G&W to acquire P&W

[rwk]

What is the purpose of mergers and acquisitions? It's like a cut throat world, it's survival of the fittest. The roads that were hurting wound up going out of existence, like the pre Conrail railroads, or Western Pacific, Southern Pacific, etc. as stronger railroads like UP gobbled them up. N&W and Southern merged in 1982 to form NS. Chessie and Seaboard merged to form CSX. And CN gobbled up BC Rail, and some Chicago area railroads. Now P&W is gobbled up by a large holding company called Genessee and Wyoming. Didn't they buy Ohio Central from JJJ as well? Are they the same guys who won't allow steam excursions (like 765 and OC steam)? But they are continuing P&W's excursions?

[Dick H]

The P&W excursion operation is probably on the way out.
G&W did say they would honor existing contracts for trips,
but most, if not all, have run out. The G&W bean counters
will be unlikely to look favorably on excursion trains...

[v8interceptor]

I wonder when the Providence & Worcester Forum will be merged with the G&W forum? I'n not trying to clever (well, maybe a little bit)..

[Jeff Smith]

It won't; I keep separate Class II forums for all such classified RR's. P&W is still a class II, and warrants it. As a matter of fact, there is one or two other G&W forums in Class II for those that qual.

[rwk]

That's a shame if G&W gets rid of the excursions, looked like a nice operation with great scenery. Plus the diesel locos will probably have that yucky G&W orange now. It's getting harder to run special trips with freight only railroads not wanting to deal with that much anymore. NS is still doing 611 excursions this year, BNSF is hosting a SP 4449 excursion out west, and UP 844 will probably run for the public again this year out of Denver. CSX just hosts the Collis P. Huntington trips out of West Virginia with Amtrak diesel power. They have a no steam policy that's unlikely to change. I wonder if the P&W and NS public excursions are on borrowed time. I can't see NS allowing 611 to run forever, unless the current CEO sees value in letting the trips happen. It's also a shame that the Ohio Central steam fleet is parked at the new roundhouse in Sugarcreek, OH and can't run passenger excursions over OC because JJJ sold it to G&W several years ago and G&W seems to be an all business railroad, not wanting the hassle of hosting public excursions. But, Jerry is allowed to ferry his steam to other tourist lines for public operation, like the CVSR, etc. I thank God for railroads like the Reading and Northern near me that are willing to operate excursions for the public and steam locomotives. I hope to God that Andy Muller doesn't ever sell his railroad to a company like G&W. That would probably mean the end of it all, public excursions, steam operations.