Pat, I don't think you need to invoke a conspiracy theory to understand what N&W was up to. John Fishwick was simply carrying out his mandate to protect shareholder interests. He had to affiliate with EL to further his company's expansion/merger goals, and created Dereco to keep EL's substantial liabilities off N&W's books. He could have his cake and eat it too. So EL was valuable strategically and as a connection, but not as an acquisition. Also, remember that interchange with LV at Buffalo gave N&W the long-haul on NY and NE traffic vs interchange at Huntington with EL. EL did the same thing with RDG by shifting interchange from Newberry Jct to Rupert. Contrast this with the actions of Ken Lewis in B of A's Merrill acquisition. He's been quoted as saying it was "the right thing to do for our country", but has ended up destroying most or possibly all the remaining shareholder equity in his company. Paul B > After the EL merger, LV became the NKP's friendliest connection at > Buffalo. > Runthrough service began in 1967, and despite Dereco, by 1969 N&W and LV > were exchanging 3 pairs of trains daily at Buffalo, including the Apollo > TOFC trains between NY and Chicago. At the same time, I believe service > coordination with EL at Huntington was more than just window-dressing. > Some > of the growth in interchange was traffic diverted from PC due to its > post-merger service problems. Yeah, I've often wondered about that. It kind of makes you not feel too good about the people running the N&W. One would think that a road like the N&W, who essentially controlled the EL during the Dereco years, would want to do all they could to help them succeed. If so, why give most of their traffic through Buffalo over to the LV instead of the EL? Was this part of a not-so-secret plan to help the EL fail? - - -pat moore The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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