Western Iowa (Large Resolution Warning)

[289v8]

.....................................................

 

[JCitron]

John, it would have been interesting to sit in on the board meetings to hear the reasons why the railroad management makes these decisions. After working 47 years for different companies and looking back at decisions that they have made gives you a clear picture that most management does not have a clue what is going on in the field. After the Rock Island quit running I was working for the CNW and all the R.I. lines that we started running on had a lot more business on them than the CNW had. We worked 12-14 hour days every day and the CNW couldn't hire employees fast enough. The CNW even turned down Grain Shippers begging for grain hoppers, the CNW told them they did not want shippers that shipped less than 25 car trains! Some of these Elevators never had big enough sidings to ship bigger trains and the R.I. always supplied them with the amount of cars that they wanted. I guess it was a way to dry up business so the railroad could show the state that the abandon process needed to be started on that line.

I too would have loved to be in on stuff like this. I never worked for the railroad, though I had a job offer at one point. I worked for companies like Polaroid where they decided to go back to their core business, which meant instant film and sold off their profitable divisions such as Polaroid Eye ware, Graphics Imaging, and Medical. They're gone if that says anything...

The management at the CNW sounds like the current management running Pan Am Railways. In fact the PAR management came out of the Penn Central if that says anything. They too went as far as to discourage business on their branches while they concentrated on the mainline through lines. They actually embargoed profitable lines and ignored court orders to serve customers. In many cases, they provided such poor service deliberately, and let the maintenance go down so far that the line was useless. They would then present this to the state and feds as an excuse for abandonment. Three big railroads suffered under their control - the B&M, D&H, and MEC.

Why?

John

 

[289v8]

..............................................

 

[289v8]

.............................................

 

[JCitron]

The image above with the UP engines looks like something along Jointed Rail's Midwest Grain route.

Great pictures!

John

 

[MeowRailroad]

I really like the F-unit.

 

[289v8]

................................................

 

[289v8]

...................................................

 

[289v8]

....................................................

 

[289v8]

...........................................

 

[289v8]

..............................................

 

[289v8]

................................................

 

[289v8]

.................................................

 

[289v8]

...........................................

 

[289v8]

..............................................

 

[289v8]

.........................................

 

[289v8]

.......................................

 

[289v8]

............................................

 

[MeowRailroad]

Cool CNW business cars. I love the CNW.

 

[289v8]

...............................................