UP Spin off

[Anonymous]

I am not a law person but I was wondering? Once a railroad goes bankrupt(C.R.I.P.[;)]) and is absorbed buy another railroad(U.P.[;)]) is there any hope of that one railroad(C.R.I.P.[;)]) will ever see the light of day again?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

The Rock Island was not absorbed by another railroad -- that would be a merger, and such did not happen. It went bankrupt and its assets were sold.

In the case of the Rock Island bankruptcy, as well as most bankruptcies, the bankruptcy trustee sold assets of the company to the highest bidder, subject to approval of the bankruptcy court. Rock Island assets went to a number of railroads, not just UP, but also SP (SSW), Rio Grande, C&NW, plus many short lines. After the sale of assets, the trustee pays the creditors all or some of the bankrupt company's debt (again subject to approval of the court), and the company is either reorganized and emerges from bankruptcy, or is dissolved. I don't know which happened to the Rock Island company, but it's not unusual for the company to continue on, if no longer in the railroad business. Milwaukee Road and Penn Central both continue in business to this day, albeit as real estate owners.

So, yes, if the company is not dissolved, it could re-emerge as a rail carrier, if it wanted. It would have zero claim on its former routes, of course, but it could always purchase them from the railroads that own them now. Why anyone would ever want to do that is a mystery to me.

This has nothing to do with abandoned routes, of course. A company can always seek to reacquire an abandoned right-of-way and lay track again, but the legal hurdles to that are onerous.

Thanks for the info![:D][:D]

[jeffhergert]

The Rock Island emerged from bankruptcy court reorganized as the Chicago Pacific Corp in 1984. It became a holding company that eventually owned Pennsylvania House furniture and Hoover vacuum cleaners, among other companies.
It was merged into Maytag in about 1992. Maytag wanted their appliance components and I believe divested the non-appliance companies.
There used to be some black hoppers with ROCX reporting marks and the big Rock R. I was told that these belonged to the Rock Island estate and were leased to provide some revenue. As the RI was no longer an operating railroad, they had to have the X indicating a private owner on their reporting mark.

[RudyRockvilleMD]

Heartland Flyer may have confused an earlier proposal for the Rock island to merge with the Union Pacific which was complex, and eventually fell apart.

[mudchicken]

Providence & Worchester example what the unknown (error error) poster is referring to?

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffhergert

The Rock Island emerged from bankruptcy court reorganized as the Chicago Pacific Corp in 1984. It became a holding company that eventually owned Pennsylvania House furniture and Hoover vacuum cleaners, among other companies.
It was merged into Maytag in about 1992. Maytag wanted their appliance components and I believe divested the non-appliance companies.
There used to be some black hoppers with ROCX reporting marks and the big Rock R. I was told that these belonged to the Rock Island estate and were leased to provide some revenue. As the RI was no longer an operating railroad, they had to have the X indicating a private owner on their reporting mark.

I see ROCX tankcars out here frequently. I think they like to hang out at the refineries and gas plants around Bakersfield. The National Railway Historical Society (http://www.nrhs.com/reporting_marks/aar_reporting_marks.htm) lists ROCX as being Rock Island Improvement company from January 1979 to July 1980, then Rocky Mountain Transportation Serivices from July 1995 on.