Re: (erielack) Special Day? What if?

[Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com]

Hi Mike,

Yes, no doubt after the Erie moved into Hoboken, it would have been next to
impossible to join up with another railroad other than the Lackawanna.  But
you raise an interesting point that the Erie didn't want to play second
fiddle in a merger, as the DL&W was forced to do.  The shame in the EL
merger, other than what it did to a great organization, was that much of
the DL&W disappeared from the map.

Chuck



                                                                           
             mdelvec952_@_aol.co                                             
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             10/18/2006 09:56          Re: (erielack) Special Day?  What   
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- -----Original Message-----
From: Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com
To: mdelvec952_@_aol.com
Cc: erielack_@_lists.elhts.org; erielack-owner@lists.elhts.org;
toddsyr_@_twcny.rr.com
Sent: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: (erielack) Special Day? What if?


Dear Mike,

Of course, that begs the question of what would have happened to the Erie
if it hadn't merged with the Lackawanna?

Chuck



Hi Chuck,
     Not sure.  Back then end-to-end mergers were not in vogue, which is
one reason I thought the NKP / DL&W was logical and forward thinking.
That's the benefit of looking back from the future.
Many mergers of that era were parallel.  I would guess that without DL&W,
the Erie would have been acting out of a more desparate position. It needed
to come up with some economies, so it would have been cutting services and
expenses where it could. Erie wanted DL&W because E-L could cut some costs
and services that were duplicative.  That would mean a parallel railroad.
It may have courted Lehigh Valley (Hudson River terminals, Buffalo
facilities, main lines cross west of Binghamton).  In the late 1950s when
Erie-Lackawanna was cooked up, the Erie wasn't going to be a minor player
to any partner, so that leaves joining the Penn or NYC out.  The CNJ had a
terminal, local freight and lots of debt, but not much else the Erie would
want.
     No question that merging the Lackwanna and the Erie was a logical
move.               ....Mike
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