Sorry, Ed
The difference between Menk and the others was that he tried to kill
Burlington's passenger service, even to the point of intellectual
dishonesty. Certainly he castrated the passenger department by
moving Wallace out of it. And, despite the mathematical acrobatics
that Carpenter and Deming went through, they still could not show
their flagship trains did not meet their direct costs.
True, the passenger train would have failed anyway. But it is not
ethical to try to kill a patient just because he is going to die
anyway.
P.S.: During the Menk years, I can personally attest to all the
passengers who were buying tickets, because I was one of them.
In 1966, I rode a 20 Car DZ east and later, westbound, my train had
23 cars. So you can't tell me that people were not riding the DZ!
Sorry, Ed, I trust my own senses too much.
sjl
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Ed DeRouin" <Ed@p...> wrote:
> Aaah, here we go again..........
>
> I wish that I had the name of every surly ticket collector, rude
> dining car attendant, and person on the right hand seat that
> could not handle air or slack, inadequate dispatcher, or
> disgruntled supervisor....., so lets blame someone.
>
> Yep, Menk took off passenger trains, so did Budd and Murphy.
> Menk took off branch lines and locals, so did Budd and Murphy.
> Under Murphy's watch, the Nebraska and KC Z's. became twenty
> car trains that were hard to handle and required multiple station
> stops. "Excuse me lady, but your car to Brookfield is twelve cars
> ahead and you will have to board in the mud." Like the Twin City
> Zephyrs? Where did the Afternoon Z's wind up under Murphy?
> The answer is buried in the Empire Builder, which now made
> more local stops. When the mainline locals came off, guess
> how many more stops the DZ was required to make. It is hard to
> make Denver OT when you stop to set Gramma of at Mendota.
> To those of you with strong feelings about the CZ, where were
> you when the head end cars of the former Coloradoan were
> added to the CZ at Lincoln for the trip to Denver? That move
> occurred under Murphy's direction.
>
> OK, Menk took off trains. What you may not like is his style. The
> sad fact is that passengers (the reason the trains were
> established in the first place) were not buying tickets to ride the
> trains. Businerss people were flying and vacationers driving in
> larger and larger numbers.
>
> Do I miss the trains, locals, or branches,? Oh, yes, but I also
> understand why the business changed - to survive. We can
> argue about the rights or wrongs, but while we do that someone
> is on-line buying a ticket that will take them from Chicago to
> Denver in half the time of the best Zephyr, including the two hour
> dwell at O' Hare, and an independent trucker is doing his best to
> keep his business.
>
> Just my $0.02.
>
> BTW, look for a book on the Zephyr fleet by Zimmerman from MBI
> later trhis year.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ed DeRouin
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > that! The temptation's mighty hard to withstand!
> >
> > So, enough about dog metaphors...
> >
> > Lou Menk didn't get his "Fink" nickname for nothing! The man
> HATED
> > passenger trains. He loathed them so much that he was
> willing to do
> > ANYTHING within his power to destroy them! Profoundly
> enough, he
> > was given a seat on the original Amtrak Board of Directors
> (until
> > 1974...or [to look at it another way] until it became obvious
that
> Amtrak
> > was NOT going to live down to his original timetable, which
> called for it
> > to be dead and gone within three years).
> >
> > Look back at his Presidential tenures with various roads and
> compare
> > those dates to the period in which their passenger services
> were
> > decimated. It ain't coincidental!
> >
> > His primary claim to fame was being one of the original Kings
> of
> > Merger-mania. He was given a great deal of credit for the
> success of
> > the Burlington Northern marriage. What he actually did to aid
> the
> > combination of four historically associated lines and their
> existing
> > subsidiaries is subject to debate. The addition one decade
> later of the
> > Frisco wasn't surprising either, considering his background.
> >
> > Speaking of his background:
> >
> > He followed in his father's footsteps and began working for our
> industry
> > as a teenager, shortly out of High School. His first job was
with
> the UP
> > as a Messenger Boy. To his credit, he learned telegraphy in
> his spare
> > time while under their employ, eventually becoming qualified
> as an
> > Operator before leaving Uncle Pete for the Frisco (not too long
> before
> > the
> > beginning of World War II).
> >
> > He worked for the SL-SF a quarter of a century, eventually
> being named
> > President and Chairman in 1962. Yes, that's right...he honestly
> worked
> > his way up from the bottom - and, to give the Devil his due, a
> man just
> > doesn't go from Telegrapher to President in one score years
> with nothin'
> > on the ball! [N.B. His story was a real rags-to-riches tale -
so
> much
> > so
> > that one of the honours he received later in life was the famed
> > Horatio Alger award.]
> >
> > At the time he was named President of the Frisco, he was the
> youngest
> > ever to hold such a position (although that distinction was
> short-lived,
> > since Ben Heineman took over the C&NW shortly thereafter).
> >
> > He definitely helped to recreate the role of Railroad President
> for the
> > 1960s through 1980s era: that of a bean counter, who was
> always in
> > search of the elusive Holy Grail - in the railroad's case, a
> panacea for
> > all that ails 'em. It might be called the "If Only We Could Get
> Rid Of
> > It"
> > Blues. If only we weren't saddled with those bad ol' passenger
> trains
> > anymore. If only we didn't have so many branch lines. If only
> we could
> > eliminate the Fireman's position. If only, if only, if only...
> >
> > It can be argued, perhaps even successfully, that such an
> approach was
> > required in the generation prior to deregulation. The main
> problem today
> > is that his type of leader has now become a discredited model,
> yet we
> > haven't really seen a new presidential archetype come forth.
> Every time
> > I hear a road publicly state (for example) that they wish to trim
> their
> > route mileage by a certain fixed percentage every year in order
> to
> > reduce costs (thereby increasing profits), then turn right around
> and
> > complain of insufficient capacity, I consider his legacy.
> >
> > He penned a semi-autobiographical tome called "A Railroad
> Man Looks
> > at America" after his retirement. I'm afraid I've never seen a
> single
> > copy,
> > but the book ostensibly reviews his beliefs concerning railroad
> > operations
> > and the free enterprise system (among other things).
> >
> > At any rate, I digress. During the mid-60s, he was asked by the
> > Burlington Route's owners (GN and NP) to come over and run
> the Q.
> > After doing unforgettable things to the Zephyr fleet, he took the
> NP's
> > helm. He sat on the NP/GN managerial merger committee
> from day
> > one. Once the "Great Northern Pacific and Burlington Lines"
> > combination was consummated, he was given the title of
> President and
> > C.O.O. of the fledgeling BN. The Great Northern's John Budd
> became
> > the new company's Chairman / C.E.O. and, once he retired on
> the day
> > of Amtrak's birth, Lou Menk took his position, too.
> >
> > He finally retired to his ranch in Montana about a year after
> BN's
> > takeover of the Frisco.
> >
> > I trust there were some who mourned his death - at least his
> family
> > (and perhaps some of the charities to which he was
> characteristically
> > generous, including the Boy Scouts of America); yet, I know
> there
> > were also many others - including your's truly - who considered
> > Mr. Menk just one step above Ol' Scratch, himself...and who
> > understood that the man's demise didn't somehow endow him
> with
> > any new virtues.
> >
> > To put it bluntly, my official "Wall of Shame" in my home office
> has had
> > several inductees over the years; but the original image was
> that of a
> > certain Louis Wilson Menk - "The Fink," the man with the
> bloody hands.
> >
> > Garl
> >
> >
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