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Former Chicago & North Western chairman Ben Heineman dies
One of the great leaders of American railroading. I would guess that he lived to be a very active 98!
We can only imagine how well he might have done, free of the chains of hyper-regulation.
Nostalgic and emotional fans may not have liked many of the things he did, but Ben Heineman’s actions may very well have kept the CNW from imitating NYO&W’s fate. In the railroad industry, history often repeats itself. Today, it seems like many of Hunter Harrison’s techniques used on the CN (which can probably now be expected on the CP) came right out of Heineman’s playbook.
Mr. Heineman pursued business strategies in the 1960’s and 70’s that were not favorable to the creation of shortlines to serve as feeders to the CNW, and his attitude was to “protect CNW territory from encroachment” by other Class 1 carriers. Thus, nearly all the Tootin Louie was lost, as was the Chicago Great Western. These regionals would have been better acquired by partners on end-to-end transactions, thus potentially preserving service.
He ran the RR into the ground. He was hated by all the employees and they blocked one of his stock manipulations. He didn’t take the stock from $10 to $100 the emplyees did. He destroyed the infrastructure and ran it into the ground. No love lost for him at C&NW.