USRA's reports (preliminary and final system plans) can be found on Multimodalways site. By the time they got involved, PC had already failed. They tried to save some lines by making them available to other roads while still keeping a competitive balance, but pre-Staggers costs killed that option off. Also, the east coast bias was pretty obvious in the report. Some lines in Indiana and Illinois were not even mentioned.
greyhounds BaltACD History is what it is - It cannot be reveresed. That is very true. But we can learn from past mistakes and try to avoid them in the future.
BaltACD History is what it is - It cannot be reveresed.
That is very true.
But we can learn from past mistakes and try to avoid them in the future.
Amen! In this amateur historians opinion it's the main, if not the ONLY reason to study history. Learn from the mistakes of the past and try your best NOT to repeat them. Learn what works and what doesn't, why it works and why it doesn't, for all the various reasons involved.
Every thing else is what I call the "fun stuff."
"IF" the NYC had survived I wonder waht paint color and scheme they would have used? An SD70Ace or ES44AC in jade green would have looked sharp.
Don't forget that Conrail had a monopoly on meaningful rail freight in the Northeastern US (I'm not taking a stance on whether this was a good or bad outcome, BTW). Had either the NYC, Erie-Lackawanna, or PRR been given the same situation and been allowed to strip the existing plant of the three systems down to a useful core, I would guess that any one of the three entities would have wound up looking very much like Conrail in 1997. The economics of transportation would eventually have taken their course one way or the other.
mudchicken USRA's reports (preliminary and final system plans) can be found on Multimodalways site. By the time they got involved, PC had already failed. They tried to save some lines by making them available to other roads while still keeping a competitive balance, but pre-Staggers costs killed that option off. Also, the east coast bias was pretty obvious in the report. Some lines in Indiana and Illinois were not even mentioned.
USRA, was created as a result of the 3R Act of '73, which in itself was in response to the PC bankruptcy in '70. The Midwest lines may have been ignored in the report but since they (USRA) were responsible for setting up CR's maintenance and spending plans for the first couple of years they had to be on their radar screen. USRA was also responsible for dolling out the Federal recovery $ to CR. The whole scheme is reputed to be the brainchild of Frank Barnett, UP's chairman.
We all have our "what ifs" and "if onlys." Even if things had happened differently, I really think the railroad map of today wouldn't be that much different. Maybe some lines might have wound up into a different system than they did, but we would still have a few major carriers and a multitude of short lines/regionals operating what the big boys didn't want.
Maybe because of a different arranging of the companies, some main lines that were lost would still be in use. The flip side could also be true, that some lines active today may not have survived with the different pairings.
Jeff
March 1965 Trains had an excellent and lengthy article about the reasons and process for the NYC's removal or surplus track:
http://trc.trains.com/Train%20Magazine%20Index.aspx?view=ViewIssue&issueId=5890
- Paul North.
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