Monon- the "super railroad" ? - Trains Magazine

Murphy Siding

()  OK.....People like me,  light years away from understanding the railroad business, could easily lose sight of the big picture.  With a narrow focus, I might be able to convince myself  that trying to turn the Monan into a super railroad after WW II, was a very good idea.  And, I'd wonder why it didn't work, and why there was no traffic to justify the expense.  Why would someone like John Barringer, who always seems to be given such high marks for bringing railroads back from the brink, end up making the same mistake I would have?

I see the problem I'm having.  It's the premise.  I can't wrap my head around the Monon being a Super Railroad.  While it might have fit some of the parameters such as low grade (like you could not find that in most of Indiana!), but it never had the subgrade, terminals, track structure, train-control systems, or line-haul capacity to be anything more than a secondary (and a very secondary at that) railway that supported a very light gross tonnage.   Barriger didn't turn the Monon into a Super Railroad.  Think of a Super Railroad of that era like the UP from Omaha to Ogden, or the Pennsy from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, or the NYC from New York City to Chicago, or the Santa Fe from Chicago to Los Angeles via Belen.  The Monon was not only not in that game, it wasn't even in that sport. 

Barriger fixed up the property -- he gave it morale, a sense of purpose, a service esprit d'corps that enabled it to compete for the small margin of traffic that had a choice, and the management structure to deliver on the potential.  He didn't try to build more railway than there was traffic to support, so I don't see what mistake he made.  He spent wisely and the Monon -- so long as railways remained regulated -- could hold its own and even bring a little down to the investors.  It was a smartly run property that was a standout in a sea of mediocre middle-sized railways.

If you don't mind, let me add something to help your framing the concept of "Super Railroad."  What Barriger did was give a name and definition to a concept that had been first put into practice by James J. Hill when he conceived of the standards for the GN west of Minnesota.  During the 1885-1906 period, there were several railways built new to Super Railroad concept and several rebuilt.  Railways rebuilt included the PRR, NYC, portions of the B&O, UP (including OSL, O-WR&N, and LA&SL), SP, and Santa Fe.  Railways built new to that standard included the GN, WP, SP&S, P&WV, Canadian Northern, WM Connellsville Extension, and Milwaukee Road Puget Sound Extension.  After the 1906 period the new construction to that standard ceased, and the reconstruction declined considerably in volume, with only a few examples such as the SP Natron Cut-off and some PRR work standing out.  The "Super Railroad" in brief simply said "build up-front for low-cost, high-volume operations, where the traffic potential exists, and when the traffic appears, the railway will take it in stride and return handsomely on the first-cost investment." 

Previously, the model for railways had been "Build cheap, let the traffic develop, upgrade, let the traffic develop some more, repeat." What Hill did was jump right over all that expensive and messy rework and high operating costs and go straight to a high-capacity, low-cost property.  This solution may seem obvious or simple to us today -- especially since Hill was proved right -- but you have to realize that Hill was turning upside-down almost 60 years of best railway practice in the U.S. with no assurance of success whatsoever.  Hindsight is easy; foresight like Hill's is an all-in gamble of one's life, career, income, health, marriage, and reputation, and there are no do-overs.

The Monon did not have the traffic potential.  Ergo, it was not a Super Railroad.

Super-Railroad reconstruction resumed in North America in the 1970s with the complete reconstruction of the no-account dirt-track BN, C&NW, and UP branch lines to the PRB, followed by the heavy reconstruction of the Santa Fe and later BNSF Transcon, UP Sunset Route, UP Texas & Pacific, and UP Golden State routes, CPR Rogers Pass and other west-end improvements, the B&O to Chicago, and now the NS Heartland Corridor, projects which are not all yet complete but have made astounding progress from my perspective.

RWM