So I figured out an idea for a Modern NYC type Timeline.
I probably won’t model this
1968 Talks between the PRR and the NYC break down, no deal is struck
1970 PRR Declares for Bankruptcy
1972 Hurricane weather destroys portions of the E-L and PRR, PRR goes to congress for help
1973 Congress forms Conrail out of PRR,CNJ,LV,LHR,RDG And E-L giving NYC less Competition.
1983 NYC buys the B&M and makes it an independent subsidiary.
1994 NYC buys the Bangor and Aroostook merging it into the B&M and renaming the railroad the Boston and Aroostook (BAA) (Using trackage rights to connect the two lines)
1999 NYC splits the Conrail assets with CSX and NS 30/35/35
The only thing I will throw out for discussion is forming Conrail doesn’t lessen the competition, it more or less strengthen’s it, Conrail forged a working railroad out of the debris. The described scenario makes the NYC the smaller of the two (CR & NYC), and the 4th of the 4 big east roads (NS, CSX, CR, NYC) so the NYC becomes the KCS of the east.
By 1999 that actually makes the NYC a merger target of the NS and CSX, so another variation would be the the NYC and NS, the CR and CSX or the NYC and CSX , the CR and NS.
Well, you’re certainly not the first to come up with this idea - perhaps you have already seen this thread on Railroad.net - What If the PC Merger Had Been Called Off?
Premise:
“If the PRR and NYC had decided that the Penn Central merger wasn’t worth it because of the ICC’s condition of taking in the New Haven. I mean, UP did it with the Rock Island when the ICC tacked on alot of conditions that they refused to abide by, so why not the PRR and NYC? Would a crisis have been averted? How long would the PRR and NYC have survived on their own?”
The answer, after 4 years and 80 posts - the results would likely not have been pretty.
(One major issue - mergers were coming in the 1960s like it or not, but nobody - read: N&W, Southern, C&O/B&O - wanted to merge with either the Pennsy nor the NY Central - and so they sort of ended up with each other). Plenty of “Butterflies” in that thread too…
Another version might be the NYC spinning off the Boston & Albany as a separate railroad, which then merged with the Boston & Maine and the Bangor & Aroostook railroads to form a large New England based railroad.