PC: PC Historical Research

[Robert Holzweiss <robert.holzweiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kelly Countryman wrote:

How does this group feel about Bob Pennisi's Vol. 6 "The Penn Central".

Also I've got two U.S. government books printed in 1972 for the
'SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION" and "COMMITTEE ON
BANKING AND CURRENCY" that have a lot of financial information in
them. Does anyone know of other items like these that the government
printed? Without a doubt there must be a ton of reports like this done on
the Penn Central."


Kelly
     I am currently (slowly) writing a doctoral dissertation in history on the
Political Economy of Penn Central and have put together a 17 page
bibliography on the Penn Central.  Aside from the books that directly
focus on the Penn Central (Salsbury, Daughen & Binzen, and Sobel)
there are probably 60-70 books that relate to the PC indirectly.  As you
mentioned, the government spent a great deal of time investigating the PC
and the Northeast Railroads in general.  Much ink was spilled and hand
wringing took place at both the PC and the ICC / USRA.
     Aside from the reports you mentioned, some others that might interest
PC fans are:
     RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST - (ICC)
     NORTHEAST RAILROAD PROBLEM - (USDOT)
     NORTHEAST RAIL PROBLEMS BACKGROUND INFORMATION - (U.S.
          House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce)
     NORTHEAST RAIL TRANSPORTATION VOL. 1 & VOL. 2 - (U.S.
          House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce)
     FAILING RAILROADS VOL. 1-3 - (U.S. Senate Hearings)
     NORTHEAST AND MIDWEST RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION CRISIS
       VOL. 1-3 - (U.S. Senate Hearings)
     RAILROADS 1975 VOL. 1-5 - (U.S. Senate Hearings)
     REVIEW OF PENN CENTRAL'S CONDITION 1971 - (U.S. Senate
          Hearings)

This is just to name a few.  Despite the enormous amount of work that
went into these reports, the best information I found was the primary
documentation (the core of any dissertation) at archival repositories. 
Especially important were the Pennsylvania State Archives and the Ford
Presidential Library.  If you would like any more information, I would be
happy to provide it. 

P.S. When reading the three books cited above (Daughen etc,...) I found
that each defends a different major player in the Penn Central drama. 
Salsbury defends David Bevan, Daughen and Binzen defend Stuart
Saunders, and Sobel defends Alfred Perlman.  Readers may, however
disagree. 

Bob Holzweiss
"Robert.Holzweiss -AT- bush.nara.gov"