Re: (erielack) Railroads "That Should Never Have Been Built

[William Shultz <wshultz1_@_twcny.rr.com>]

Paul,

Actually many people at the time could have and did predict Oswego would 
never become a huge port town. Littlejohn and his compatriots based 
their hopes on construction of the Niagara Canal to allow the larger 
lake boats access to Lake Ontario thereby making Oswego a more 
attractive point of transshipment. The Welland Canal simply couldn't 
handle the larger boats. Besides, the Welland Canal was Canadian owned 
and operated. ;)

The Niagara Canal was proposed, but never had enough support to be 
built. Again it wasn't free market capitalism which was to build the 
canal, it was intended to be bonded to the taxpayers of New York State. 
The proposal languished for many years before finally withering and 
dieing. Ultimately the Welland Canal was upgraded to handle larger boats 
but if it hadn't already been too late for Oswego, it was now.

Buffalo usurped Oswego and would continue to do so just as it had done 
previously with Dunkirk. Buffalo was well established before the NY&OM 
ever broke ground. Why do you think the Midland had to rely so heavily 
on town bonding to be built? Because it wasn't a "sound" investment from 
the start. All you had to do was look at a map of New York State and the 
then current rail lines to see it.

Littlejohn and the others had the best of intentions, he particularly 
wanted to further the cause for Oswego (and himself too), but even then, 
Oswego was already served by two other railroads.

Jumping forward and leaving the O&W behind for now, although the 
Transportation Act of 1920 included the unfulfilled mandate to 
consolidate the nations rail system into fewer, balanced systems, what 
it ended up doing was make the ICC much more aggressive in its scrutiny 
of abandonments. The rational in part being they didn't want to upset 
the balance of the possible consolidation plans. It didn't matter they 
did almost nothing beyond Professor Ripley's study to actually implement 
it. This was the beginning of what would become the protracted agitation 
between the railroads wanting to shed unprofitable lines and the ICC 
forcing them to keep them for the public good. ICC commissioner Eastman 
was particularly a thorn in the side of the railroads at the time and 
would be for many years to come.

The Transportation Act of 1920 was really a watershed event in modern 
railroad history which few enthusiasts understand. It was supposed to 
guarantee a reasonable rate of return to the railroads, facilitate the 
building of balanced rail systems while maintaining competition and 
regulate the then emerging and unregulated motor carrier interstate 
commerce. It pretty much failed on all accounts and ended up emboldening 
the ICC to further regulate the railroads beyond what was already being 
done.

Keep in mind the context of the era, the USRA was depending on who you 
asked, a success or an utter failure. There was considerable agitation 
from labor and many in congress to nationalize the rail system and 
railroad management wanted to return to pre-war, pre-USRA business as 
usual. Even though on the face of it they (railroad managers) generally 
supported the system consolidation in theory, their actions behind the 
scenes was not exactly reflective of their public statements.

Certainly this is a gross simplification of the events of the time. Many 
hours could be spent discussing if the NY&OM should ever have been 
built. There is a very good body of work available in well researched 
books about the O&W and the excellent series of O&W Observers published 
by the O&WRHS. I suggest those interested in topic seek out and read the 
material.

Much less unbiased information is available about the railroads, their 
relationship to the USRA and its aftermath. To find information about 
this will require people to do some digging for the material. Although 
certainly not unbiased in the view they present, reading the trade 
publications of the time offers insight into the perspective of the rail 
industry.

Human nature is to want to oversimplify and distill complex, intertwined 
and very often messy situations. The same holds true for rail 
enthusiasts and their support for the rail industry either historically 
or current. It isn't an aspersion, it's human nature. It is easy to 
allow ones hobby to blind oneself to the reality of what was happening 
in context at the time. We want to project our black hat, white hat 
perceptions to history, but when you start peeling back the onion you 
begin to realize most of them wore gray. Particularly in the latter half 
of the 19th century the major figures, and many minor figures, involved 
in financing and constructing the railroads as well as many other 
industries could be wearing a different colored hat several times on the 
same day.

If nothing else, I hope this discussion will encourage a few others to 
go beyond the railfan books and delve into the history behind the topic, 
it's fascinating. As I mentioned previously what I have found so far has 
only increased my respect and admiration for the people who built this 
country with their incredible sacrifice and determination. Not the 
financiers and speculators, but the "little people" who in the most 
adverse circumstances through their labor actually built the railroads, 
steel mills, mined the coal and dug the canals, whether the venture was 
folly or not. And of course those who made it run once it was built.

Regards,

Will

Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul) wrote:
  >
> "Hindsight is 20/20."  The prospects for the O&W probably seemed pretty good when it was originally built (who would have thought that Oswego would never become a huge port town? :). Also, don't forget, in those "boom times" every town wanted to build their own railroad. Many failed, many never got off the ground, and the rest eventually consolidated with neighboring railroads. Of course, built as a piecemeal entity, no one ever saw the "big picture" until they were all merged together. By that point, you had a fixed line, and now you had to figure out what the purpose of this line was going to be.
> 
> 

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