Has anyone here read Leaders Count, The Story of BNSF Railway by Lawrence H. Kaufman?
I just started it tonight.
ed
I just read it a couple of months ago. Sorry to ruin the ending for you, but the BN and Santa Fe merge!
-Tom
Oh man…why did you go and do that? Guess I’ll read it anyway.
Was it any good? First couple of chapters moved a bit better than I would have thought, as I am not a historical railroad reader, recent history interests me, say after 1930’s.
ed
i read the book and thought the book was interesting. the book is about the starting of every old railroad that makes the bnsf today. overall i thought the book was good, just to many numbers if you ask me.
It does move pretty fast and most of it, probably half, is about rail regulation and transportation law from 1887 to the present. Some of the dates and numbers can get confusing. I enjoyed it though.
-Tom
I just bought the book a couple of weeks ago. I have yet to read it, but I’ll let you all know my input.
I’ve just finished the book.
It’s not quite as fun to read as Loving’s book, but it is very interesting full of lots of good quotes info on the various RR leaders.
The unifying thread is that the legacy of the CB&Q and GN’s rivalry with the UP shaped and continues to shape railroading in North America.
Most interesting part:
Ex-Air Force guy Chain’s comments contrasting the RR with the Air Force. He was shocked at how backward the RR culture was and how poorly the RR operated.
Things I didn’t know that I found facinating:
Krebs came from the SP. Rose used to work for Triple Crown.
NP was a land grant RR and GN was not. NP was always the weak sister to GN.
The west end of the ATSF was the Frisco controlled A&P RR at one time.
Grinstein though BNSF should have held the UP-SP deal hostage for some actual routes rather than just trackage rights, which Krebs thought were the best they’d get.
RRs in the early 20th century had ORs in the mid 60s. (Did anyone notice that CN’s is now down to 57!)
The BN should have picked up the MP instead of the Frisco - probably sentimentality of Lou Menk.
The RRs were severly overbuilt by the late 19th century and that glut of overcapacity took nearly a century to resolve.
The ICC was a completely bizzare organization.
Some opinions:
Grinstein was probably the best “outside” manager the BN had. The others, Bressler, Drexel, etc. seemed more interests in the vast tracts of land than the RR.
BN made a serious error initially pricing Powder River coal w/o consideration of capital investment it would take once the coal started flowing. The RR spent a lot of time fighting law suits and schmoozing utilities to get decent rates that would support required investment. Did the marketing guys schmooze the CEO better than th
Oltmannd quoted:
"It’s not quite as fun to read as Loving’s book, but it is very interesting full of lots of good quotes info on the various RR leaders.
The unifying thread is that the legacy of the CB&Q and GN’s rivalry with the UP shaped and continues to shape railroading in North America."
History is always interesting, and when reported accurately, by knowledgable individuals, is worth the read. Each of us has our on take on how things, 'would have, ‘should have,’ or ‘could have’ affected the historical time line; speculation is an excercise that most of us find facinating. One man’s vocation can be another’s avocation. This kind of thread is always appreciated.
Too many RR books are just a chronology of historical facts, e.g. They built from A to B, then B to C, then purchased RR XYZ, without any context of who or why or what was driving it. Or they are just a catalog of assets over a period of time. These are fine for what they are, but the more interesting ones try to get into the heads of the people making things happen. The Ambrose book “Nothing Like it in the World” is a good example of this. Also, there is a two volume book on the history of the Reading that I enjoyed.
What I’d like to read about is what happened at the PRR from the late 19th Century, when they were a very progressive, well run road, to the 1960s, when their leaders were clearly living in fantasy land. Too much inbreeding? Only read their own press releases? Lack of any serious competition? What? Loving’s book makes it sound like they viewed thier position in the world as an entitlement. I certainly couldn’t have been that way in 1900. I wonder if anybody really knows. All the principals are long dead.
I guess each to his own, but I am in Don’s camp on what I like to see in railroad history. My thing is getting more insight on the people in railroading who made the history of the last 50 years or so. While I have not seen Kaufman’s book and am in no position to comment on his work, work such as Loving’s book and Mark Hemphill’s article on the SP in the 1970’s are my cup of tea.
I’ve recently have had the good fortune to meet and have conversations with a few of the people that held important positions during “my” era. Fascinating!
When the book came out, allBNSF employees were mailed a copy. I read it. Found the section covering of how the 1970 BN merger and the Frisco folding into BN 10 yrs later most interesting.
Land grants:
Illinois Central … 2.6 million acres
Great Northern (SP&P, then the Manitoba) … 5.7 million acres
Union Pacific … 11 million acres (original grant)
Northern Pacific … 40 million acres
Never understood why GN is always considered a non-land grant road. Kauffman perpetuates that view which, to me, demonstrates a lack of original research.
One of his significant advantages was that Hill was able to buy the SP&P for $6.8 mllion, and sell 3.3 million acres for $13 million. In essence, he got the SP&P for free, courtesy of government land grants.
That was a good head start for any Empire Builder.
The land grant was, more than any other, a key to the success of that railway company in its early years.
It has been a very good year of reading for me. I like a couple of kinds of books. I am a sucker for mystery books, such as Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series; Harlan Coban’s books, or John Sandiford’s series of Davenport. Jonathan Kellerman and Dave Robicheaux are also favorites.
This year’s business readings have been excellent. I just finished 24 Days, which was written by two Wall Street Journal reporters on the fall of Enron. Excellent reading. Also worth reading is Den of Thieves, which was written years ago by James Stewart…covering the insider trading of the 1980’s. Wall Street Journal reporters are excellent authors.
Railroad books have included:
The Rebirth of the Missouri Pacific, covering the MoPac from 1930’s to 1982 merger with UP. This is an excellent look at one of the most progressive railroads of the 60’s/70’s. The photo of DB Jenks during the the floods in Texas is almost worth the price of the book (I checked it out at the library).
Jim Boyd’s Monday Morning Rails is an excellent photo essay of the Illinois Central during the 60’s/70’s. I picked it up for $19. A bargain.
The Indiana Railroad Company by Christopher Rund is a good look at a modern regional carrier that has done great things. It is already in need of updating. I chatted with the author and he indicated he may write a second edition to cover the recent occurances (Latta Division purchase from CP).
However, the two finest books I have read this year have been The Men Who Loved Trains and Leaders Count.
I found both formats to be superior to the usual railroad history books. I too found it interesting that BN originally priced the coal well below cost. The book covered quite a bit of ground and it was easy to read.
Coming out of those two books, the two railroaders of recent history which I am most intrigued by are Stanley Crain and Rob Krebs. Crain doesnt seem t
What was really cool for me, was getting a chance to sit next to David Goode at dinner once and hear him tell his version of the Conrail story - and then compare it to what I knew, or thought I knew, and then later with Loving’s book.
Don:
Care to share those stories?
ed
[#ditto]
That would really be informative and Interesting…First Person is always cool!
I know that T.O. is a favorite place to knock on this board, but if you do a search in the Nostalgia section for postings by MDO, Michael D. Ongerth, they are almost worth the price of subscription. Mike over the last few years has been posting stories about his time in management at Southern Pacific and the people involved. Bob Krebs has figured in several stories. Another rare poster, in these discussions has been Rollin Bredenberg, formerly of SP and now at BNSF. Mike retired from the UP after the merger as a Vice-President of Strategic Planning. His insights are very interesting. SP had its problems but a lot of the best talent in the industry entered via its management training program. MDO entered the program the year before Bob Krebs did.
BTW - for the poster. The former Chairman of Southern Rwy. and Conrail
was L. Stanley Crane.
I enjoyed reading Leaders Count. I realize those that don’t like BNSF would say it’s company propaganda. I’d like to read similar books about leaders of other railroads as well.
I just finished reading the book, and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The only real complaint that I had was the poor editing: facts and anecdotes were repeated verbatim multiple times in the book. Other than that, it was an interesting read.
Michael is correct on the land grants. However, to clarify, I believe teh Illinois Central and the Manitoba Road grants were state grants (Illinois and Minnesota respectively), while the NP and the UP grants were Federal. Many writers only consider the Federal grants as “land grants”. In fairness to Mr. Hilll, the SP&S and the Manitoba Road were mainly built before he had control of them.