just curious from a historic stand point, which railroads have been owned/controlled by larger “PUPPET MASTER” type operations, where the affiliation was not readily apparent?
We know that the Wabash was owned for a long time by the PRR, That the Nickle Plate was owned for a time by the NYC, and I believe that the Alton has been owned by a couple, larger entities, over time.
Others?
I don’t know if it was totally owned but E. H. Harriman brought the South Pacific with the Union Pacific’s money. In 1913 the government split the roads apart again. (Harriman died in 1909).
N&W - PRR
INDR - CSX
DRGW (pick one, most noticaply Gould)
C&A - B&O
C&S/FW&D - CB&Q (sine 1908)
Long Island was owned by Pennsylvania, although not exactly a “shadow owner.” That’s how Pennsylvania gained access to Manhattan.
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B&O owned the Chicago & Alton into the 40’s and Gulf Mobile & Northern, which then changed it’s name to Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. B&O owned controlling shares of the Reading and CNJ and used that control to access the New York market from Philadelphia which was the roads Eastern end. B&O released control of those properties at the formation of ConRail. B&O also had controling interest in the Western Maryland and brought that carriers traffic into the Chessie System in the late 70’s and early 80’s, abandoning much WM trackage.
Historically the two Canadian Class 1’s were required to operate in the US through subsidiary corporations. Thus Canadian National owned the Central Vermont in New England and the Grand Trunk Western in Michigan. Canadian Pacific owned Soo Line which for much of it’s existence had a Corporate identity very dsitinct from that of the parent company.
Remarkably so, when compared to the CNR and its’ American subsidiaries. When CN was still government owned; one dirty trick they used to play on Canadian taxpayers was, during slow traffic periods in Canada they would transfer “surplus” cabooses to the CV, and then during the next upswing in Canadian traffic claim they were short of cabooses and get the government to authorize them to buy more new cabooses.
I find it interesting though, when I look at Soo Line structures and recognize definite CPR building plans. There are Soo small town depots built in the early 20th Century that are clearly the same plan CP used in the prairie provinces when they first started building stations in the 1880’s. Right down to the trim around the doors and windows.
Bruce
1951 Moody’s says PRR and the Pennsylvania Co together owned less than half of N&W’s preferred stock but more than half of the common. Did they ever own more than half of each? If they did, the world would say they “controlled” N&W? But that never happened? What does 51+%-ownership of the common entitle them to?
Did B&O own more than half of all of RDG’s classes of stock? Did RDG own more than half of CNJ? What officially constitutes “control”?
Balt, didn’t the name “Gulf Mobile and Ohio” come into existence when the GM&N and M&O were merged–before the GM&O took the Alton over?
From 1931-1947 the Alton Railroad was a subsidiary of the B&O. The GM&O was incorporated in 1938 to merge the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which was accomplished in 1940. The GM&O later bought and merged the Alton Railroad in 1947.
I think the Duluth Winnipeg & Pacific was also a CN property.
What has to be the strangest affiliation from a casual viewer’s standpoint would be control of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend by the C&O during the 1970s.
It wasn’t as strange as it seems. C&O and Monon both sought control of South Shore, primarily for its steel mill and coal traffic. C&O was awarded control, obtaining a 94% interest in South Shore. Monon was granted trackage rights (used only once) on South Shore between Michigan City and the Illinois-Indiana state line.
An equally unusual affiliation is Canadian National’s control of Bessemer & Lake Erie.
CN’s control of the Bessemer and Lake Erie has a historical dimension. CN wanted the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range for better access in and around Duluth than its own DW&P and WC had (OK, plus DM&IR’s ore traffic…). They also wanted US Steels Elgin Joliet and Eastern as a Chicago bypass connecting CN’s former Wisconsin Central, GTW and Illinois Central. B&LE was more or less thrown in with the deal when the former US Steel roads were acquired by CN.
Rutland was controlled by NYC until the Panama Canal act got into the gears. NYC influence lasted in locomotive and caboose design a long time after NYC control ended.
Thanks, Schlimm.
The Boston Hartford and Erie was organized by John Eldridge in 1863 incorporating several older railroads. It ran from Brewster, New York where it connected with the New York and Erie by car float. Then it went up to Hartford, east to Providence and finally to Boston. It was later reorganized as the New York and New England. In 1893 it was absorbed by the New York New Haven and Hartford and never heard from again.
The New York Brokerage House Gould and Belden agreed to back a stock offering for the BH&E. In return President John Eldridge got Jay Gould and Jim Fisk on the Board of Directors. They agreed to back bonds for the Erie and in return were made directors on that road. Shortly thereafter the Erie wars began.
By owning at least 51% of the common stock PRR could control the N&W. The reason for this is that as long as the holders of Preferred Stock receive the dividend specified when the Preferred Stock was issued, then they have no voting rights.
Lehigh Valley RR was controlled by PRR for a while during the 20th century.
D&H was partially controlled by N&W through “Dereco”, a holding company, in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Some of this control business is interesting beyond the ‘commonly known’ examples. If you look at the history of the ‘Reading Combine’ (in the period immediately around construction of the Poughkeepsie Bridge) and of the B&O in the years following completion of the New York extension (via the aforementioned RDG-CNJ arrangements, subsequent to the Combine machinations)… you will find some very interesting ownership details…
Point has been made elsewhere that banking interests had more ‘control’ than railroad ownership of other railroads, or holding companies after passage of the Clayton Act. This goes beyond the situations like the van Sweringens… and who was bankrolling them… or the consolidation-fest of New England railroads into the New Haven system. Consider exactly how Mr. Morgan was able to get NYC and PRR to stop ‘destructive’ competition in the 1880s.
Railroads were the first big business. Fairly soon local business men became unable to finance them without outside capital. They went to the capital markets in New York to get the money they needed. That led to financial institutions getting more and more control over railroads.