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  • Merged Companies - why so many after 1976

  • Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.
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Merged Companies - why so many after 1976

Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.

Moderators: TAMR213, keeper1616

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 #181376  by scottychaos
 
Conrail was formed on April 1, 1976.
the railroads that were "consolidated" into Conrail were:


Penn Central
Lehigh Valley
Erie Lackawanna
CNJ
Reading
Lehigh & Hudson River.

April 1, 1976 is the date those 6 roads ceased to exist, and the day Conrail took them all over as one system.

those are the 6 main railroads that formed Conrail.
in addition there was:
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (also on 4-1-76)
and the Monongahela on May 1, 1993.

all of those railroads were also the result of multiple mergers or takeovers.
EL was formed by the merger of the Erie and DL&W in 1960.
Penn Central was formed by the merger of PRR and NYC (plus NH and others) in 1968.
etc..
and if you go back far enough, PRR and NYC and LV and Erie and all of them are *also* the result of hundreds of smaller railroads being joined together!
by the time you get to modern NS, CSX, BNSF, etc, you are talking about many hundreds, probably thousands, of railroads making up the heritage..


here is a good page giving railroad "family trees"..
this gives even more detail.

http://www.spikesys.com/Trains/fmly_tre.html

Scot

"Railroad Geneology" and the "How and Why&quo

 #181513  by 2nd trick op
 
Conrail itself was a one-time measure in response to the rash of railroad bankruptcies of the early 1970's. It allowed the companies affected to eliminate redundant plant, and set the stage for some very-meaningful work-rules reform. The sale of the Northeast Corridor also allowed for a substantial infusion of cash, which allowed modernization of the plant. In comparison with its predecessor Penn Central, Conrail turned out to be a rip-roaring success story.

But the issue goes much deeper than that; the Interstate Commerce Commision had been allowing consolidiation of compatible, and even paralell railroads, since the late 1940's. The best source I can name for identifying the recent predecessors of the remaining major roads would be Moody's Transportation Manual, particularly if a library nearby has an older copy from say, the 1960's. Even the 30-50 major roads of that era often had dozens of progenitors.

Finally, it might be noted that during the early 1970's, economic regulation of the entire transportation industry fell out of favor with the American public, and legislation was passed enabling easier entry and exit from the market for all carriers. This change also caused a huge shakeup of the air and highway carriers, with many well-established carriers disappearing or merging, and new carriers taking their place.

 #182376  by Tom_E_Reynolds
 
Here is what I found so far:

The big names we all know;

1976 - Penn Central
1976 – CNJ
1976 – EL
1976 – Reading
1976 – L&HR
1976 – Lehigh Valley
1976 - Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines

But I have realized that many many smaller lines were also absorbed. Its those lines I want information on.

Here is another list. is it complete?

It came from this web site http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Conrail

Baltimore and Eastern Railroad (1976)
Buffalo Creek Railroad (1976)
Central Indiana Railway (1976)
Chicago River and Indiana Railroad (1976)
Cleveland Union Terminals Company
Indianapolis Union Railway (1976)
Ironton Railroad (1976)
Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railway (1976)
New York and Long Branch Railroad (1976)
Niagara Junction Railway (1976)
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (1976)
Peoria and Eastern Railway
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (1976)
Raritan River Railroad (1981)
Detroit Terminal Railroad (1984)
Monongahela Railway (1993)


Are these dates correct? I know for a fact that the RRRR was merged in 1980, not 81 as listed.

 #182493  by USRailFan
 
scottychaos wrote: Penn Central
Lehigh Valley
Erie Lackawanna
CNJ
Reading
Lehigh & Hudson River.
If I've understood things correctly, Erie Lackawanna was originally NOT planned to be a part of Conrail, but keep on as an independent railroad, whereas another railroad was supposed to be merged into Conrail, but never was, however I've forgotten which one (DT&I, possibly?)

 #185297  by conrail_engineer
 
Correct. The EL was intended to be Conrail's primary market competition...at the time the 3R act was passed, crafting Con-Rail, the EL was referred to to answer concerns of a "railroad monopoly" in the East. But in April 1976, a major washout took out the Erie's main line, and the company was running too close to the brink to make repairs. It was in bankruptcy.

By the time the bankruptcy proceedings made it into court, summer 1976, Con-Rail had already been created and operational. It was around August that either the Bankruptcy Court or Federal authorities ordered the assets of the EL into the Con-Rail company.

Con-Rail's management did not want it. It didn't want the trackage and abandoned as much of it as it could, right away. It didn't want the people and put them on a separate seniority roster, with NONE of their years credited. As far as Conrail was concerned, all EL men were new-hires from 1976; and this stood until the CSX/NS split, where they finally got the pre-CR seniority.

I don't know of any other railroad which was to be included but was not. All the bankrupt Northeastern railroad properties without a viable plan were forced into the Con-Rail program

 #185376  by LCJ
 
http://erielackhs.org/EL/ELHOME.html wrote:Hurricane Agnes hit the East on June 22, 1972. After estimating that damage to the railroad, principally between Binghamton and Salamanca, N. Y., amounted to $9.2 million, EL filed for bankruptcy on June 26, 1972. During the reorganization of the eastern railroads, it was thought that EL might be able to reorganize on its own, and there was a proposal by Chessie System to buy a portion of the EL. However, Chessie canceled the agreement and EL asked to be included in Conrail.

 #185568  by Tom_E_Reynolds
 
Why wasn't the Rahway Valley Railroad merged into Conrail?

 #187034  by Matt Langworthy
 
conrail_engineer wrote:Correct. The EL was intended to be Conrail's primary market competition...at the time the 3R act was passed, crafting Con-Rail, the EL was referred to to answer concerns of a "railroad monopoly" in the East. But in April 1976, a major washout took out the Erie's main line, and the company was running too close to the brink to make repairs. It was in bankruptcy.
Actually, the washout and bankruptcy were associated with Hurricane Agnes in June, 1972.
conrail_engineer wrote:By the time the bankruptcy proceedings made it into court, summer 1976, Con-Rail had already been created and operational. It was around August that either the Bankruptcy Court or Federal authorities ordered the assets of the EL into the Con-Rail company.
According to several sources, including Erie Lackawanna: Death Of An American Railroad 1938-1992, EL desperately searched for pruchse by or merger with another RR, including both Chessie and ATSF. The former balked due to a labor dispute and the latter had other priorities, mainly in the West. EL's President Gregory Maxwell reluctantly asked for inclusion into CR. This required an amendment to 3R in 1975, and the passage of the 4R Act in early 1976.

From every book I've read, as well as my own recollection, CR began operating its selected portions of EL on April 1st, 1976. Poor track conditions led to a derailment on the River Line a few days later, and this bypass was ripped up. CR also downgraded other portions of EL or ripped them up, as explained at: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 082df1f691
conrail_engineer wrote:Con-Rail's management did not want it. It didn't want the trackage and abandoned as much of it as it could, right away. It didn't want the people and put them on a separate seniority roster, with NONE of their years credited. As far as Conrail was concerned, all EL men were new-hires from 1976; and this stood until the CSX/NS split, where they finally got the pre-CR seniority.

I don't know of any other railroad which was to be included but was not. All the bankrupt Northeastern railroad properties without a viable plan were forced into the Con-Rail program
The Boston & maine was bankrupt but it was not included in either 3R or 4R.

Sorry to have to correct your post, C_E -your heart is in the right place...

 #187167  by RS115
 
Tom_E_Reynolds wrote:Why wasn't the Rahway Valley Railroad merged into Conrail?
The RVRR was, at the time of Conrail's creation, a viable, normally profitable independant short line similar to others in the region. There was no reason to include it in Conrail. Most of the shortline's and small railroads that went into CR did so because they were subsidiaries of the big lines that were being included. With the creation of CR there was no longer any reason to justify retaining the seperate corporations which were often retained for tax and insurance purposes with the railroads being operationally just another piece of thier parent. There were exceptions, such as the Raritan River but it was a common scenario.

For example, one of the lists above shows the New York & Long Branch which was jointly owned by the CNJ and PRR/PC. It was included into CR as both it's parents were being absorbed.

etc

 #187286  by Noel Weaver
 
Conrail did not abandon the Erie Lackawanna in 1976, the United States
Railroad Administration made the decision that much of the Erie
Lackawanna was not needed and would not be needed and there was too
little business to support the Erie Lackawanna.
That is why much of it was torn up, not by Conrail but by the Erie
Lackawanna estate or whatever outfit that they contracted to do the job.
As for the Erie Lackawanna people, they were generally quite well taken
care of at least in the east, the trainmen did it differently than the
engineers but all of them acquired their rights all over the place. Some of
the prior right and prior, prior right roster territory people elected to build
a fence around themselves and they were generally the ones who could
not exercise their seniority off their own railroad. The two groups who
suffered the most as a result of this were the trainmen/conductors from
the former New Haven and the engineers from all of the former railroads
out of Buffalo. These two groups did things differently than the others
did so a lot of people got hurt when they did not need to get hurt.
Just about all of the EL people had jobs, but because their railroad was
either cut way back or shut down completely, many of them had to go out
of town to continue to work.
This whole employee topic is a long and rather complicated story and would be boring to a good many on here.
Noel Weaver

 #187901  by conrail_engineer
 
Sorry, folks. I was repeating from old memories, and from tales of the old heads, now mostly retired. My bad in not fact-checking...I stand corrected.

EL

 #195720  by CR4014
 
The EL originally planned to remain independent of Conrail, along with the Boston & Maine, which was to be an original CR component. However, as EL's bankruptcy wore on, the Trustees decided it would be best to join Conrail or (judging by the proposal to cede the Hoboken/Secaucus/Jersey City-Sterling, OH segment to the Chessie System) just give up on railroading.

But, as much as all of us EL fans hate Conrail for tearing up the tracks, the real problem with the process lied with Judge Krupansky's appointment of Thomas Patton and Ralph Tyler as trustees for the EL. Grant's book mentioned that Gregory Maxwell lobbied to be named trustee, and there is no reason (in this case) why that would not have been an advisable solution. Maxwell was very committed to operating the railroad, and financially, an operating EL in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s was a much better bet to retire its debt and create new value for its owners than a shell company with some cash being invested.

I would much rather see companies either liquidate themselves if they can no longer create value for their owners, or pull themselves up by their bootstraps to succeed. Bankruptcy is antithetical to true capitalism, and the EL is a great case why it should be avoided.

CR4014 (yeah, that is X EL 825!)

ConRail

 #209011  by D&HRailnut
 
ConRail Corp was made up of these roads:

All these railroads and properties of such were conveyed to ConRail Corp on April 1, 1976.

Ann Arbor Railroad Company
The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey
Chicago River and Indiana Railroad Company
Dayton Union Railway Company
Erie Lackawanna Railway Company
Indianapolis Union Railway Company
Ironton Railroad Company
Lehigh and Hudson River Railway Company
Lehigh and New England Railway Company
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company
The New York and Long Branch Railroad Company
Penn Central Transportation Company (except employees of Canada Southern)
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines
Peoria and Eastern Railway Company
Raritan River Railroad Company
Reading Company
Union Depot Company
Columbus, Ohio

This comes from an official memo.

Re: ConRail

 #209257  by Noel Weaver
 
D&HRailnut wrote:ConRail Corp was made up of these roads:

All these railroads and properties of such were conveyed to ConRail Corp on April 1, 1976.

Ann Arbor Railroad Company
The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey
Chicago River and Indiana Railroad Company
Dayton Union Railway Company
Erie Lackawanna Railway Company
Indianapolis Union Railway Company
Ironton Railroad Company
Lehigh and Hudson River Railway Company
Lehigh and New England Railway Company
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company
The New York and Long Branch Railroad Company
Penn Central Transportation Company (except employees of Canada Southern)
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines
Peoria and Eastern Railway Company
Raritan River Railroad Company
Reading Company
Union Depot Company
Columbus, Ohio

This comes from an official memo.
Not ALL of the above railroads were conveyed to Conrail. Only the
portions of the properties that it was intended for Conrail to operate were
conveyed. Ownership of properties, facilities and lines which Conrail was
not to operate remained with the estate of the pre-existing railroad such
as Lehigh Valley, Erie Lackawanna etc. There were a few examples where
the states bought various properties or lines to keep them in service or at
least intact and not torn up. The lines that were not turned over to
Conrail or sold to the states or others were abandoned and torn up by the
estate of the railroad that owned them at the time of conveyance.
This was incorporated in the "Final System Plan" of the USRA and this was
also listed in bulletin orders and general orders that were issued on day
one of Conrail.
There were a few examples where Conrail agreed to run local freight service over lines that were not conveyed to Conrail on day one but ended up being sold to various states. Lines in this catagory include Mt. Kisco - Brewster (Harlem Line) and Bradley Beach - Bay Head (North Jersey Coast Line). In addition, some LDL (light density lines) that were not sold to Conrail were operated by Conrail for a limited period with the operation supported by funds from the state involved, lines in this
catagory would include the Catskill Mountain Branch between Kingston and
Bloomville, NY but this line was abandoned the same year of the Conrail
takeover but after the takeover date, ownership of this line remained with
the estate of Penn Central and it was eventually sold by that estate.
Another example of this would be the Cape Cod Line to Hyannis as the
portion between Sandwich and Hyannis which was not included in the lines
to be conveyed to Conrail but was operated by Conrail until all of the
Cape Lines that had been owned by Penn Central/Conrail were sold to the
state of Massachusetts and eventually the Bay Colony became the freight
operator. (The portion between Sandwich and Hyannis although operated
by Conrail for a period was never sold to Conrail.
There were a number of other lines that were never owned by Conrail but
were operated by Conrail for a period until they were eventaully sold to
another railroad or more likely a state for either operation or for rail bank.
Noel Weaver
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