Re: (erielack) Re: The EL un-merger

[Mike Spinelli <idrsspin_@_yahoo.com>]

It would have taken a very aggressive management, more
connections, and a lot of luck for it to have survived
in the rust belt.

How?

Deregulation, reduced crews, the freedom to sell or
abandon unprofitable lines, and the commuter trains
being taken over by transit authorities.

With it's high tolerances and lack of congested urban
terminals, it would have had a big head start on
double stack intermodal trains.

The unit grain train craze came about after the EL
disappeared, and those trains move to/from EL track at
places like Spencerville and Kent, Ohio. Could there
have been more elevators along the main that would
have done the same thing?

Automotive traffic has declined somewhat, but the NS
still does a great deal of business on the former EL
in Ontario, Ohio from the GM plant there.

If they could have been paired with the still highly
profitable Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, which generated a
lot of tonnage in the 70's and 80's, it would have
helped EL get over the hump, so to speak, and could be
a market for an intermodal factility (although it's
only 90 minutes from Akron Ohio). Not to mention the
CSX trains running on it.

Trackage rights (as a condition of the NS merger) into
Kansas City for a bypass around Chicago, providing a
better connection with the Santa Fe, and direct
connections with the KCS and at that time the Rio
Grande and Katy.

Local traffic hasn't completely dried up, although
class ones don't want any of it. There are two daily
locals working the Cleveland line. On the main one
works from Kent to Ravenna, another Akron to Rittman,
another West Salem-Mansfield (not counting the GM
plant). The last three are shortlines and only run
every-other-day as far as I know.

Aggressive marketing may have brought new major
customers online, like Home Depot or Lowes
distributors, just a thought.

How big was the EL involved with the chemical plants
in NJ?

I'm just throwing out some ideas, it would still be
highly unlikely the EL would have made it this long
without being bought out by one of the six majors. But
they said the same thing about the KCS... Fun to think
about, in between the three trains a week we see here.

Mike Spinelli


- --- RJFlei_@_aol.com wrote:

> List,
> 
> Speaking of the de-industrialization of the east,
> this has also happened in 
> the mid-west. If you look at EL territory in eastern
> Ohio and western Pa it's 
> quite glaring. 
> 
> Over 80, 000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in
> the Mahoning Valley alone. 
> 
> In Greeenville, Pa. there is practically no industry
> left, and I believe that 
> probably Thiel College or the Greenville Hospital
> may be the largest employer 
> now. Remember Greenville Steel Car? It was taken
> over by Trinity Industries, 
> who built a modern, state of the art carbuilding
> facility in Mexico, then shut 
> Greenville down. CB&I also closed. The B&LE is
> greatly downsized in 
> Greenville. Much of Werner Ladder is gone - to
> Mexico & China. 
> 
> Sharon, Pa. lost the Westinghouse transformer
> business that once employed 15, 
> 000 people. Wheatland Tube is closing or has closed
> a tube mill because of 
> Chinese imports. Then there was Sharon Steel -
> mostly gone. 
> 
> There is no longer ANY steel made in Youngstown.
> There is a pipe mill there, 
> but they don't make the steel. 
> 
> WCI Steel in Warren is the only steel making
> facility left in the Mahoning 
> Valley, and it's living on borrowed time. Packard
> Electric in Warren, now 
> Delphi, is shifting most all of it's work to Mexico,
> China, and India. What's left 
> in Warren will most likely be gone in a few years. 
> 
> It used to be that plants were shut down and moved
> south. Now everything 
> seems to be going offshore.
> 
> I could go on and on about the plant closings, and
> I've only scratched the 
> surface. These, plus the many I've not mentioned
> produced quite a bit of revenue 
> for the EL. If you look at the entire route of the
> EL, there is basically 
> nothing left that could produce revenue. 
> 
> The only thing you could hope for is some kind of
> piggyback or doublestack 
> business of imported goods destined cities along the
> route. All that we seem to 
> have left in this country are paper shufflers,
> pencil pushers, beancounters, 
> and vulture capitalists. We don't produce many value
> added products anymore. 
> 
> Maybe the death of the EL back in 1976 was somewhat
> of a merciful one, 
> looking back. Had they not gone into Conrail it
> surely would have been a slow, 
> agonizing death. I was bad enough as it was. 
> 
> Rick Fleischer
> Cortland, Oh. 
> 
> 
> 	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
> 	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
> 	http://www.elhts.org
> 


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