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  • RDG mail contracts interesting article 1963

  • Discussion Related to the Reading Company 1833-1976 and it's predecessors Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway.
Discussion Related to the Reading Company 1833-1976 and it's predecessors Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway.

Moderator: Franklin Gowen

 #954088  by jrevans
 
Very interesting and thanks for sharing!

That article makes it sound like the Reading was backing out of the mail contract as an excuse to discontinue passenger service, instead of the other way around.

I'd love to hear more details about this whole situation.
 #954955  by glennk419
 
Not sure what on the length of the contract but 2.137 Million dollars was a pretty good chunk of change back in 1963. Seems the mail contracts would have been enough to keep the trains rolling alone.
 #955112  by Bethlehem Jct.
 
Just speculating here but... Maybe the Reading saw the handwriting on the wall with respect to mail eventually switching to trucks. Perhaps they figured to get out of the mail contracts, and the passenger runs associated with them, thus avoiding what they believed would become a financial black hole.
 #955232  by RDGTRANSMUSEUM
 
The Reading did what RR's will do when they get tired of something thninking "it'sjust not worth it anymore." They chase away the business. Running RDC cars with RPO/Mail compartments would have been the logical choice. In todays dollars a 2 million a year mail contract would translate to 8 million! This was not the first time business was chased away,the Reading closed coal mines or discouraged private mines from using rail and let the business go to trucks. this was in the same time frame as the mail business was tossed away. At the same time they got a 30 million dollar Govt.loan to buy new GP-30 and 35's by trading old F-units that had many years worth of miles left on them. A few years later they went to the PC and asked the interchanging be transfered from Newberry Jct to Harrisburg so the RR could in effect dry up the Catawissa Branch. All this was done to downsize the RR and cut back on costs. Sometimes you gotta wonder what they were thinking . The railfan press usually got the story wrong and you keep reading the poor RR lost this and lost that,all the while they really gave it up or wanted it that way. Oh well hind site is 20-20 as they say.
 #956022  by Bethlehem Jct.
 
RDGTRANSMUSEUM wrote:The Reading did what RR's will do when they get tired of something thninking "it'sjust not worth it anymore." They chase away the business. Running RDC cars with RPO/Mail compartments would have been the logical choice. In todays dollars a 2 million a year mail contract would translate to 8 million! This was not the first time business was chased away,the Reading closed coal mines or discouraged private mines from using rail and let the business go to trucks. this was in the same time frame as the mail business was tossed away. At the same time they got a 30 million dollar Govt.loan to buy new GP-30 and 35's by trading old F-units that had many years worth of miles left on them. A few years later they went to the PC and asked the interchanging be transfered from Newberry Jct to Harrisburg so the RR could in effect dry up the Catawissa Branch. All this was done to downsize the RR and cut back on costs. Sometimes you gotta wonder what they were thinking . The railfan press usually got the story wrong and you keep reading the poor RR lost this and lost that,all the while they really gave it up or wanted it that way. Oh well hind site is 20-20 as they say.
Chasing away the coal business was smart. It was declining, and RDG chasing away or keeping the business would not have affected the decline.
Honestly, this sounds like a railroad preparing itself to attract a suitor for merger.
 #956173  by RDGTRANSMUSEUM
 
come to think of it ,Conrail was doing the same thing as the Reading ...we took our nice fuzzy CQI classes as NS was at the door. More traffic lost to trucks/highways,think of that next time your stuck on the interstate behind some 18 wheeler.