A conversation with Carolyn Mellon,Owners of Banks Steel Mills and oh yeah a Railroad (B&M Guilford)

[Anonymous]

met a woman in Swickley PA which is the home of the Olivers and the Mellons. I met a well to do women who happened to be part of the Mellon Clan which owns Banks,Steel Mills and a Railroad. Guilford Railroad "Boston and Maine". I used this opurtunity to tell her that Guilford has been too rough on the hobos. "We know about the hobos and this town has a lot of Railroad Workers". We quietly fund Shelters in this area and in other parts of the country thru our foundations.
But frankly we have little to do with the day to day operations of the railroad. So who runs the railroad? "We have attorneys and acountants for that that handle the legal operations who then appoint the managers of the buisness." I will try and pass your concern on but we try not to get involved with day to to day operations. So what do you do then?
"We have our own lives and we get up every morning to earn our keep."
This is not the first time I have heard this. The White Anglo-Saxon Prosetent Work Ethic. The Childern of Rockefeller were only given one toy to play with at a time despite having closets full of them. Children of the wealty being seperated from the home lives to live in drab bording schools. Now it seems that the Old money that makes money the old fasioned way (Inherits It) wants nothing to do with Daddys Buisness other then get a trust check other month. Timothy Mellon was given the Boston and Maine Railroad by his Parents in 1979? so that he would develop a
work ethic. The railroad went on strike and was not fun to play with any more. The railroad is now be used as asset alocation tool to hold real esate. Mary Lou Whitney of Saratoga NY has intrests in the Delaware and Hudson and New York Central. (Now CP and CSX). She attends fundraisers and is a sociity elite in the horse racing circet. But has nothing to do with the railroads ecept that the Saratoga yard for the D&H is in her backyard. Gloria Vanderbuilt has a line of Clothing (Cornialus Vanderbuilt founded the New York Central) and lives in a Penthouse in New York City.
CSX has a major shareholder by the Pennslvania Teachers Pension plan and Temple University. They Appoint a Proffeser to sit on there board of directors. Union Pacific has the governer of Montana on its board.
My point here is that the Class 1 railroads are largely controled by attorneys who set up trust funds on behalf of its benificuarys. As long as the real owners get a dividend check from there trust fund every month they have little to complain about. The Real *%*holes are the attorneys and accountants for the trust funds who they appoint whoes job is to maximises profit at any cost so that they can keep there jobs. As far as it seems railroads like CSX and BNSF can preety much run themsevels. However Railroads like NS are over managed down to having a superviser follow railroad workers in white trucks. So can someone here tell me the diffrence between the white heirs of the robbers barrons who sit back and collect dividend and trust fund checks and sip fine wines and the african american family on welfare who collects welfare checks on the dividends of a country that was founded on slavery and wiping out most of its natives and sipping Wild Irish Rose or Colt 45 Malt Liquire. Which one "Earned It"?

[dharmon]

mmmmm...I don't know...One family is living off of money that the family acquired and the other is living off of my family?

As for being to tough on hobos......you mean that Guilford is arresting and prosecuting tresspassers, vagrants and thieves? Good God No!

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

To borrow a phrase from my college days, "What a horrendous babble!". It appears that our troll is talking a lot but he's not saying anything.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if Carolyn Mellon was related in any way to the Mellon who ran the old New Haven? (Some would say right into the ground... but since the NYNH&HRR spent a lot of time crashing and burning, that may be a foul canard.)

Sniping at the Vanderbilts has been a national pastime for over a century. In fact, Cornelius Vanderbilt was soundly blasted from many American pulpits for imposing "Vanderbilt time" (present time zones) on an unhappy and unwilling American populace. (It didn't make a difference to anyone outside railroading that the time zone practice standardized train schedules... and made for safer operation.) I chuckle when people squawk over The Commodore's comment that "The Public be d-----d!"... because in context, he was talking about running passenger trains over HIS railroad at rates the public would accept... at the cost of running much more profitable freight trains. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Hobos. Saw an interesting A&E special narrated by Bill Kurtis on hobos and how rail police deal with them. My general impression is that if they aren't criminals, they are idiots. Who wants to play on the moving freight cars? Even professional railroaders shake their heads at the foolishness these folks exhibit.

As far as the rather strange final paragraphs of the initial message read, I can only reply by repeating the words of President James Earl Carter, noted supported of Habitat for Humanity... "Life...is unfair."

Erik

[Anonymous]

The point here is that the people who OWN the railroads Eh The Investors and Trust funders and Pension Plans have little to do with the actual management and running the railroad eh the CEOs,Line Forman,Yardmasters,Conducters. The Railroad is not like the family owned Italian Restarente down the street from me where the son takes the the orders and the father does the accounting and mom makes the pizza dough...
We have investors and shareholders who live off the work of others who have made there money many times over and if they dont like what is going on( and know that it is going downhill with the company they just sell there stock to another sucker instead of going down and making it work. heck most shareholders dont even fill out there proxy statements or attend shareholder meetings.
At the marina where is work at the trash can often has proxy statements from the yaght owners that pull up.

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Peterson6868

The point here is that the people who OWN the railroads Eh The Investors and Trust funders and Pension Plans have little to do with the actual management and running the railroad eh the CEOs,Line Forman,Yardmasters,Conducters. The Railroad is not like the family owned Italian Restarente down the street from me where the son takes the the orders and the father does the accounting and mom makes the pizza dough...
We have investors and shareholders who live off the work of others who have made there money many times over and if they dont like what is going on( and know that it is going downhill with the company they just sell there stock to another sucker instead of going down and making it work. heck most shareholders dont even fill out there proxy statements or attend shareholder meetings.
At the marina where is work at the trash can often has proxy statements from the yaght owners that pull up.

And that is what makes America great......If I can generate enough wealth that I can hire someone to run it for me and that my children never have to work......and yet not be a burden on the taxpayer.....I win. Perhaps Detetive_ Peterfinder22, if you channelled you abundant energy to working and creating your own wealth..your perspective would change. I may be no Mellon or Vanderbuilt, but I don't intend on sponging from society for my existence.

[Junctionfan]

I wonder if they plan on making a new Hannibal movie? Trainfinder can ask Anthony Hopkins if he wants to make Hobo Stew.......

Whoa; where did that come from?

[Anonymous]

What is your point?
Your posts would make a lot more sense to the reader if grammer, spelling, and punctuation were in force. Rambling on in this post has no substance.
There seems to be a barrier here between you and others here on this forum.

[Anonymous]

not every public computer has spell check. There is not a spell check button on this forum.
The point is that the owners of the railroads dont give a *** about public policy and thus the railroads should be nationlised.

[Anonymous]

If all of the railroads were to come under government ownership, the general public would be better off?

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Peterson6868

not every public computer has spell check. There is not a spell check button on this forum.
The point is that the owners of the railroads dont give a *** about public policy and thus the railroads should be nationlised.

And what public policy would that be? That driters and vagrants have an inalienable right to free transportation? Sound like you want to take away from those that have so you don't have...to work...

Perhaps...stowing away on a containership to France night be the answer....

[Anonymous]

I dont want to be exploited so that lazy capiltists can live off me.
There is no law saying that I have to work.
On one hand you are saying that we have have to work and tow the line for society but on the other hand its okay if someone who did not work for there money by just being born to the right family does not have to work. How hypocritical is that![B)][8)]

[edblysard]

Jeeze Pete,
Sucks that Burger King pays so bad, aint it....
Or do you just stop by to raid the dumpster?

Ed

[jimrice4449]

If the language is the medium by which we transfer our ideas to others, we have here a perfect convergence of medium and message. Incomprehensible babling to transmit idiocy.
I like the idea of socialized RRs though. Imagine a national RR system with the cost effectiveness of the Pentagon, the efficiency of the Postal Service and desire to please the customer of the IRS. No thanks!

[Anonymous]

That would be Conrail or Canadian National

[Junctionfan]

I hate lazy capitalists too; those that are but at least they are contributors to society. What the heck do you do for society? Remember JFK saying "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country". Even me who has been unemployed has been writing music for orchestras and providing other music for Canadian culture until I graduate college and then I will be a customs officer at the boarder protecting Canada from bad guys and illegal contraband too.

[edblysard]

So, Andrew,
What your saying is we have until you graduate to ship Peterson to Canada?

Ed[:D]

[Anonymous]

Ed

We don't him, send him to the other boarder.

[edblysard]

Well,
I guess he could learn to live off of tortillas and Corona…
Come to think it, I lived off of tortillas and Corona in high school...[:D]

[Murphy Siding]

Kind of reminds me of an old Linda Ronstad song "Poor, poor, pitiful me !"


I seem to recall something about Conrail and Canadian National being sold to the public. Now , where was it I heard that?..........

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

So, Andrew,
What your saying is we have until you graduate to ship Peterson to Canada?

Ed[:D]

I guess so because by then, I may get taser gun trigger happy..........just kidding; or am I?

It's going to be fun pulling folk to the side and ripping their car apart looking for stuff. Yeh!!! legalized vandalism![:D]

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Peterson6868

I dont want to be exploited so that lazy capiltists can live off me.
There is no law saying that I have to work.
On one hand you are saying that we have have to work and tow the line for society but on the other hand its okay if someone who did not work for there money by just being born to the right family does not have to work. How hypocritical is that![B)][8)]

Well if you work hard enough and smart enough, then you too can sit around and have others do your bidding.......and having someone inherit thier wealth is not bad in it's self. It's when they cannot handle the blessing that they've been given.

Your sounding alot like the sad communist propaganda...take from the rich, working class, all equal...blah, blah, blah........see how well that turned out.

[ValleyX]

Blather. Think you must be on the wrong board. And, I don't think you're going to find much sympathy for hobos here. I would say the vast majority of regulars here already knew the Mellon family wasn't involved in the day-to-day operation of the Guilford lines. No big surprises.

As for not having spellcheck, was there something wrong with paying attention in school? That might have worked out better.

[Junctionfan]

Even communists work for a living. If I'm not mistaken, if you failed to work hard enough for the state, you were shot or at least spent time in prison.

[daveklepper]

I am perfectly happy to see a member of the Mellon family quietly collecting her check every month because if I objected then I wouldn't have the right to collect my Social Security check which is what I live on. Better she do that than what her ancestor did when he had the New Haven go on a spending binge to buy up every streetcar and steamship company in all of southern New England to drive the railroad into banckrupcy. And Guilford does seem to be a good, customer sensitive, frieght hauler.

[Anonymous]

Should we have a very important peice of th nations infrastucture controlled by private individules
who are acting in the intrest of profit and collecting dividends and not acting in the public intrest.
The right and authrity to run a railroad comes from the surface transportation board who must certify each railroads right to run. The Power to form a corperation comes from the secratary of state in the state the railroad ws incorperated(Most likely Delawere). The reason why corperations were formed in the first place was that our young country did not have the money or credit to build infrastuacture and thus turned to investors. Guilfords predesors (B&M,MEC,Massetutcets Central,Fitchburg Railroad) sold its first shares of stock to the towns along the Right Of Way that wanted and needed a railroad. The Robber Barons were able to weasal out of the public ownership and control by dilulting stock,renaming railroad to railway, changing shell companys,
Declairing bankruptsy and issuing junk bonds. They used tacticts that would later be used by and refined by the likes of Enron 125 years later. The Intent of the states issuing charters to railroads and giving them the power of incoperation was to atract capital but still keep some semblence of public control. The Railroads have not always acted in the public intrest exspacialy when it comes to allowing Public Passenger trains on its lines. The fact of the matter is that the public already owns the railroads thru the power that is granted or could be recinded thru the act of incoperation and the charters granted to such entitys by there respective states.

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Peterson6868

Should we have a very important peice of th nations infrastucture controlled by private individules
who are acting in the intrest of profit and collecting dividends and not acting in the public intrest.
The right and authrity to run a railroad comes from the surface transportation board who must certify each railroads right to run. The Power to form a corperation comes from the secratary of state in the state the railroad ws incorperated(Most likely Delawere). The reason why corperations were formed in the first place was that our young country did not have the money or credit to build infrastuacture and thus turned to investors. Guilfords predesors (B&M,MEC,Massetutcets Central,Fitchburg Railroad) sold its first shares of stock to the towns along the Right Of Way that wanted and needed a railroad. The Robber Barons were able to weasal out of the public ownership and control by dilulting stock,renaming railroad to railway, changing shell companys,
Declairing bankruptsy and issuing junk bonds. They used tacticts that would later be used by and refined by the likes of Enron 125 years later. The Intent of the states issuing charters to railroads and giving them the power of incoperation was to atract capital but still keep some semblence of public control. The Railroads have not always acted in the public intrest exspacialy when it comes to allowing Public Passenger trains on its lines. The fact of the matter is that the public already owns the railroads thru the power that is granted or could be recinded thru the act of incoperation and the charters granted to such entitys by there respective states.

Yup and we learned alot from that period and have made changes....so what you are saying is that you don't want to work for someone else's benefit ....bad news hoss, in case rifling through the McD's garbage hadn't taught you...you don't get to start out being the man......

Why do you think that as bad as the US is...the great Satan....so many people come here everyday legally or otherwise to achieve the American dream.....to work, earn and achieve a better lifestyle for them and there family......maybe they're on to something..........


So boo hoo....you weren't born or marry into a wealthy family....get over over it....

...so...go down to Starbuck's ....get a nice table to sit and read the help wanted ads and enjoy a hot steaming cup of shut the hell up.....

[Anonymous]

Majority of those people are coming from third world countrys. NOT from socialistic countrys that take care of there people like Germany or Denmark. They are coming here because no one else will take them

[dharmon]

Coming here because no one else will take them????? Puleeese......They are coming here for economic opportunity......to build a life they could not have elsewhere......do the European countries limit immigration.....of course, because it's all they can do to pay for their own folks.....but then again the opportunities to succeed are not there either.....how many stories of immigrants moving to France and becoming well off are there? There is a reason it's not called the French Dream....or the Norwegian Dream.....this is still one of the only countries where you can literally start with nothing and make something of yourself......so if a family has achieved and now no longer ahs to work.......what's so bad......other than you are not a apart of it........very Gen X thinking...I demand a job..but I don't want to work, and I want to be the boss and paid well.....forget that I have not paid any dues to get there....

[Junctionfan]

I know this is harsh but why should we take everybody in all the time. The U.S and Canada particularly Canada, has a weakness on letting everybody in. That's is most likely why we have had so much violence particularly in Toronto;because we don't screen immigrants properly. I swear ever since China took over Hong Kong, the Triad has become greater in numbers here.

Why can't folk fix their own countries with as much passion as North America and Europe did in the past centuries?