Penn Central Charts

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: , ,
pc_chart

Last week I posted my review of the The Wreck of the Penn Central but before I completely move on I wanted to post a couple scans from it. The book included a number of interesting pull-out charts.

The first chart, pictured above, was the organization chart for merger day (February 1, 1968). It includes every position from chairman (Stuart T. Saunders, ex-) through the President (Alfred E. Perlman, ex-) down to the managers and assistants of the various railway companies.

This chart is interesting because it shows the integration between the ex-PRR and ex-NYC people. The former Pennsy employees were known as “Red’s” while the former New York Central people were known as “Green’s”. These nicknames came from the common color of their company boxcars, and is represented in the chart. The two corporate cultures never truly became one and this was one of the well-known problems with the merger.

pc_chart2

The second chart was prepared by the US Congress to map out all the various holdings and investments of the Penn Central Company. Included are everything from trucking companies to a pipeline company to other non-railroad related investments.

The organization of the Penn Central was made even more complicated by all the acquisitions the PRR and NYC made over the years that were never fully merged into their systems but instead existed separately on paper.

For instance, the Little Miami Railroad Co. is still listed on the chart as being owned 74% by the Pennsylvania Company (an investment company for the ). The Little Miami was a railroad originally incorporated in 1836 and bought by the PRR in 1870. However, as was the typical railroad way of doing things, it wasn’t outright bought but instead leased in perpetuity by the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad (a PRR subsidiary). This is why the Little Miami and many other smaller railroads like it still existed as a separate corporate entity on the chart, even though their lines were part of the massive Penn Central System. Many were not completely merged out of existance until the formation of Conrail in 1976.

These scans aren’t perfect and are a little blurry in the middle, but you get the idea. If you need a detailed study I would recommend purchasing the book or borrowing it from your local library.

I only have a couple of pieces of rail news for the past week. There is an article in the Dayton Daily News about local towns competing for a stop on the 3C Corridor. There’s also an article about highlights form the past week’s hobo festival in Bucyrus, and the LM&M is running their Civil War train this weekend in Mason.

Also, don’t expect a post tomorrow. Instead I’ll be devoting my time to a post Friday featuring an old PRR Lebanon Branch track chart.

The Wreck of the Penn Central

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Book Reviews Railroads: , ,

After researching the history of Buckeye Yard the other week I’ve been on a bit of a Penn Central kick. There’s not a lot of people out there who model the Penn Central, but it has a certain mystic. There’s something morbidly fascinating about the great railroad that managed to implode in only 867 days.

The The Wreck of the Penn Central by Joseph R. Daughen and Peter Binzen provides an interesting look at that railroad monolith created back on February 1st, 1968. The book starts out with a brief history of the respective companies. The and the are compared and contrast while the reader begins to understand how their respective ideologies developed. This becomes important later when you witness some of the well-known corporate culture clashes that developed in the railroad at all levels.

Eventually the book transitions in the actual merger and some of the reasons it failed. The Penn Central’s problems were many and varied. They ranged to everything from railroad operation problems (the non-compatible computer systems are a famous example), to high labor costs, to factors beyond the railroad’s control (the ICC, the state of the industry, ect).

While the first few chapters kept me on the edge of me seat reading, the book drags a bit in the middle. Too much time is spent describing every point of the Penn Central’s “Diversification Program” and every investment or perceived conflict of interest within the management is emphasized. There comes a point when you realize there is no way this railroad will stay in business and that it will all fail spectacularly. The book overemphasizes just how bad things were and for a while you have to trudge through it in order to see the fireworks at the end.

When the house of cards finally collapses however, it does so with great interest. Even though history tells you all you need to know about the end, there is a while when it seems as if the government would step in with a bailout to save the day and you almost think they will pull it off. Yet as everyone knows it was not to be and the Penn Central would fail as the largest bankruptcy to that point in American history.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the book is not the manuscript itself but the time it was written. The book was published in 1971, just one year after the Penn Central bankruptcy. Conrail wasn’t formed for 5 more years. People still viewed the nationalization of the railroads as a possible doomsday option. The Staggers Act and many of the things today’s modern railroad takes for granted all happened after this book was written. As a result a very bleak picture is painted for the future of the railroad industry.

It’s interesting to look back with hindsight and compare their predictions of the future with today’s modern efficient railroad system of today. Now only 2 companies compete East of the Mississippi and much of the Penn Central’s track is long-gone. However, after reading this book I think the collapse of the Penn Central may have been necessary. The abandonments and deferred maintenance hurt in the short term, but in the long run the fallout from the Penn Central (deregulation of the railroads, Conrail, Amtrak, ect) may have saved the entire industry.

At its core, The Wreck of the Penn Central is written as a warning that this is no way to merge and business, and certainly no way to run a railroad. Its message of bailouts and “too-big-to-fail” companies is surprisingly relevant in today’s political and economic climate. Railroad buffs and business majors alike can find something to learn in this book, and overall I think it was worth the read.

If you would like to purchase a copy of The Wreck of the Penn Central you can support this site by using the link here.

In other news I have an article on the 3-C Corridor in Middletown, an old CL&N stock for sale on ebay, and some rail stimulus projects being considered for Toledo.

A Brief History of Buckeye Yard

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: , ,
Photo: Entrance to Buckeye Yard (Source)

With the announcement earlier this week about the mothballing of Buckeye Yard I thought it would be appropriate to take a closer look back on the yard that the Penn Central built.

Planning and Construction

Buckeye Yard was originally planned by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the middle of the century. By this point Columbus was a town, with 4 lines running through the city.2 Each of these lines were formerly independent companies with their own terminals and facilities. The PRR was forced to use a number of yards all across town. The largest yards were located on the east side of Columbus and were known as Yard A and Yard B.

Buckeye Yard, known in planning as simply Columbus Yard3, was designed as a modern classification yard that would eliminate the expense of operating these yards separately as well as simplifying operations around Columbus. In 1968 the PRR merged with its arch-rival and competitor the New York Central System. The new company, known as the Penn Central Transportation Company, was designed to increase profitability by reducing duplicate routes and their associated costs. With planning of Buckeye Yard already completed, the new company decided to continue with its construction as well as folding the ‘s former yards into it as well.

Construction of Buckeye Yard began in 1968 under Penn Central. It was completed in December the following year. Columbus Railroads has a great photo (with labels) of the yard in 1970. About a year after its opening the Penn Central formally renamed Columbus Yard wit the name is has been known by since.3

Operation

Photo: A look down at the classification tracks (Source)

Buckeye Yard was built on the west side of suburban Columbus between two major PRR lines. It was oriented perpendicular so that traffic could flow most efficiently through the yard and out the mainlines. The ex-C&I Bradford line that ran west to Indianapolis was located on the north end of the yard while the ex-Little Miami line ran by on the south end of the yard.1

The classification yard itself involved 1 track going over a hump and 40 classification tracks in the “bowl”. There was also an (undersized) yard for locals, a car repair shop, and a locomotive shop. During the Conrail era the locomotive shop was converted to a signal training facility for crewmen.

Mergers and Changes

Throughout the Penn Central years Buckeye Yard was a model of what the railroad could do when it had money to invest in capital improvements. However, the efficiency of one yard could not save a decrepit system, and Buckeye Yard was absorbed by Conrail on April 1st, 1976.

Under Conrail Buckeye Yard served as the busy hub of Conrail’s Columbus operations. Traffic flowing east-west and north-south was able to use the yard for classification. However, the abandonment of both the Little Miami through Cincinnati and the Bradford Line through Indianapolis left the yard isolated. Only short stretches of the former mainlines were left in order to allow access to the yard.

After Norfolk’s Southern purchased Buckeye as part of the Conrail split in 1999 the future became more murky. It was clear that the yard played a less crucial part of Norfolk Southern’s route map, with large yards in nearby Bellevue and Cincinnati. Trains in Columbus had to travel out of their way to get to Buckeye, and over time more and more trains were cut from the yard.

Still, it came as a shock when Norfolk Southern announced the temporary shutdown of Buckeye Yard in May 2009. While an end to the recession and an increase in traffic could bring the yard back online, it is not guaranteed. For now the once busy classification yard will be used for locomotive and car storage. CSX’s nearby Intermodal Yard (also acquired as part of the Conrail split) has not been affected, so abandonment of more trackage seems unlikely in the near future.

Photo: A quiet Buckeye Yard in May 2009 (Source)

Today, subdivisions have sprouted on the farmland that the Pennsylvania once surveyed for their “Columbus Yard” and the tracks sit empty as a ghost town. Could this be the end of Buckeye Yard’s story, or will there be more to tell? It’s hard to say. From troubled beginnings Buckeye has served a prosperous life, but the legacy of the Penn Central hasn’t completely disappeared yet.

References:

  1. Alex Campbell. “Photo of the Month January 2009“, Columbus Railroads, January 2009, Accessed 8 May 2009.
  2. “PRR Terms“
  3. Jerry Taylor. A Sampling of the Penn Central. Indiana University Press, 2000.

In other news, I found an interesting story about the last Pullman Porter reunion that will be happening in Philadelphia.

Also, this Sunday is Mothers Day. I’d like to thank all the mom’s out there and let everyone know that the Toledo, Lake Erie, & Western Railway Museum is letting mom’s ride for free Sunday with a child’s ticket.

The Decline of the Penn Central

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Uncategorized Railroads: ,

This video was found by a member of the ModelRailroader internet forum. Originally it was posted on this blog. It was created by the Penn Central Bankruptcy Trustees to present to Congress. Much like today’s auto industry, the Penn Central was looking for a bailout from the federal government. A short 2 years later Penn Central was nationalized by the government and restructured into Conrail (Consolidated Rail Corporation).

I thought this video would be interesting to readers of this blog because Penn Central was operating the remnants of the CL&N. By the 1970′s Penn Central served the industrial area of Norwood and the Blue Ash Division on the former CL&N mainline. It also served Mason and Lebanon out of Middletown. Finally, the Penn Central served the line down to Centerville on the former DL&C. The 3 mile break around Brecon was just recently made.

The video shows the poor condition of track in Penn Central’s yards and mainline. As bad as it is, you can imagine the poor condition of the CL&N which was at best a secondary branch line. Speeds were reduced down to 8 or 10 miles an hour on similar lines. The deferred maintenance by the and later Conrail took a toll on the tracks that the City of Lebanon is paying for even today.

When Conrail took over these unprofitable lines needed to be practically rebuilt. The Lebanon branch narrowly avoided abandonment thanks to action by the Lebanon industries. The line down to Centerville wasn’t so lucky, and was quickly abandoned. Additionally, the poor performance drove many industries to truck transportation, deteriorating the economic strength of the line even further. This video provides an almost uncomfortable look at just how desperate things were on the Penn Central.