The Wreck of the Penn Central
Author | : Joseph R. Daughen |
Publisher | : Beard Books |
Total Pages | : 384 |
Release | : 1999 |
ISBN-10 | : 1893122085 |
ISBN-13 | : 9781893122086 |
Rating | : 4/5 (85 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: It took ten years of laborious planning and exhaustive negotiations to create the mammoth Penn Central Railroad, the largest railroad in United States history. When the leviathan was finally born of a merger between the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads on February 1, 1968, the event was hailed as a great day for railroading. But the baby giant survived only 367 days. The crash of the Penn Central set a new record, this time for the largest bankruptcy the United States had ever seen. "The Wreck of the Penn Central" provides a close-up view of the events that brought the Big Train to bankruptcy court--over-regulation, subsidized competition, big labor featherbedding, greed, corporate back-stabbing, stunning incompetence, and, yes, even a little sex.