Howdy I couldn’t sleep last night so I took off typing a bit of history for my railroad…
I did some reading about the USRA and the ICC and found that a Professor William Z. Ripley who worked as a consultant for the ICC recommended a “consolidation” plan known as the “Ripley Plan” and under the Transportation act of 1920 provisions were made for the consolidation… Now taking that bit of real history it gave me a foundation for my story…
I’ll post the text of the document in a following post.
The History of the NWP-SWP System
The year is 1920 the place a mountain lodge in the Sierra Nevadas…
The leaders of the wests Class I railroads, politicians, and scholars gather around a large table…
“Gentlemen, you have been invited here to discuss the consolidation of the major Class I railroads into a more efficient system Doctor Ripley will explain further.”
"We are nearing the resumption of control of the nation’s railroads to their original owners prior to the USRAs institution.
The systems are weary from the war and in desperate need of improvement. I propose a consolidation of the major western roads into a unified two part system while retaining the individuality of the current lines. The two new lines will be named the NorthWestern Pacific and SouthWestern Pacific.These two new systems will work in conjunction with the current railroads in a fashion that doesn’t monopolizeven the industry west of the Mississippi."
March that year, the USRA relinquishes control of the nation’s railroads. Congress begins reviewing the ICCs so c
I suggest that it will be MUCH easier if you keep the roads under Federal Control for the duration of any ‘pooling’ activities. Wilson famously observed that one of the major reasons for actual USRA establishment was that it permitted pooling, rate agreements and several other things explicitly forbidden to private railroads under the law.
It would make sense to evolve the USRA’s somewhat primitive region system to contain ‘northwest-Pacific’ and ‘southwest-Pacific’ regions. Some war-bond revenue might be diverted into compensation for one road’s infrastructure being formally operated in another, if there were no comparable asset to be traded. More interesting (although not directly germane to you) would be what happens in the eastern and southern regions to ‘match’ the evolving patterns in the West. That might include directed formation of ‘co-opeting’ systems roughly matching those established in the Ripley plan, carefully selected for specific benefits (like high-wide for Erie and trans-Hudson passenger for PRR). That gives the ability to essentially optimize the ‘fifth system’ (specifically, the improved Lackawanna connecting to the Nickel Plate) for high-speed bridge intermodal and express without having to ‘subsidize’ development of the equipment or clutter its passage with bread-and-butter origin or destination industries or peddler deliveries. Now… to what, exactly, do these fast trains connect to when they get to their Region’s border…
I’d bet the systems would be reprivatized … after being rebuilt with Government money … not later than a couple of years into the Coolidge administration. By then the private-ownership issues that would otherwise cripple pool working would have been resolved, as the larger systems would already be operationally optimized within regions, and an activist ICC would take over (more or less as it did) protecting shippers’ rights when there a
I’d rather keep it privatized maybe have assistance/affiliation with the USRA and ICC but not have the consolidation performed by an agency that was born out of a war time emergency and if it were to continue it would’ve been a gross government overreach…
Here’s a time line that focuses on the 1920, 1940, and 1960 big events in the systems history, I will fill in the years in between as I get further along…
Time line 1920 through 1960…
The first 40 years of the systems existence can be divided into two 20 year periods the first being the age of expansion and the second the age of absorption…
From 1920 to 1940…
March 1920 the USRA returns the railroads to private control.
June 1920 the Class Is approach Congress, ICC, USRA with a plan to merge the Northern Pacific, Western Pacific, and Southern Pacific into one system while retaining their company identities, also provisions were made for an “open door” policy that any Class I could apply for acceptance to the family lines.
July 1920 after a month of negotiations, and with the full support of all concerned parties the consolidation is approved on July 4, 1920.
December 1920 the Great Northern and Milwaukee Road both apply for and are accepted into the system by the end of the year.
January 1921 the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio Grande Western
That is some interesting information. Up to this point I thought that the “Ripley Plan” was to keep coming back in sequels to fight new Aliens [alien].
Steven,
As a former teenager, father of 4 adult “kids”, and grandfather of several, I am curious as to how you can do all you do.
You are a high school senior, a model railroader, you belong to two clubs, a prolific, innovative and knowledgeable writer on this Forum, and often post late at night, mid day, etc. How do you do it?
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You were able to get full support for this from all parties in just four months… you should really get into the corporate negotiations game!
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[:D]
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-Kevin
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Maxman, aliens???
Mobile man, I am homeschooled so my mid day posting is usually when I’m on lunch break… my nighttime posting is because I have insomnia so I put my time to use researching for my railroad…
Kevin, I forgot to mention full support from the unions and shippers and I really only meant that there wasn’t really any resistance to the consolidation…
Sigh. And here I thought that you knew everything [alien].
Sigourney Weaver starred in a series of movies: Alien; Aliens; Aliens 3; Alien Resurrection. Her character’s name was Ripley. So I thought that the “Ripley Plan” was to make another movie [alien]
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Full support from the UNIONS in four months.
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I am beginning to think the NWP-SWP exists in a bigger world of nonsense than the STRATTON & GILLETTE!
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-Kevin
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The unions and shippers were part of the early planning that started long before the end of USRA control and we’re on board many months/years before the proposal to the government…
Here’s what I don’t understand; why would the railroads do this?
As a fan of alternate history, there needs to be a major event that would cause the recently privatized railroads to switch back to a government controlled program.
I think that the Great Depression would make a little more sense for a consolidation of the major Class I’s, not the openning of the Roaring 20’s, a time of a booming economy. You need to think like the railroads’ owners. Why should I put my company back under governmental control when I just got it back? After all, the USRA was created at a time where the a nationalized railroad system was needed (to efficiently support the war effort in Europe) and to set some standards. And, with the sheer scale of the Depresion, the government stepping in and nationalizing the freight railroad market (like they did with Amtrak in the 70’s) makes perfect sense in my mind.
The 1940’s is another odd time for experimentation. With WWII a year later, the NWP-SWP system would have been halted by the government for their material usage. That’s why there are all of those rebuild programs on many railroads in the mid 40’s.
I think this part of the story should be moved to the 60’s.
And about that; with LBJ’S “Great Society” funding the Metroliner project, I think that the high capacity, high speed infrastructure development on the Pacific Fleet would fit the bill just right!
There are a few other questions that need answers, primarily:
The history of this railroad is certainly getting there, and hopefully you can take my advise and impliment it!
LBJ is too late for the era I model!
And I specifically stated the government has nothing to do with it in fact in my version of rail history Amtrak was never implemented on my railroad! The USRA was created in a war emergency they attempted to permanently implement it but failed because the general public, shippers, unions weren’t happy with that idea… my idea is the railroads under private control took the idea of the USRA and reworked it a little, the Class Is organized the NWP-SWP system as a co-op type organization the railroads pool their resources while retaining their identities and then the NWP-SWP equipment operate system wide…
So it’s a private co-op affiliate program “basically”…
Ah, okay. I didn’t see that you wanted the railroads to remain as separate entities. Sorry about that!
It’s fine… it’s a little confusing…
The thing I still don’t see is the ‘key’ event that makes all these combinations legal, let alone supportable by a government that was highly hostile to overarching merger empire building (compare how the van Sweringens had to do what they did, and how it came apart when their bankers dropped support). Woodrow Wilson noted as part of the leadup to USRA that under government control railroads could consolidate and pool operations in ways that the government itself could not permit under private control. You will need to show legislation at least comparable to the Esch Act of 1920 that gives railroads the authority to combine in the ways you find necessary. And develop a theory of Congressional elections, committee-forming, and so forth that makes such a bold and easily-exploited idea politically possible. And explain how labor let this go without a peep, during the years famously known in actual history for the Plumb Plan.
I think you have a much harder row to hoe with this than if you kept government control but let groups other than Progressives control its priorities and activities. Not all government action is inherently evil or anti-business. I presume you know George Hilton’s somewhat interesting thesis (which I think is true for some eras, like the years of the Commerce Court) that established railroads embraced and manipulated government regulation for their benefit. We might see that here … but it would have to be crafted, not pretended.
The historical basis for the entire idea is the Esch-Cummins Act which provided for a consolidation plan for the railroads… the idea of the railroads remaining under governments control was widely criticized by the general public, and the idea especially back then reeks of socialism which is what the contract was fighting against in WW1… the railroads knowing this was able to get the shippers and unions on board with the promise of faster shipping schedules, lowered rates, and to the unions better wages and more opportunities for growth and development in their fields…
Therefore the railroads approached the ICC (knowing that they were preparing a consolidation plan) with the idea of a merger/consolidation into a co-op/affiliate organization while remaining privatized was very appealing to the ICC under the Esch-Cummins Act… the way rhe pooling would work is because the railroads were “technically” one company they could pool equipment, funds, manpower, ect while they were detached enough to still offer a competitive market and better services… it’s basically the “robber-baron” type empire but instead of one rich guy being the owner a corporate entity owned them…
As I said this is really preliminary and might/will see many changes in the small details, still if you have suggestions please post up!
I forgot to thank MobileMan for his comments that in his words I’m a “prolific, innovative, and knowledgeable writer on the forums” I really appreciate that some of the effort and ideas I put forth are somewhat appreciated… Happy Railroading!!!
You are welcome! But it is “Mobilman” - as in Mobil Oil…