Yet still A.E. Perleman was attempting to run a railroad. Stuart Saunders was running an accountancy firm and holding company. The PRR had become everything except a railroad. PRR management simply assumed that the revenue from mineral trains would launch the future into dividends. Such a crazy corporate policy seems irresponsible now; much like trying to predict the weather fifty years out.
Nobody is perferct, yet Alfred Perleman was the one guy at PC at the top who comprehended the traffic, the failing region, and the futility of a PRR association especially with regard to the stupefyingly massive Federal investments in direct competition to the rails. How did EL last so long? It’s a mystery to me.
The current situation is sort of OK, I guess. There is no highway of steel quite like the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. Corporate names change; the premiere routes endure. The property and capital that exists today of the seven or so railroads bears witness to the power of the private sector and the importance of the individual. All governments can do is destroy.
so then what you are really asking is, “if the NYC was the healthier of the two going into the merger, then how did the PRR management team end up running the show once the knot was tied?”?
Probably those compromising pictures ol’ Stewie had of Alfred at the rail fair.
I believe the problem with China has nothing to do with transporation, Gabe, but the steady flow of defective material that now seems to be flowing into our country…
Defective tires which will probably bankrupt a tire company. Contaminated pet foods which killed thousands of pets this year. Salmenella laced snacks. Motorola and Nokia knockoff phones which are exploding and killing people (determined to be counterfit). We have a very serious problem with Chinese manufacturing at this time, IMHO. We simply cannot count on the quality to be up to our standards.
Sorry for deviating off of topic, but, I had to vent.
When I get a little time, I will pull the Moodys off the shelf and do a little comparison of NYC and PRR circa 1965 or so.
You certainly don’t have to appologize for venting. Although China has been very good for my line business, I feel largely the same way you do. And, that isn’t even getting into what China is doing to the environment . . .
My point was, “Red” China has a very highly regulated economy, and the problems you point to are not necessarily related to the same kind of regulation that put the final nail in the coffin of the PC.
As to this topic, I think someone made a good point regarding how long the E was able to last in the face of the NYC - PRR merger. I think the story of the E is very instructive when talking about the various aspects of the PRR, NYC, or PC.
Difference - PRR core freight business was tied to coal and steel, NYC was autos and merchandise. As a result, the post WW2 transportation shifts hit NYC much sooner, and they were forced to deal with future long before the Pennsy began to “see the elephant”. Can you imagine what would have happened to a stand-alone PRR when the American steel industry went through their 1970’s/1980’s convulsions? The Penn Central disaster would have seen tame by comparison.
Pennsy’s undoing, many feel, stemmed from their distaste for unit costing. When the variable inputs (especially labor) took off in the 1940’s, they were not able to isolate their changing expense structure and react appropriately within even the limited ICC environment.