I just finished it and would highly recommend it for anyone interested in the recent history of US railroads, particularly east of the Mississippi. It is a casual look at the history of the Conrail lines (NYC and PRR in particular) from about 1960 to the merger of Conrail into NS and CSX.
Loving basically follows the life of Jim McClelland, who describes himself as teh Forest Gump of railroading…he was there when anything important happened in railroading. That man had an interesting career, to say the least.
The PRR/NYC = PC merger is discussed, but not in too much detail. There are very interesting comparisons made between PC and Enron…BTW, I see in my limited exposure to news while on vacation that Kenneth Lay passed away.
There were financial scandels galore in PC, but generally they were intending to prop up the PC stock, rather than for personal gain. One gets the sense Stewart Saunders (Chair of PC) was in it more for the glory of being on the MainLine rather than financial gain.
The thing about the book that fascinated me was Stanley Crains’ leadership in the critical years of Conrail. The man was a railroading stud. I would be interested if anyone either has personal reflections on Mr. Crain, or can provide further references for reading on his career with Southern and then Conrail.
Mr. Crain seemed to have the will and fortitude to stand up to everyone necessary in the early 80’s to make Conrail work. I would highly suggest this book for the purpose of reading of his leadership and abilities.
But…there is much more to the book than Stanley Crain.
The comparisons of CSX and NS are invaluable. NS seems to have always been paranoid about CSX. Good reading on that. Also, Southern had quite a franchise back in the day. The comparisons of Southern and NW are interesting.
John Snow (Chairman of CSX and later Secretary of the Treasury) doesnt come off very
Ed,
Does the book discuss in detail Conrail’s bid for the SSW and expansion to Texas during the UP-SP merger ?
Any mention of Conrail looking at or aquiring IC before CN bought it, and perhaps becoming large enough to stay independant ?
If you read the article in last month’s Trains that is pretty much the “detail” of the SSW purchase.
LeVan was a bit naive in his understanding the politics of railroading, particularly his handling of the SSW deal. The STB basically brushed off his offer to purchase the line to Texas and that sent mixed signals that the STB would not interfere with mergers. It gave Snow and LeVan a sense of overconfidence that was not reality.
Linda Morgan of STB took a look at the CSX offer for Conrail and sent a signal to LeVan that it wouldnt be approved. LeVan was not able to understand the signal and based his strategy on the feelings that the STB wouldnt interfere with the merger.
I was not aware that Conrail was going after the IC.
I did not mean to infer that Conrail was going after IC, I was just asking if it was mentioned. It has turned out to be a great move for CN, and I think it would have been just as successful for Conrail if they had aquired IC first.
They (Conrail) must have looked at it, at least briefly ?
It would be something I would ask Mr. McClelland if I ever met him.
Only a couple of maps, both are two pagers and are inside the front and rear covers.
One is of Conrail, day 1 and the other is Conrail splitup with NS &CSX lines shown. It is acknowledged from Trains Magazine. That is one thing the book could have done better:
NYC map
PRR map
Southern plus NW map
CSX component map
Traffic density maps
I would have also liked some financial data, particularly during the PC meltdown. Loving does a pretty decent job of describing how the meltdown occurred, but balance sheet and income statement data would have supported it.
This is one of the best business books I have read, I would place it just behind
Barbarians at the Gate, the story of the KKR leveraged buyout of RJR. That is a great book, pick it up if you want a business book that reads like a novel.
It was interesting to read this after reading The Wreck of the Penn Central. A bit of overlap, but then it picks up where Wreck leaves off. Fascinating to see how different the management groups at the different railroads were.
Found myself needing a program to keep track of where different people were at different times. Particularly where McClelland was when.
My local library finally got the book in and I just finished it.
An excellent book! Very readable. Great characters.
Some interesting things I learned:
The “Chessie Mafia” ruled at CSX. I had never heard of that term before.
The PRR’s managment culture was completely broken and woefully out of touch with reality by the late 50s and completely clueless at the time of the PC merger. How this came to be might make a good story, too.
The N&W’s conservatism and sway on the NS board eventually cost the company billions.
Levan, Snow and Goode had a difficult time communicating with each other and a worse time trusting each other. It cost NS and CSX billions and Levan his job.
Jim McClelland had “loose lips” particularly after he’s had something to drink!
I knew Stanley Crane did an amazing job of turning Conrail around operationally, but I had no idea how effective he was politically.
Barely a sentence was devoted to how Levan protected his managment after he had lost the battle. It rained money the last couple of years at Conrail and the way the agreement was written, nearly anyone who did not want to go to work with NS or CSX could say no and receive 2 years salary as severance.
The major issue that drove NS so hard to get a chunk of Conrail is still in place! If NS doesn’t get bigger, they will be the minor partner with BNSF or UP in an east/west merger. Makes me wonder if NS is talking with CP or CN right now!
Wick Moorman is another “man who loved trains”, so I think NS will turn out OK…
It was (is) an excellent book. I was actually sad when I finished it, not in an emotional way, but knowing that I was done and wouldnt have it to read the next day.
I think Stanley Crain was just a railroad god. His political abilities were amazing. I just was blown away by his memory and ability to resume a conversation with a worker after not seeing them in years. What a talent.
I dont feel too sorry for Levan…he ended up with the trophy wife and a Harley dealership. Probably has more fun doing that than the strain of railroading. He maximized shareholder value, which was his job.
Regarding Levan, Snow and Goode chitchatting and making the ultimate deal…that would have stuck it to the shareholders.
I just got my copy. Having lived through the Break-Up, I look forward to reading, and seeing how accurate it is. Plus I want to compare notes with my father, who lived through the Wreck of the Penn Central and the Conrail Break-Up. He’s already read it (and knows a lot of the CR players involved), and isn’t saying anything till I read it.
Levan and others at CR thought that the real thing of value was the quasi-rail monopoly of metro NYC. To give real rail routes in order to get the CR-CSX merger done would be a disservice to the stockholders. Apparently, they thought the deal was possible and they could convince the STB that all that NS would need was some trackage rights. Even after Linda Morgan of the STB tipped her hand that trackage rights alone wouldn’t be sufficient, CR stuck to its guns.
It would be interesting to know if rates on intermodal and, perhaps chemicals, into North Jeresy are any less now than when it was all Conrail. If so, then Levan was right and the whole was worth more than the sum of the parts.
One more tidbit, Levan threw, at his own expense (although it did morph into a fund raiser for his wife’s charity) a huge party for all Conrail employees in what was the waiting room at 30th St. Station, complete with live band and a barbeque buffet. A good time, but a bit sad, too.
Don, I really came away with a good impression of Levan. He seemed, at least in the book, pretty sincere about the railroad and his job as CEO of the company. Snow is another story, at least in the book. He just didnt seem to have a clue. He probably achieved his end game at his last job…Secretary of the Treasury. He seemed pretty political.
For a more indepth look at the Penn Central debacle, I recommend The Wreck of the Penn Central. Perlman was a visionary. His ideas about how the East should be divided up would come to pass 30 years later. However, think about this, without the earth shattering collaspe of Penn Central, the government probably wouldn’t have been prodded into make the reforms, that allowed both Conrail and the industry as a whole to succeed.
Although I was still a kid, I remember the Let Conrail be Conrail campain.
Later, I met Jim Hagen. His leadership helped Conrail to become the jewel that CSX and NS fought and nearly died over. My father, who knows people all over the industry, said Conrail was the best run railroad of the 90s. It was also the most progressive in terms of empoloyee quality of live issues (my father being the man in charge of that effort).
LeVan was a little naive, but was he realised he lost, LeVan played both sides against the middle to get the best deal for the shareholders. There are some cynics that belive LeVan orchastered the entire thing from the beginning. The implimenting agreement was written so any executive offered a position more then 30 miles for thier current postion, didn’t have to take it, and got the 2 years severance package. And since neither CSX or NS has many executive positions within 30 miles of Philadelphia, alot of the CR people took the money and ran. CSX and NS also cast off a lot of good people because neither truely understood Conrail’s culture.
Operationally, Snow’s cost cutting nearly killed CSX. Conrail’s creed of well maintained, heavy duty, high speed m
Ed, You asked for it… here it is: Diesel locomotive conference to be held MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The Center for Railroad Photography & Art is offering new perspectives - visual and technological - on diesel locomotives at a conference Saturday, September 30, at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The story begins with a drawing of a diesel electric locomotive being constructed for the Southern Pacific in 1905 - an overlooked and previously undocumented milestone. Usually the beginning of the diesel era in the U.S. is credited to a demonstrator locomotive of 1923. It continues with color advertising and styling, corporate strategies, and a look at changes in the first quarter of the 21st century. Milwaukee School of Engineering specialists in diesel technology as well as historians, journalists, and leaders in the railroad industry will speak. The Center is presenting “One Hundred Years: The Diesel Locomotive in American Railroading” in cooperation with Trains Magazine and Kalmbach Publishing Co. The conference coincides with publication of Locomotive, a special edition from Trains magazine. Registrants will receive a complimentary copy. The sessions from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., including coffee/soda breaks and lunch, will be held at the Todd Wehr Auditorium at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, 1047 N. Broadway. The cost is $85 per person or $75 per person for members of the Center. Students with a student ID are eligible for a special registration of $15. A registration form and hotel information are on the Center’s web site, www.railphotoart.org/diesel.asp, or by request to P.O. Box 259330, Madison, WI 53725-9330. Advance registration is requested to anticipate lunch requirements. Parking is available at the school’s lot at Broadway and Highland; MSOE will not require parking passes for that lot on September 30 during the this event. Dr. Hermann Viets, president of MSOE, will welcome participants, followed by an introduction by Kevin P. Keefe, vice president, Kalmbach Publishing C
I love his old Motive Power Surveys in old issues of trains. Such a great writer, and very knowledgeable, now making brief appearances in Classic Trains. I’ve really missed his work over the last 15 years.
Nick:
Thanks for your input on this. Being a nonrailroader, it was pretty difficult to get much of a view of Conrail other than the fact that in my part of the world, they did quite a job of railroading. Lets see, they rationalized the PRR line thru Indiana to Chicago and consolidated all of that traffic on the ex NYC line. Ditto the EL line. Not popular for railfanning, but that wasnt about that, it was survival.
I do know that Chicago - Elkhart line was (still is) quite a piece of railroad as far as the number of trains ran.
I recall one summer evening at dusk (why does all railroading seem so dramatic at dusk) when two TV trains slammed thru Porter at what seemed to be 70mph within five minutes of each other…on green blocks.
At that point in my life it was all about the locomotives.
I came to the realization that there was a serious urgency to those trains and the trailers they carried. Based on that experience, I became far more intrigued by the economics and performance of railroading (running the business) rather than taking photographs of blue locomotives. Those engineers, conductors, dispatchers, MOW personnel, et. al. were serious about their railroad.
It sure seems CSX just flops along, kinda like a catfish on shore, trying to find its way back to water. The interesting thing I gleaned from the book was how fearful NS was of CSX. There seemed to be an arrogance at NS, but it was a healthy arrogance of knowing they were good, but realizing they werent THAT GOOD.
I know I have said it time after time, but the NS thru my hometown runs their trains on a tight schedule. Their customers have to appreciate that consistancy.