I've been working my way through this. Very interesting stuff about the growing pains that resulted from the consolidation.
I'm usually all about supporting labor, but the perspective of a shirt and tie tasked with making the railroad work and work profitably is refreshing.
I guess that since We The People were the actual shareholders through all of that, exposing some of the ridiculous labor agreements, and the abuse of those agreements by the labor, gives a valuable look at all the give and take that's required for things to actually work.
Also fascinating to see how aggressively that massive tangle of rusty, broken rails were trimmed and polished into a successful network. For every slacker brakey and archaic fireman that were sidelined, it seems like the MOW guys really came into their own.
Nice behind the scenes look at what some of us witnessed trackside in real time.
My photo borrowed from the CRHS archive.
