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RE: (erielack) Railroad presidents then and now (and EL business trains)

Mike Del Vecchio wrote...

> ...rail execs do far more flying to events than taking their own 
> railcars.  Every big 
> railroad has business cars, few are "president's cars," and 
> only UP and KCS 
> have executive locomotives.

Well, historically, did many roads really have "dedicated" president's cars?

Also, doesn't CSX have a pair of "executive F40PHs"? What about Canadian National's E-unit, or CP's F-units?  Even BN had executive F's (until the BNSF merger)

The EL certainly didn't have executive locomotives, although at the end, E8s 825 and 833 were kept spiffy and shiny for the many executive trips run. The Erie didn't have an executive locomotive (did it?), and the DL&W only had that inspection steamer.


> But all railroad CEOs answer to Wall Street, they always 
> have.

I suppose, as they should. It *is* a business, after all. :)



Switching gears a little...

When it comes to EL's business train fleet, it seems as if the importance of a fleet of business cars diminished over time (perhaps as a cost savings?).  The former DL&W cars (97-99) were sold off in the 1960s, and EL 1 and 2 were sold off in the early 1970s, leaving only EL 3 and EL 300 (the latter a former D&H car the EL got in the 1970s)

Here's a question - why did the EL get the D&H 300, but sell off EL 1 and 2? Why not just keep one of those two, and let the D&H keep the 300? Was this a Dereco maneuver?

The issue with business trains is that they're essentially eye candy. These are expensive cars, to operated and maintain, and they're usually used to impress customers. Nowadays, a customer could care less about seeing how nice your physical plant is. With the EL in bankruptcy, I assume it was difficult to justify keeping a fleet of these business cars, hence the sale of EL 1 and 2?

	- Paul

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