Mergers who would survive; who would not

[nanaimo73]

The NYC was far ahead of the PRR when the Penn Central merger took place. They had been making a lot of progress under Perlman. It's too bad we will never know if he was fast enough to adapt to the changing times.

[kevarc]

A couple of things.

Both the B&O and the L&N were in serious trouble. They both had the same problems. Lack of cars and motive power. there are many documented cases where the B&O delivered cars that were rejected by the shipper. Ditto the L&N. The C&O was strong, they had more coal than the B&O and gave the N&W a good run for the money out of the coal fields. When the Chessie happened they moved a lot of engines and cars to the B&O to keep it running. The B&O was seriously hurt by the collapse in the Northeast. They were a major owner of both the Reading and the CNJ. without the C&O they would have gone under.

The L&N was controlled by the SCL. They had been a ward of the ACL for a long time. There were ICC orders requiring the SCL to send motive power and cars to the L&N to move coal. The mines were screaming because they could not ship because of a car shortage and then when they had cars, they could not get them moved to the reciever.

As for the N&W/PRR/Wabash, this was a different horse. The PRR was a major holder of N&W stock and had a controlling interest in the Wabash. NOTE: The N&W remained very independant from the PRR. IN fact the dividends from the N&W stock was the only thing keeping the PRR afloat. Also remember that the N&W did not connect with either the NKP or the Wabash at the time of their merger. This was done by buying the old PRR line, which in reality was a streak of rust. The PRR actually pushed the Wabash onto the NKP/N&W merger.

In another corridor - the MKT/MP/SSW(RI) - you had essentially 3 RR's that started at the same place and ended at the same place. Someone was going to go under. Funny how all 3 are not in the UP camp.

[nanaimo73]

What I think is funny is that the CRI&P was purchased by Union Pacific. They got all the trackage they wanted of the Rock by taking M.P.,S.P.,C&NW. and Katy. UP runs 2,000 miles of Rock trackage from St. Paul to Fort Worth and out to Santa Rosa. They have substitute lines to Galveston, Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and Denver.

[nanaimo73]

Kevarc;
I think it is safe to say the PRR would have prefered to keep the Wabash, but "pushed it on the N&W" only to win approval from the ICC of the PRR+NYC merger. Was the Columbus-Sandusky line a streak of rust in 1964? In 1956 the PRR was using 12 of the ATSFs incredible 2-10-4s to haul coal trains on that line. What a show that must have been!

[Junctionfan]

Ontario Northland for sure doesn't need to merge. The forestry industry and carshop facilities are enough to keep them going for quite some time.

BC Rail; I don't know too much on them but I suspect they could have survived without merging into a class 1. I would suspect that BC Rail could have made a greater competitve market for BC if it merged with the SRY of Rail Link.

[kevarc]

Yeah, it was in really rough shape. I'll have to look it up tonight, I have the numbers somewhere at home, but it was not cheap to repair the line.

Part of it was the PRR/NYC merger, but the PRR was looking for some fast cash at the time. I'll pull that info tonight also.

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

The NYC was far ahead of the PRR when the Penn Central merger took place. They had been making a lot of progress under Perlman. It's too bad we will never know if he was fast enough to adapt to the changing times.

Passenger losses and the lack of ability to shed unneeded mileage would have killed the NYC. Perlman knew what the RR needed to look like to serve the market, but the NYC was consuming huge amounts of capital to modernize without being able to generated the revenue to pay the debt.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd

QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

The NYC was far ahead of the PRR when the Penn Central merger took place. They had been making a lot of progress under Perlman. It's too bad we will never know if he was fast enough to adapt to the changing times.

Passenger losses and the lack of ability to shed unneeded mileage would have killed the NYC. Perlman knew what the RR needed to look like to serve the market, but the NYC was consuming huge amounts of capital to modernize without being able to generated the revenue to pay the debt.

Throwing good money after bad rarely produces much good,, A shame and a scandal, but the truth. Unfortunatly for Mr. Perlman and his ilk that had so much of their professional lives caught up in the surviving of those proud names.