racing through the super-elevated curve, which actually comes through the bridge over the Tuscarawas River.

I believe it was October 1969 and the red “P”/white “”C” had only been painted on a handful of E units, making this a rarer photo.

Today a Norfolk Southern office car special sometimes gives a similar scene, but it is hard to imagine even in the late 1960s passenger trains such as this were somewhat common on this line.

Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas