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

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.