Two Mega Railroads

Michael_Evans

thread killer
Does anyone ever think of what would happen if the PRR and NYC had never combined to form the Penn Central. For one there never would have been a huge bankruptcy or such a thing as standing derailments.
 
Hi from Glasgow, Scotland.

Would have been an interesting scenario of course. I have in my possession a massive Handbook of North American Railroads Assoc for the 1950's. What an interesting thing it is as it also includes, Canada, Mexico, Cuba. It gives timetables, company maps, departments, officials, lists all the small line companies -dozens of them of that time. Companies like the NYC and the Pennsylvania were giants. Youu would be fascinated by this tome. Some rail fans would love to see this as it's changed days!
 
I forget what caused the PC merger, but prior to it there was talk about a NYC & C&O merger, I believe a PRR & N&W one also. Similar to how Conrail was divided between CSX and NS. Always wondered what the companies that would come of these two mergers would be and it would have changed the current state of Class 1s.
 
Hello Michael,

RE: NATIONAL ASSOC OF AMERICAN RAILROADS HANDBOOK

The story of that is that many many years ago I worked in a travel agency here in Glasgow and came across this in a cupboard and as it was out of date they let me keep it which was fantastic for me! However it was published in the mid-50's and the National Railroad Association was a big organisation with scores of big and small companies. You could see pages on say the Penn or the AT&SF, NickelRoad, Union Pacific, NYC and other giants then some wee line of a couple of miles and who the President was and the mileage, etc. Great for rail fans. I think you would be captured reading this book?! I think it must have been an annual thing. Today the same thing would be exceptionally thin. Mine must be at least 2 inches thick and is a tremendous exploration of American railways. The details about the companies, maps, etc I mentioned you would drool over as it is a bit of history. Famous named trains. passeneger routes now gone, freight lines, the managers, mileage, maps, a treasure trove and it's in my loft. Must try and dig it out as it's rested up there for years!

Bobby
 
The Federal Railroad Administration used to have a category in the 1970s called standing derailment. A train would be sitting there doing absolutely nothing and suddenly the track underneath it would crumble and the cars would derail, that’s how bad the deferred maintenance became.

Look up standing derailment on google, this is in the first result that comes out.
 
Seeing as railroads in USA were suffering and loosing money by dozen in in 70s this seems like something that could happen..
 
Penn Central was'nt a bad idea.....but

Penn Central failed because of overregulation which made it impossible to effiently run the railroad plus most of its operating debt was commercial paper which came due within 180 day cycles. Investors got scared and refused to extend credit which caused the bankrucy in 1976.

btw I remember PC black engines with the white worm logo when I was kid. Wish someone would reskin more PC rollingstock for Trainz.
 
Another problem was that the railroads paid property tax on their assets. So they paid Federal taxes on the rails which were spent to build highways that the trucking companies didn't pay taxes to drive on. So the railroads were being taxed to provide free facilities for their competition.

:cool: Claude
 
I also gather that some of Penn Central's problems came from the fact that two strong competitors were suddenly amalgamated in an unplanned merger, the two management teams had styles as different as the East and the West, and the two railroads covered the same areas, which meant they duplicated most of their routes.

An NYC/C&O merger and an N&W/PRR merger would have created two larger systems that both would have had expanded route structures, with less duplication. As far as the planning, management styles, and competition, I can't say for sure. I don't think NYC and C&O competed as much with each other as did PRR and NYC, so that legacy wouldn't have dogged the two companies.
 
I forget what caused the PC merger, but prior to it there was talk about a NYC & C&O merger, I believe a PRR & N&W one also. Similar to how Conrail was divided between CSX and NS. Always wondered what the companies that would come of these two mergers would be and it would have changed the current state of Class 1s.
N&W never merged with pennsy. it and southern created Norfolk Southern along with nkp, wabash, W&le. But since Conrail got split up, CSX soen't own pennsy Ns does. But really Ns is the N&W with a different name.
 
...Except that the N&W steam excursions could get to Birmingham after the merger. ;)

Oh, I love speculating about what might have been. On another note, I heard tell of a good book chronicaling the (281-day) life of the PC and its various shortcomings. Whish I could remember the title.
 
I was going to reply to one of the posters in this thread until I realized that his post was FIVE YEARS OLD!!!! I realize you are new, but don't bump old threads like this..... Half of these people (or more) aren't even active in the community!
 
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