Class J Shoppings after Jan 1956

[NW Mailing List]

Thanks Harry. That sort of sounds like what I was told happened after the end of the steam program in 1994.

You are exactly right as well, Saunders took great advantage of the Smith's penchant for high quality physical property and knew that a reduction in forces would not do major harm to the railroad. 

He also insisted that signaling would eliminate the need for some double track along New River, and had a good portion of that taken out, saving maintenance and material costs. Even as recently as 15 years ago, I heard comments from operating people about how that was STILL causing problems and blaming Saunders.

Now, my father told me years ago, that Saunders pushed for the building of Community Hospital, and it was virtually a requirement of all Roanoke based employees to contribute to the fund raising. My father resented this, but contributed regardless, and it must have been a decent amount, as my father's name was on a large plaque with others that was still in the place before it closed. Do you recall that?

I also suspect that was Saunders way of building his contacts and resume towards the Pennsy job, make him look like some sort of civic champion, never a bad impression for corporate executives. The same might be said for donating 611 to the fledging Roanoke Transportation Museum in May 1962. Civic ladder climbing.

There was some discussion on the Pennsy list some months ago about some publicity photo of Saunders with some logo decal placed on units and around the property shortly after his coming. It had to do with cleaning up the place. I don't remember exactly, but the commentary of those who were there, said it was basically a whitewash, cleaning up the property to make it look better and more viable, but cutting expenses on necessary maintenance. Sound familier?

One of my Aunts lived near Saunders in the 1960s after he was at the Pennsy, and they were invited to a party at his mansion. Now my aunt did not live in any mansion, but was nearby. Her general comment was he seemed nice enough, but seemed to be looking to social climb with the gathering.

I'd heard that even before he climbed into the President's chair at N&W, his goal was to use it as a stepping stone to the Pennsy. Hence the VGN merger and shortly thereafter, NKP and Wabash. It was stepping stones to the PRR/NYC merger.

Ken Miller


On Aug 8, 2015, at 1:33 PM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List wrote:

>  
>  
> 
> 
> Once Stuart Saunders took over the reins on April 1, 1958 as President, he seemed to have one major goal in mind, that was to make "his" railroad more modern and profitable, which would lead to him climbing the ladder to his dream job of running the Pennsylvania Railroad.
>  
> Ken:
> Probably many have seen the publicity photos N&W Public Relations distributed -- The Powhatan
> Arrow along the New River near Belspring, the 2173 eastbound near the same location.  When
> Saunders became President, he ordered all steam photos removed from N&W offices.
>  
> Saunders capitalized on his predecessor's penchant for an immaculate, well maintained.
> right-of-way.  Knowing that the tracks were in such good shape, he realized that he could
> cut maintenance of way forces, reduce capital expenditures, and the railroad would
> remain operational for months.   Apparently the PRR was impressed.      Harry Bundy
> ________________________________________
> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
> To change your subscription go to
> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20150810/7a61750c/attachment.html>