Why wasn't B&M, D&H, Milwaukee & CRIP in Conrail

lvrr325 wrote:Not sure what the quotes are about: "went bankrupt"

I'm not sure of the proper legal term for the beginning of the process, which in Erie-Lackawanna's case, ended in liquidation.

Virtually all of the railroads that went into Conrail liquidated the assets they didn't transfer to Conrail. Penn Central became an insurance company, but still owns a few pieces of rail property. They finally absorbed the Lehigh Valley about 1982. The EL lasted longer, and I believe made enough money through the process that anyone still holding bonds got paid on them. Would have to reference an old Trains Magazine article to state more accurately.

From Erie Lackawanna-Death of an American Railroad by H Roger Grant.... "In 1988,1990, and 1991 the company made three partial liquidating distributions, with court approval, which aggregated $179 per-share" Two more payments were made in 1992 which brought the total per share to $190.22.

Yes.. I think Trains quoted that in an article about the time the book came out, then mentioned that the securities they paid off on were trading for a pittance not long before. Sort of like the story of how one of the guys who formed Morning Sun Books was able to do so through a profit on Lehigh Valley stock after buying a couple thousand shares for as little as a quarter each in the 1970s. (Penn Central owned about 80-90% of the company, but never made any moves to merge it until after Conrail, when it could use the Lehigh's years of money losses as credits against their taxes).

I think we should have put the Frisco and the Pacific Electric in Conrail, too. Makes sense to me.

-otto-

The NYO&W, too.

lvrr325 wrote:The NYO&W, too.

That was long Line gone and riped out long before Conrail was ever dreamed up. I have my doubts that any of it would have surved into conrail as the NYO&W was more based on Mail and Milk runs than anything else.

I guess the sarcasm was lost in translation. The Pacific Electric was gone before Conrail, too.