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Post Info TOPIC: Jersey Central Line


Force Majeure

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RE: Jersey Central Line
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Uke's World!
Uke's World!
Uke's World!

 

Uke's World!



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Conrail began operations in April 1976, although its origins go back to the earliest days of railroading in North America.

The oldest segment of what became Conrail was the Granite Railway Co., built in 1826 to carry granite blocks for the Bunker Hill Monument in West Quincy, Massachusetts. Nearly 150 years later, scores of railroads in the Northeast and Midwest had been acquired or merged into six different lines: Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh & Hudson River, Lehigh Valley, Penn Central, and Reading.

In the early 1970s, one by one, these six railroads entered bankruptcy. Although there were many reasons for the economic difficulties they faced, chief among them was competition from trucks, subsidized by the federally-built Interstate highway system, and an archaic system of economic regulation which prevented railroads from responding to the needs of the market. As freight revenues declined, railroads deferred maintenance, allowing tracks and equipment to fall into poor condition, and as service levels deteriorated, more business went to trucks. Requirements to run money-losing passenger service added to the rails decline.

The federal government, recognizing the national economic importance of the six railroads, responded by creating Conrail and appropriating the funds needed to rebuild tracks, locomotives and freight cars. While Conrail succeeded in rebuilding the railroad, the problem of severe economic regulation remained. With the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980, many of these constraints were loosened, giving railroads more freedom to compete with trucks. Later, other legislation transferred the burden of operating money-losing commuter rail service from Conrail to state agencies. In the 1970s, Congress created Amtrak to take over intercity passenger service from the nation's freight railroads.

By 1981 Conrail began its financial turnaround. After June 1981, Conrail would no longer require federal investment, and finished the year with the first profit in its history.

With Conrail continuing to succeed in providing high quality service for its freight customers and improving its financial outlook, the federal government sold its ownership interest in Conrail through what at the time was the largest initial public stock offering in the nation's history. This March 26, 1987 transaction, with added cash payments from Conrail to the U.S. Treasury, produced about $1.9 billion for the taxpayers and returned the Northeast-Midwest rail freight system to the private sector as a for-profit corporation, as Congress had envisioned when it created Conrail as Consolidated Rail Corporation.

In the spring of 1997, Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX Corporation agreed to acquire Conrail through a joint stock purchase. The Surface Transportation Board officially approved the acquisition and restructuring of Conrail on July 23, 1998. The the approved merger plan restructured Conrail into a switching and terminal railroad that operates as an agent for its owners, Norfolk Southern and CSX, in the Shared Assets Areas of Northern New Jersey, Southern New Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit.



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Uke


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In any case, the shareholders who waited (not me, sad ta say!) made a shitpot o' cash! And those employees with serious protection, also came out smelling of roses! I don't know much beyond all that, but from a distance...

Workin' at BN in the Northwest, that was one very expensive deal for both CSX, and NS... In the final shakeout CSX took a 42% piece, and NS got the rest...58%.

Whatever... Conrail was doin' alright without Uncle in the driver's seat, and the 'merger' inta CSX/NS might've waited a few years just ta see where she'd go as a truly independent entity without govt. support!



-- Edited by Uke on Sunday 11th of November 2012 04:48:18 PM

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Unstable & Irrational

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So, the gubment stepped in rebuilt it and made a profit... Now, the Repugs want to unload Amtrak, the profitable part. Phuck that, the person who buys it, will wear it out, then unload it on the gubment again...

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Uke


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Cy Valley wrote:
Uke wrote:

 

When CR began ta show strength, after shedding redundant lines, downsizing, and beefing itself up...Uncle Sam let it go private, and CR began paying off many debts which hadn't been included in the PC bankruptcy declaration...

NS and CSX were in a proxy fight over CR, and when the dust settled, NS took about 55%, and CSX got the rest...

I didn't care at the time, because I had an offer from BN in Portland, OR at the time ('79) I left E'port behind! They'd started me as a laborer, awarded me an apprenticeship, laid me off, called me back...laid me off again. Called me back... I was startin' ta feel like a fuckin' ping-pong ball.

 


 Uh, not then, they weren't.  They didn't even exist then.


 I quit CR (Formed in '76) in '79 for 'greener' pastures. And didn't look back... A few years later it was, that yer NS, and their competitor CSX began their struggle (?) over CR. I never owned CR stock, although I had my chances ta buy it several times... When CR began showing some real strength, and Uncle Sam sold their interest, the share price was over $100+, then I'd begun ta rue my decision not ta buy in...

But CR is a mere memory, left buried. Sadly though, it was starting ta be a decent show, after the mess in the Northeastern territories that PC caused. CR was, if nothing else, competition. Now... LAMCO and CSX? Everybody is held hostage... Captive ta NO competition!



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Force Majeure

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A few years is almost 20 years.

Somebody's old!

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Force Majeure

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Remember that LAMCO made an offer of $1.2 Billion while Lizzie Dole was secretary of Transportation.

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Force Majeure

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LAMCO was trying to steal Conrail from the taxpayers. Surprised they failed. A few years later they paid almost four times as much for 58%.

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Force Majeure

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LAMCO ended their ESOP and Snippy sold all his LAMCO shares and did a direct cash investment into Conrail. (Schwab rocked back then.) Snippy received his cash out payment from the LAMCO/CSX buyout of Conrail. It remains a significant portion of his investments.

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Unstable & Irrational

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So, you made LAMCO pay you twice. You capitalist.....

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Snippy is rich.

Yes, we had so much speculation in this part of the world when LAMCO tried to steal Conrail the first time around. They were going to sell off some branch lines, Dereco-style, sort of, to form some competition. For example, they were going to sell off the remnants of the Cloverleaf between E. St. Louis and Delphos, OH, to connect with the by-then downgraded former PRR, which was also going to be sold off between (I think) Pittsburgh and Chicago. At the same time, the main NKP lines west of Bellevue and maybe everything from Buffalo to Chicago was going to be downgraded and/or worse in favor of the New York Central. The Wabash side would not have fared well, either, the Big Four was to become the primary route to St. Louis for the new LAMCO. Yes, it was doom and gloom and you couldn't learn much about it, either. This was pre-net and there just wasn't that much information available. I subscribed by mail to the Mecca Times for a good six months because we were wanting to make a move and if the sale went through, we figured it was going to be bye-bye railroad job. Grim times for a lot of guys, many of whom were just getting back from the furloughs during the downtimes of the early 1980's.

One must remember this was during a time when the railroads themselves thought of it as a dying industry and they were downgrading a lot of lines then, it wasn't like it was just a few years later.

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Chilean Night Skies



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I'm partial ta empty hoppers. Besides, the crew is wearing thier shiny vests...

 

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=408021&nseq=3

 

1215233?AWSAccessKeyId=1XXJBWHKN0QBQS6TGPG2&Expires=1353542400&Signature=EW7xTpapwtZKEVoLxD3PIXNYWMs%3D 

NS 777 leads empty hoppers in CP Perry!



-- Edited by Fawwk Yook on Tuesday 13th of November 2012 06:09:41 AM



-- Edited by Calvin on Tuesday 13th of November 2012 06:11:42 AM

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The Forum Celestial Advisor

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I will always remember the first time I asked my dad what
the biggest railroad in the USA was (I'm 10 maybe) and
he said without hesitation "The Pennsy" or PRR. He also
said the GN Seattle to Vancouver BC line that passed thru
Bellingham was a "branch-line". All the serious shit takes
place on the trans-con.

Snagged a couple of Henry Davis's latest "captures" of
the Lehigh Valley addition to what has become almost like
a pack of baseball cards/locomotives.

 



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Force Majeure

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Oh look, a Herzog "it's not a work train" work train in the background.

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Not a work train. You know the deal.

It's a hopper train, Clavalin. Therefore, it is empty. We know the deal.

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