The country looked on anxiously as the clouds of war gathered over Europe and Asia . anticipate the prevailing isolationistic climate , President Roosevelt proposed increased military appropriations in 1938 and the creation of a two - oceannavy . The construct of national defense and the motive to re-arm gained impulse with the declaration of a limited war emergency brake on September 8 , 1939 . The export of scrapironwas halted a twelvemonth later , and an unlimited national emergency was declared on May 27 , 1941 . Though not formally at state of war , the land was in spades on a state of war foothold .
railway dealings increased as the armed forces reconstruct . A freight machine famine go on in recent 1939 for the first fourth dimension since 1921 , and the railroads worked steadily to put long - inactive cars andlocomotivesback in servicing . set to avoid the topsy-turvydom that resulted from government activity seizure during World War I , an Office of Defense Transportation was created to exercise worldwide control over the railroad and ensure that national transport priorities were run across .
Wartime Railroad Restrictions
World War II would prove to be the zenith of public rail transport . More masses and material than ever before had to locomote , and nearly everything motivate by railing . requirement increase stunningly . In 1940,steamrailroads plow 378,343 million short ton - geographical mile : about 62 percent of all freightage . This well-nigh doubled by 1944 to 745,829 ton - miles , symbolise 70 percent of all freightage transported in the United States . rider mile increased at an even greater rate during the same menstruum , from 23,816 million rider miles to 95,663 million rider nautical mile . In 1944 , the tiptop war year , more than 75 percent of all commercial-grade passenger traveled by runway , as did an stupefying 97 percent of military passenger .
World War II really delayed the transition from steam todiesel locomotives . steamer locomotor builder recognized that the live technology had been almost to the full develop by the late 1930s , and they were willing to concede the ranking characteristics of diesel - electrical railway locomotive . Most believed that the spiritual rebirth from steam to diesel was inevitable , but would occur over an extended period of prison term as steam locomotive engine come to the ending of their economic lives and were replace .
It was suggested that some route would never buy diesels because of their commitment to coal , and that smaller lines would be year in converting because of the availableness of blue - cost second - hand steam locomotives . The conversion would be gradual and orderly , permitting the maker to invest in young production facility . The principal builders – Baldwin , Alco , Lima – expected to vie against one another for locomotor order long into the future .
The reality was quite different . Despite the higher monetary value – a Rudolf Diesel - electric locomotive monetary value two and one – half time as much as a comparable steam locomotive - most railroad were eager to change over as cursorily as potential . Wartime production restrictions limited the numbers and types of diesel engine that could be produced , so even though they wanted diesels , the railway , strap for motive power , had to continue buying steam locomotives .
More than 4,000 locomotives were build for domestic function during the war . The most memorable year was 1944 , distinguished by production of the last and upright examples of several remarkable steam locomotive invention , including the Union Pacific 4 - 8 - 8 - 4 Big Boys and 4 - 6 - 6 - 4 Challengers , Santa Fe ’s 4 - 8 - 4 Northerns , Baltimore & Ohio ’s 2 - 8 - 8 - 4s , and Southern Pacific ’s 4 - 8 - 8 - 2 cab - forwards .
The War Production Board qualify the design of new steam locomotives , set up production criterion that were stand for to make locomotive more useful during wartime . This resulted in Southern Pacific ’s 4460 - class engines having smaller drivers than their prewar Sister , and the invention being copied for the Western Pacific and Central of Georgia . Even the gallant Pennsylvania found itself building locomotives derived from a Chesapeake & Ohio design .
Despite restrictions , there were also brave attempts to better the steam locomotive . The Pennsylvania Railroad was the leader in this direction , developing a lineal - drive steam turbine locomotor , two different four - cylinder locomotives , and the shark - nosed T-1 4 - 4 - 4 - 4s . These efforts did little to halt the lunar time period of dieselization : 608 Rudolf Diesel - electric locomotive were built in 1944 , compare with 491 steam railway locomotive . The first Class 1 railroad to fully dieselize was the New York , Susquehanna & Western , which replaced 29 steam engine with 16 Alco diesel - electric between 1942 and the summertime of 1945 .
The End of Railroad Restrictions
Theend of World War IIbrought the gradual riddance of travel restrictions , but it took month for the railroads to fill in their wartime work and deliver to a peacetime footing . trillion of soldiers , crewman , and aviator had to be processed through sack centers and bring back home in the months follow V - J Day – intimately every one of them traveling by train . limitation impose in the shutting months of the war , such as the removal of sleep car from runs of less than 450 miles , eased the problems of military travel but increase the burden faced by civilian .
The sheer requirement of the service provided by railroads meant that their wartime study would n’t be complete for months , while vie modality of transportation could respond to peacetime civilian demand quickly . The large scout group motion of the entire state of war occur on August 3 - 4 , 1945 , whenArmyreturnees sidetrack from Camp Kilmer , New Jersey , to various destinations around the land . More than 20,000 soldiers packed onto 31 power train , requiring 331 Pullmans , 100 four-in-hand , and 41 kitchen cars . That same week , more than 250,000 servicemen and women were transport in organized troop social movement requiring 726 Pullman cars and 512 coaches . The Army maintained its precedency for Pullman railcar well into 1946 . By comparison , gasolene rationing terminate quickly after the war , and even the air hose had gotten their carpenter’s plane back from the government by the end of 1945 .
pacification mean that the nation could turn its care to accomplish expectations that originated during the 1920s and ' 30s , but were bow by the Depression and the war . The prewar world ’s fair popularise the visual sensation of a modern consumer - oriented future embodying innovations in deportation and communication . This ending could now be pursued by incorporate wartime developments in jet air , electronics , and celluloid textile . The railroads , commonplace but triumphant after serve as a groyne of the war effort , needed to reinvest for maintain a topographic point for themselves in the nation ’s transport hereafter .
World War II Railroad Timeline
1939 :
In September , a war emergency is declare in the United States .
1941 :
Japan attack Pearl Harboron December 7 , Congress adjudge war .
1942 :
Gasoline rationing is enforce , and travelers flock to rider railroad train ;
Northern Pacific responds by trying to discourage civilian travel .
1944 :
The last Southern Pacific cab - forward locomotive is deliver .
1945 :
In August , the United States dropsatomic bombson Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Japan surrenders .
