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Re: (erielack) Lackawanna & The Nickel Plate
It's a little more complicated than what's been said so far. Originally
the merger talks between the NKP and DL&W were friendly not without some
considerable interest in the possibility on the NKP's part. Several
factors soured them on the deal including but not limited to the
commuter burden, the outrageous New Jersey taxes and unfortunately, the
DL&W's attitude. This all began under William White, Perry Shoemaker
didn't begin this under his presidency.
After the NKP soured, the DL&W tried twice unsuccessfully to have two
hand selected Board members put on the NKP Board. Both times the NKP
objected and the ICC sided with the NKP. Keep in mind too the NKP was an
overachiever as far as the dividends and stock splits go. Far above the
industry norm in the post WWII era. After the second time the ICC
rejected the DL&W's bid to seat the two Board members, things cooled
down some. Then came Diane.
The DL&W sold quite a bit of NKP stock to finance the rebuilding of the
railroad after the hurricane and later, seeing the writing on the wall
and knowing the ICC would never approve of the Erie-DL&W takeover while
holding a large block of a competing line's stock, the remainder of the
stock was sold and paid out in dividends or offered to DL&W
stockholders, I forget which it was off the top of my head.
Now there were many reasons why the merger didn't happen prior to WWII,
not the least of which are the Vans, post Smith NYC and the Pennsy, plus
the ICC in Ripley's recommendations had their own idea of what should be
merged even if they didn't have the guts to try and do it.
I'll qualify this as going from memory so some specifics may be
incorrect. It's been discussed several times over the years so you might
want to look in the archives, read the several books which touch on the
subject, the ICC commission reports and the DL&W and NKP annual reports
and meeting minutes if you really want to know the facts.
Regards,
Will Shultz
Paul R. Tupaczewski wrote:
>> Didn't the DL&W own a substantial part of the NKP stock and
>> then sold it for some emergency or capital improvement?
>>
>> Frank Adams
>
> If memory serves me, the DL&W saw the handwriting on the wall regarding a
> possible NKP merger, and sold its NKP stock to pay for the brand-new "Upper
> Hack" lift span on the Hackensack River near Secaucus, NJ (still in use to
> this day)
>
> - Paul
>
>
>
>
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