S Saunders, was Re: Class J Shoppings

[NW Mailing List]

On 8/9/2015 12:03 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Jim,  I would suspect that two of the sources you might have been 
> reading was "The Wreck of the Penn Central" and "The Men Who Loved 
> Trains".  One question: on your list of causes I didn't see the 
> forcing of the New Haven and its continuing debt down PC's throat.  
> Did you think that wasn't a significant factor?  Just asking.
> Having gotten involved with the New York Central Society (NMRA and 
> three RR historical societies wasn't enough)including some NYC 
> retirees, I have heard multiple enthusiastically spoken reasons for 
> the PC failure, including (shocker)a lot of Red Team-Green Team 
> incompatibiloity.  Funny how everyone has an axe of one sort.
> Abram:  "lawyer who didn't understand business"....now, now, now.
> Frank Bongiovanni
>
The Wreck was available as were two others at VCU's Cabel Library, The 
Men had not yet come out as the Conrail battle was just starting when I 
was doing the project.

New Haven  was farther down my list as was all the questionably managed 
secondary ventures that the two principle railroads owned...Madison 
Square Garden, shares of the Knicks and Rangers, the PanAm building, the 
Waldorf, and on and on. The lists make fascinating reading and makes on 
wonder why they acquired all this stuff over the years.  I suspect for 
someone's ego and I suspect that it distracted them from their real 
business...running a railroad

See histories of N&W and Southern for comparison on how it's done...and 
who now own the PRR....

Jim McDaniel