Re: PC: PC fans

[rastaff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> From:          "Bastler" <rkiefer -AT- iusb.edu>
> To:            penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> Date:          Thu, 5 Mar 1998 15:54:15 +0000
> Subject:       Re: PC: PC fans
> Reply-to:      penn-central -AT- smellycat.com

>From a business stand point the Penn Central merger was a very bad 
one, and many of the business inversments and practices where very 
suspect. Read the book "Death of the Penn Central." But on the main 
lines there was a very viverant railroad trying to make a good of it. 
Anyone who stood beside the Northeast Corridor, the ex PRR Middle 
Division or the ex NYC Water Level Route could see it. The 
combination of passenger loses, two much branch and low denisity 
mainlines and management in fighting where dragging the PC down. The 
inclusion of the New Haven was the railroads death. There was no way 
any for profiable corporation could have carried the New Havens loses 
and still stayed afloot. If the New Haven was left out and the PC 
lasted to the Stagers Act, then it would have been around today. 
>From it being the biggest business failure in our nations history the 
PC does it a bad rep. It was just a railraod most people loved to 
hate. I think this has a lot to do with why there is not more people 
modeling it. The NW paints it engines black and there is a lot of NW 
and NS modelers. The PC ran through a much more populated area and it 
does not have the following. When people think of PC they think of 
failure, which is another reason it is not modeled.
Bolb Stafford

> Hey!  I resemble that remark. Being born in 1959 and graduating from 
> highschool in 1978, PC was all I practicully knew around here.  A 
> near 10 year existence is a short time for some but maybe it was the 
> foul taste in others mouths by the management fiasco of the PC that 
> has hindered the modeling of the railroad.  Besides there are plenty 
> of prototype equipment floating around of the RDG, PC, EL  to add 
> to ones CR layout.
> 
> From:          ebulman -AT- bidmc.harvard.edu
> To:            penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> Date:          Thu, 5 Mar 1998 12:20:06 -0500
> Subject:       Re: PC: PC fans
> Reply-to:      penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> 
> I think that there are many NH/NYC/PRR fans who are/were resentful of the
> merger and the changes it brought. The relative rarity of PC modelers may
> also have to do with a combination of demographics and the short amount of
> time that the PC was around. I remember reading somewhere that railroad
> modelers tend to focus on subjects existing during their childhood or
> youth. Since the PC era was from 1968-1976, this time frame would be
> relevant to a small amount of the modeling population, despite the somewhat
> larger amount of baby boomer youth around at that time.
> 
> Then again, maybe a lot of people think black locos are
> boring......................
> 
> (Not me!)
> 
> Ed
> 
> 
> 
>