N&W 7902 - Expanded to a Question about NKP & Wabash

[NW Mailing List]

IMHO, the 1964 merger was both defensive against a changing economy and 
an offensive step to get to a PC merger.  While not the backbone of NKP 
traffic, the iced reefer and livestock trade was leaving the rails, and 
that was hurting. The auto industry was moving out of Detroit and 
hurting the WAB. Both were seeing the onesy/twosy local traffic 
evaporate. The N&W was faced with new coal fields being opened up in 
countries that had not been players in that trade. All carriers needed 
longer hauls and a different traffic mix to be viable.

     To get to a PC merger, the PRR needed to divest itself from the WAB 
and N&W. The NKP had to be there to show some level of competitive 
routes to the NYC portion of the PC system.

     The result of an expanded N&W was a learning experience for all, 
and hot always a happy one. Whoever was in charge anywhere, had to try 
to adapt to a changing market. And some (not all) hidebound managers ran 
roughshod trying to carry out the best guesses of what to do next from 
headquarters. On the NKP, we were stunned that 80-100 car fast freights 
were being filled out to 150-200 car drags. And the workers at Bellevue 
were puzzled on why we needed a hump yard there.

     It was a big mess for a while. Then things stabilized and the N&W 
started to see it was overinvesting on the N&W and underinvesting on the 
NKP/Wabash. Once that realization was embraced, things started to get 
better.

     WJPowers


On 5/25/2019 10:00 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Bill -
> That rather graphic imagery is intended to display for all to see the 
> displeasure felt by Mr. Burnett toward the post-Robert Hall Smith 
> Norfolk and Western.  Smith was the President who retired in 1957 and 
> who was replaced by Stuart Thomas Saunders, an ambitious man who 
> wanted to become the president of the largest railroad in the country, 
> the Penn Central, and did so, with disastrous results.
> The Richard Freeman Dunlap referred to ran the railroad after a time, 
> and evidently his work was displeasing to Mr. Burnett.  I’m sure that 
> it was displeasing to the Wabush and NKP folks, but being the 
> “mergees” is never an easy thing.  I’m certain that nothing the N&W 
> did after that merger would have been pleasing to the WAB/NKP folks.  
> And I’m equally sure that none of them was asked whether they wanted 
> to “get in bed” with the N&W.
> Hope this helps.
> - Ed King
> *From:* NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List
> *Sent:* Saturday, May 25, 2019 5:18 PM
> *To:* nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
> *Cc:* NW Mailing List
> *Subject:* Re: N&W 7902 - Expanded to a Question about NKP & Wabash
> Please provide some clarification.  I'm confused.  Exactly what is 
> meant by the phrase, Richard Freeman Dunlap riding his Black Horse of 
> Death onto the scene?
> Bill King
> Arlington, Virginia
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Sent: Sat, May 25, 2019 1:54 pm
> Subject: Re: N&W 7902 - Expanded to a Question about NKP & Wabash
>
> Mr. Bundy -
> You were a "boots on the ground" man, so your take on things is highly 
> valued.
> You wrote:
> >>>
> On the Dekrater and Moberly Divisions, there was a signal arrangement 
> ID'ed as Manual Block - Remote Control.  Wabash dispatchers could give 
> a signal to enter a siding, but the train crew had to manually align 
> the turnout.  This system of controlling train movement became known 
> as "Morphodite Traffic Control".
> <<<
> I always perceived both the Nickel Plate and the Wabash as being first 
> class, high-speed, classy, good operations before the N&W management 
> got hold of them, single tracked them and made a disaster out of them 
> both.
> You know the true story, so please tell us.  What were the NKP and the 
> Wabash really like before the N&W's Richard Freeman Dunlap rode his 
> Black Horse of Death onto the scene?  It would also be interesting to 
> know why those two roads would ever want to get in bed with the N&W, 
> given the N&W's reputation for people like Saunders and Dunlap.  
> Shucks, those two roads did not even connect with the N&W, so where 
> were the imagined synergies?
> -- abram burnett,
> only a turnip farmer
>
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