Ed - I hardly think my saying the issuance of calendars ended as "victims of
the Menk/Quinn era" is a "slam" - merely a statement of
fact just as use of steam for revenue frt hauling was victim of the Murphy era
and a number of branch lines were victims of the Budd
era. Stating that something ending during a CEO's era is a victim of that
administration is hardly a "slam". If I had said the cal's were
discontinued in a mindless vendetta by a heartless Pres, yes - that would be a
"slam". Lots of things 'fall victim' to mgt - good, bad or
indifferent. They also "fall victim" to competitors, business trends, strikes,
death, etc etc. Stating so is not a slam but a fact. (our local
weatherman tonight said an event dependant on snow [we have none] was
cancelled, "a victim of the weather"). I let the reader decide
if the discontuance of cal's was a good or bad idea - in any case it was a
victim of a mgt decision.
By the way, to clarify matters in general as to Menk's administration, I used
the term Menk/Quinn as Menk was Pres. of the Q for
exactly one yr. That one yr is memorable to Q fans though (and makes his
presidency seem longer than it was) because 4960 &
5632 were victims of Menk's tenure. Murphy re'td. Sept 30, 1965 - Menk held
office from Oct. 1 to Sept 30, 1966; Quinn took over Oct
1, 1966.
Cal's for any business are usually ordered by late summer/early fall to give
time for proofing, printing and distributing on a timely
basis. Thus its reasonably safe to say "66 cal's, the last ones issued, were
authorized by Murphy prior to his retirement. Conversely,
I assume Menk ended the practice although conceivably Quinn did when he took
over. Also, in "66 a new ad agency was hired by the
Q, whether at Menk's or Quinn's behest I do not know but suspect it was Menk's.
Also whether the ad agency recommended the
cal's discontinuance is unknown to me but its fair to say such decisions would
ultimately cross the Pres' desk. But lets look at your
other comments. (one major change with the new ad agency was more print
advertising including the "Burlington Wheel" ads. These
appeared in business mags but also TRAINS magazine which then & now is geared
to fans - NOT shippers!!!)
The "66 cal featured a Q frt train with new frt cars of all kinds - companies
issue cal's for their customers - not their fans. The idea is
the more often would-be shippers 'see' your name, the more likely they are to
ship with you, all things being equal. Cal's ended up in
railfans hands, then & now, but the focus was to give to shippers - current &
prospective. I have spoken with re'td Q sales people and
cals and other 'handouts', then & now, are a common end-of-yr rite. (for RR's,
truckers, steel makers and cereal companies - cal's are
a common sales tool; popular because they 'speak' to the prospect day, after
day for an entire yr). My father in this time period was
VP-Materials for a division of a Fortune 500 Co in Dubuque - he had a lot of
raw mat'ls shipped in by rail - he regularly was called on
by reps of the Milw, IC, CGW (C&NW after "68) and Q/BN not to mention a lot of
truckers - nearly all offered cal's thruout his career
[he re'td in "84 with 35 yrs - thanks for saving them for me Dad!]
However you say I should "put on my strategic planning hat" so lets also look
@ the figures from the "66 AR which may or may not
have influenced the decision by Menk or Quinn to end calendar issuance. Quote:
"Burlington freight revenue and volume set all-time
records in 1966." Also, "In the face of a national decline in rail passenger
traffic, Burlington passenger revenues INCREASED
(emphasis mine) to $20,902,906, indicative of continued agressive promotion,
advertising and sales effort". As for trends, pass. rev. in
"66 was the 5th highest since 1948 & more than any of the 3 previous years.
(and remember cal's were & are aimed for traffic mgrs of
shippers, not Mr. & Mrs. Zephyr traveler; I mention the passenger figures just
because you brought them up, not me).
As for possible merger - the "66 & "67 AR's speak to the possible merger
w/GN&NP as well as competing mergers. (interestingly
GN & NP kept issuing cals right up to BN time and Menk continued the practice
by BN!!!! Only the Q went without for 4 yrs - why??).
How about other trends? Piggyback traffic was up 38% - certainly a good
omen. Division of rates in court had been settled in the
Q's (and other RR's that were car-rich) favor in "65. Grain traffic was up
(the Q had been allowed by ICC to adjust rates) and the
economy looked good. NOTE: Murphy & for that matter Budd, usually had their
little message in the AR's giving their view for the
past yr & future trends/plans. Quinn did as well (and his in the "66 AR is
upbeat) but Menk, in the only AR he was Pres for during
time of issue ("65) made no comments. ;.
So, assuming we agree that cal's were/are primarily for shippers (as were
the golf balls with BR logo, the knit covers for 'woods", the
plastic mousetraps, etc etc etc), was the Q retrenching in "66 & thus 'cutting'
expenses? Well they purchased 350 acres of land in
"66 land for prospective industrial plant location. Quoting from the "66 AR
"(capital expenditures) reached an all-time high with a record
expenditure of $61M..." They also built 2 major frt house at a time of
declining LCL & express traffic - were they looking at trends and
cost containment, 5 & 10 yrs down the road (as you put it Ed)? If so money
spent on frt houses in hind sight, was not the best idea.
(for the record mail income did not take a big hit til "67 when the RPO's
cancelled). I'd say the Q was cautiously optimistic in late "66
& early "67 (dividends stayed @ $7.50 a share & remember they did not have to
satisfy individual stockholders or big institutional
holders - only GN & NP brass!). So what would a couple grand for cal's add to
revenue of nearly $290M in "66 (highest ever) and
advertising expenditures of $3/4M? Cals were dropped but if for cost-cutting
reasons, the stats are not there. A different ad focus?
Possibly, maybe even probably but why given NP/GN and nearly every other major
business, rail or otherwise still issuing calendars?
As for comparing what Menk did with BN vis-a-vis PC was NOT the issue I made;
my remark was on cals being discontinued 4 yrs
before. However since you brought it up, consider: PC was a desperate merger
of 2 losing RR's who were life long competitors forced
to take on an even bigger loser (New Haven) as a condition of merger - BN was
the partnership of 3 major & 1 minor RR's int he black
with the Q & SP&S being close "friends" with GN & NP and only the latter being
competitors but never, since Jim Hill's day, bitter
ones as were NYC/PRR. Finally, some financial & business analysts have said
that Menk's success with BN was not so much his
management but the fact that he took over a bunch of winners, at least as RR's
go at the time, with a weak sister competitor to the
coast ((Milw) and weak competitors to the Q (Milw, Rock, C&NW, etc) in granger
country not to mention NP's vast holdings of timber,
silver mines, etc. Compared to PC, Milw & Rock, how could Burlington Northern
NOT look good??? Would Menk have succeeded @
PC? Would Saunders have done OK with BN???
But to make you feel better about Menk, we will assume it was Quinn who
suddenly discontinued cals when he took over the Q late
in "66 inasmuch as Menk had BN print cals during his entire time there! (does
anyone know what Milw did with cals during Quinn's
presidency?). And very lastly to my original response as to dates of Q
calendars - what is the earliest date of a pocket calendar
anyone can document - thanks! Gerald
And yes, model offerings are great - especially for a 34 year fallen flag -
that's over a 1/3 of a century!!! But then Burlington is still the
FIRST name of one of the 4 remaining mega-RR's - who would ever have guessed
(or bet that "Chicago" would not be part of a
surviving mega RR's name?). Having "Burlington" survive is/was very unlikely
until you remember that it indeed was a very great RR,
even without calendars for its last 3+ yrs of existence..... :-)
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