RE: (erielack) On Shoemaker, White and preservation

["Michael Connor" <mjconnor_rr_@_hotmail.com>]

List - I haven't had a chance to dig in my archive to check PMS's biography 
but IIRC he worked for the Erie, then the NYNH&H, then the DL&W.  In the 
20's I think he was with the Erie and the NYNH&H which makes his involvement 
in the NYSME's moves, at least as a principal, somewhat problematic.  M J 
Connor

>From: MDelvec952_@_aol.com
>Reply-To: MDelvec952_@_aol.com
>To: curtis.brookshire_@_verizon.net, erielack@lists.railfan.net
>Subject: (erielack) On Shoemaker, White and preservation
>Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 14:50:06 EDT
>
>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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