PRSL the only solvent partner in ConRail?

[tomjohn]

I don't know if this was already posted, I heard and read somewhere in the past that THE P. R. S. L RR was the only solvent segment of CONRAIL, is this fact or just fiction?

Tom S.

[LCJ]

Perhaps...

You probably know all this, but PRSL was jointly owned by Penn Central and Reading Co., both of which were in receivership. As such, PRSL was included in the Conrail mix.

Here's a list of controlled railroads that were conveyed to Conrail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ra ... to_Conrail

[Otto Vondrak]

See also: http://railroad.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=97

The PRSL Forum features discussion specific to that line that may be helpful to you.

-otto-

[GOLDEN-ARM]

The last 14 months of the Lehigh Valley showed a railroad that had moved from the red ink side of the books, into the black. Rationalization of facilities, trackage, and excellent agreements to move freight between New England, and the connections to the south made the Valley a profitable road. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.

[lvrr325]

In the case of the LV, they were nearly wholly owned by PC as well. I'm not sure the exact total but it was over 80%. They also hadn't turned a profit since 1956.

But the PC bankruptcy hurt everyone, because they had a large frieght car fleet they were no longer paying per diem charges on, so any road that was relying on that money to help keep them afloat was in trouble right then and there.

[GOLDEN-ARM]

LVRR325, you might wanna check your sources. The Valley certainly did turn a profit, after 1956.

[lvrr325]

Hey, if you want to argue with company annual reports, be my guest.

edit: I might be off by a year but either '56 or '57 is the last year they turned a profit until around the first quarter of '75 - and that in itself is debatable, because it depends on how the accounting was done. Their methods showed a profit, but doing it the way the ICC had the railroads doing it, showed continued losses. I'm not sure where those reports got put up when we moved but one shows all the figures for each year from 1956 through probably 1965 (I have 65-66-67-68).

[Noel Weaver]

I don't know for sure whether the Lehigh Valley was in the black during
the period in question or not but I am pretty sure that the last new
engines that they got (the GE U-23b's) were financed by USRA as Conrail
was in the works and the Lehigh Valley was not able to obtain financing
for them. If they had been in decent financial shape, I do not think this
would have been a problem.
Noel Weaver

[Matt Langworthy]

I don't know for sure whether the Lehigh Valley was in the black during
the period in question or not but I am pretty sure that the last new
engines that they got (the GE U-23b's) were financed by USRA as Conrail
was in the works and the Lehigh Valley was not able to obtain financing
for them. If they had been in decent financial shape, I do not think this
would have been a problem.
Noel Weaver

The U23Bs arrived on the LV in 1974, when it was still operating at a loss (under either accounting method referenced by Golden-Arm) and in bankruptcy. I've heard the LV was operating profitably during late 1975 and early 1976... but whatever revenue was generated certainly didn't turn the LV into a healthy RR. Furthermore, the Van Etten to Buffalo route had very little local traffic, except a few short segments, so it made sense for CR to shift traffic from the former LV over to EL's Buffalo Extension west of Sayre.

[Zeke]

I had heard the LV was making ends meet just before CR day but the die was cast. The RDG was also in the black a few quarters before CR day. I met Drew Lewis one time he was on my head end TV-61 and I think he was running the RDG just before CR day.