(erielack) On Shoemaker, White and preservation

[MDelvec952_@_aol.com]

In a message dated 10/2/04 11:52:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
curtis.brookshire_@_verizon.net writes:

> Not really sure if Mr. Shoemaker helped to "found" the New York Society of
>  Model Engineers.  They originated in Manhattan in 1926, and didn't move to
>  Hoboken until the late 1940s.  He may have had a key role in helping the
>  club relocate in Hoboken.  Of course, 1926 is well within his lifespan.

The last line of my note mentioned White's involvement in NYSME, not 
Shoemaker's, and I wasn't aware that group began in 1926.  I had seen some notes in 
the NYSME collection and other written accounts about White's involvement in 
bringing the club to Hoboken Terminal and there wasn't much mention of the club 
before that time (common when a high-profile member takes charge).  I had it in 
my mind that the name and group were formalized in Hoboken and I shouldn't 
have written that last line.  White started on the Erie in 1913 and left in 1938 
to become the VP on the Virginian.  He became president of the DL&W in 
January 1941, and he's one of the DL&W presidents I admire most as he was about my 
age at that time, 43 (I'm 44).


  
>  On another note, this on Mr White and Mr Shoemaker being railfans.  I've
>  always heard Mr White described as "no nonsense", "hardnosed" and "a
>  practical businessman".  

And your point?  They were businessmen, and they were railfans in the context 
of their position and times.  Both were skilled enough as managers they could 
have been making much more money in other industries than the shrinking one 
in which they preferred.

Consider the times.  White was interested in every aspect of railroading, 
from track to tariffs and taxes to management and politics.  It was his passion. 
When he got to the top jobs of his career he traveled in his business cars, 
was socially active in the industry (befriending so many other railroad execs.) 
and did what he could to keep his railroad looking better than those around 
him.  He had his pride.  In his first year he reacquainted the world with Phoebe 
Snow by putting her name on boxcars, helping to end an era of bland boxcars 
that followed the ban on billboard reefers. He carefully planned a practical 
and colorful dieselization, and decided to purchase new passenger equipment to 
create the flashiest train in the East, and one that could stand up to any 
operating by his counterparts on other roads. (The Erie, more wisely as it turned 
out, chose to update older equipment rather than spend on new.).  Yes, White 
had to make a lot of cuts, but at the end of WWII all railroading was tired and 
worn out, and traffic and revenues severely dropped.


> Taber's book mentioned that White took no action to
> preserve any late Lackawanna steam, the 4-4-0 in the National Museum of
> Transport and the 2-6-0 that ended up on the Black River and Western being
> the only engines not scrapped.  Was there any effort on the DL&W to preserve
> any of the modern locomotives, and if so what happened?

Taber also mentioned elsewhere that the railroad did offer locomotives to 
communities along its lines.  No one accepted except Scranton, which required 
that the railroad move a 4-8-4 up to Nay Aug Park.  

In those times organized railfans were rare, and the ability to deal with 
preserving equipment was unheard of.  Too, we today on average are so much more 
prosperous than our counterparts in the '30s, '40s and '50s.  White's 
predecessor Davis set aside the 952 for the World's Fair, and the railfans helped 
restore it.  In 1939 the R&LHS asked for it, against Taber's wishes, and the DL&W 
quickly gave it to them. The R&LHS had no home or resources to take care of a 
locomotive, so the railroad was straddled with it for years. The R&LHS finally 
found a home for it, on a siding in Bath, N.Y., where it languished.  (Taber 
had already carefully arranged with operating managers for the railroad to keep 
and take care of the engine; the R&LHS requested ownership behind Taber's 
back.  The issue escalated to the point where Taber and his supporters left the 
R&LHS and formed the Railroadians of America.)

Shoemaker joined the DL&W about the same time as White and rose to VP 
Transportation during the meat of dieselization, becoming president in 1952.  In our 
talks about the subject, he confirmed that there was an effort to set aside 
some modern steam, but that the railroad didn't have the space or the place, and 
that some of the responses were laughable. Back then railroads did everything 
and took care of anything railroad related, including crossings and bridges. 
The receptive towns expected that the railroad would take care of placing 
engines wherever, and some felt the railroad was forcing the towns to take these 
things.

Back then, too, the shareholders relied on rail stocks for dividends and 
income. Revenues were dropping, expenses and taxes were rising and somehow the 
railroad had to continue to find ways justify a dividend so that many 
stockholders wouldn't sell off thus dropping the price the stock. Expenses were watched 
closely and the prevailing feeling of the Board was that they couldn't spend 
big money on something so frivolous and saving a locomotive that makes money 
when sold as scrap.  I've read letters, some in the Tri-State collection, that 
Perry wrote to stockholders explaining the precarious finances of the '50s, 
including one lengthy one to one of DL&W's larger individual stockholders.  The 
feelings in such letters was pretty poignant to me, knowing the man and what the 
industry and the company was going through, and seeing that the stockholder 
didn't know any of it, that she relied on that dividend and could get it with 
utility stocks.  Perry mentioned that he wrote many of those, and did it 
personally as he felt the stockholders deserved his attention.

About the preserved engines: Perry summered near Bath, N.Y., after WWII and 
one day stumbled onto the 952 rotting in the weeds off the side of a side road. 
He watched it for years.  When the town of Owego asked the railroad to 
participate in its centennial it was Shoemaker's idea to dress up that engine for 
the event.  He worked out the details with the R&LHS and had it fixed up in 
Scranton and Keyser Valley, backdating it to look like a much older mother 
hubbard. I'd have to look up the date of this, but ca. 1949 or '50 seems right and 
there may have been one other display (will again have to check my long 
packed-away notes). After the event the display returned to Scranton, and once again 
the R&LHS had no place to put it and no desire to work on it. In one of his 
letters to me Perry said he "couldn't bear to send it back to Bath," so he kept 
it out of sight.  

During the planning for the DL&W centennial in 1951 he suggested using it 
again in Scranton, which was done.  Once again, the event passed. Perry got the 
top job, and the 952 in 1952 had no home and no one to care for it. Perry began 
soliciting the few museums that existed. The only takers were St. Louis NMOT 
and the B&O Museum.  Perry wanted promises that the locomotive would be kept 
under cover, in operating condition and with provisions to return it to its 
home area (the exact working of those terms is not at my fingertips) on occasion. 
The B&O Museum would not guarantee those terms, St Louis did, and Perry 
worked out a "permanent loan," and arranged and paid for the move over the NKP that 
included the original parts removed in the backdating process.  In one of his 
letters to me, Perry said "I was more concerned for finding a home for 952 
than being legally correct," that referring to the arrangement between R&LHS and 
NMOT.

Shoemaker worked over and above the call to preserve that engine, and he was 
very active since the late 1980s in trying to get St. Louis to do right by its 
agreement.  Right now the locomotive is cosmetically restored and I think 
kept indoors.  So if it weren't for the efforts of Perry up until the moment he 
died, and others, that engine would have rotted again in St. Louis, very likely 
tumbling off of that hillside during one of many heavy summertime rains.

The 565 only survives because it had been sold to a short line then several 
collectors over the years. It's still embroiled in various battles and will 
likely never run again.  Surely the Lackawanna deserved better.

Shoemaker and White certainly were railfans, perhaps not by the terms in 
which we accept today. Shoemaker, after the EL went to the CNJ and his DL&W 
business car went with him. What railroad president other than White collected 
observation car tail signs?  Not even Barriger, perhaps the most unbashed railfan 
of all railroad presidents.

White's life was cut short while returning the EL to fiscal success, but I've 
wondered what he might have done with his retirement, or what he'd have done 
come Conrail.  Knowing a little about him, I'd like to think his independent 
spirit and cash-positive EL would have avoided Conrail and joined the D&H as a 
partner with D&H's trackage rights.  Imagine the EL/DH competing Montreal to 
Philly, New York to Chicago.

Shoemaker after retirement formed a firm that was exploring a modern steam 
locomotive, with a concept more practical and less flamboyant than ACE 3000.

Since so many sent me notes off list asking about Shoemaker's life, here are 
a couple of tid bits.  As VPO he lived in Mountain Lakes overlooking the 
railroad. His road foremen used to kid him that he only lives there so that he 
could watch for smoke. (Black smoke from the steam engines was a no no.)  Perry 
didn't say that wasn't true as he loved the sight of steam in stride.  After 
becoming president, he bought a house in Summit that's still there today.  It's 
the big white house with the tennis court on the north side of the tracks west 
of the station.  The tracks are on a compensated curve so the house always 
looks on an angle from the train, but it's plainly visible. From his suburban 
homes he commuted to 140 Cedar Street via regular m.u. electric trains and took 
the ferry to Barclay Street, just like everyone else. And he was well-known for 
visiting the employees at the stations.  My favorite story is from Joe 
Monahan who was working Summit Tower.  A suited gentleman walked into his tower one 
morning and just watched and looked out the window.  Joe was friendly, but in 
a short time asked the gentleman to leave, that he could get in trouble for 
having a visitor.  Perry introduced himself, and Joe still tells that story with 
pride and affection for Mr. Shoemaker.

                        ....Mike Del Vecchio

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