There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. These companies are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
Today’s FreightWaves Classics profiles another fallen flag in the railroad industry – the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (reporting mark MKT), nicknamed “The Katy.”
An assortment of Katy power...
Starting out
Ross Neely, Sr. was a truck driver. His son, Ross, Jr. was born in Gadsden, Alabama in 1927, and moved to Birmingham with his family four years later. At the age of 16, Ross Neely, Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Navy; he spent 30 months in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, Ross returned to Birmingham and finished high school, where he met and married his late wife.
Ross drove a truck for his father and delivered newspapers for several years. He bought a 1947...
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. These companies are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
Today’s FreightWaves Classics profiles another fallen flag – the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad (reporting mark AC&Y). The AC&Y was a small Class I railroad that was founded in 1907....
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsfallen-flags-acy-served-ohio-industries
A steady climb
Children are often asked what they want to do when they grow up. Alfred Edward Perlman was asked that same question; from the age of eight his answer was always the same – he wanted to be “a railroader.” Unlike many children, though, who change their minds as time goes on, Perlman’s desire stayed rock-solid.
He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, 119 years ago today (November 22, 1902). At 16 he got his first job – as an engine wiper and car cleaner at the Northern Pacific...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsleaders-alfred-e-perlman-was-a-railroader
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. These companies are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
Today’s FreightWaves Classics profiles another fallen flag – the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W reporting mark; better known as the Lackawanna). It operated in the northeastern...
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. These companies are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
In Part 1 of this article the early history of what became the Great Northern Railway was the focus. In Part 2, an overview of Great Northern’s history in the 20th century is the focus.
The...
John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan (1837-1913) was an “American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age.” He headed the banking firm that became J.P. Morgan and Co., and led the wave of industrial consolidation in the United States that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was so successful at developing and financing these consolidations that the process became known as “Morganization.”
In effect, Morgan “reinvented how monopolies...
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
The Alphabet Route was not actually an operating railroad; it was a coalition of railroads that worked together to connect the Midwest and the Northeast via their combined rail lines. The Alphabet...
There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
The Reading Railroad (pronounced “Redding”) was known officially as the Reading Company. It was one of a number of Northeastern railroads that was begun primarily to carry coal.
Unfortunately for the...
