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Recent coverage of the new Moynihan Train Hall in New York City has me thinking about the complicated legacy of former Norfolk & Western #Railway president Stuart T. Saunders. /1
Saunders was a Harvard Law graduate who had grown up along the N&W in Bedford, Virginia. He joined the N&W’s legal department in Roanoke in the late 1930s and was general counsel during the presidency of Robert Hall Smith. /2
Under Smith, the N&W was more cautious about the transition to diesel power than other major U.S. railroads. Coal was the N&W’s cash cow, and the Roanoke Shops had produced some of the most efficient and dependable steam locomotives ever deployed by a U.S. railroad. /3
In October 1955, the N&W placed 8 diesel locomotives in service on the line from Lynchburg, Virginia to Durham, NC. Measured progress toward acquiring more diesels was also underway. /4
Smith retired at the end of March 1958, and Saunders became the youngest president in N&W history. He fast-tracked the N&W’s full conversion to diesel power, which was completed by the end of 1959, making the N&W the last major U.S. railroad to dieselize. /5
Saunders also spearheaded two mergers that would reshape the N&W. The first was the parallel merger with the rival Virginian Railway in 1959. The second was the end-to-end merger with the Nickel Plate and Wabash in 1964. /6
But Saunders left the N&W and in October 1, 1963 became chairman of the Pennsylvania Railroad (which had owned a controlling interest in the N&W since 1900). The PRR began demolition of NYC’s historic Penn Station later that month. /7
Of course, the plan to demolish Penn Station was in place well before Saunders joined the PRR. It proved to be a watershed moment for the preservation movement, and the new Moynihan Train Hall evokes the grand scale of the former station. /8 https://twitter.com/SOM_Design/status/1344328653593837570
Saunders had also joined the PRR in the thick of what was then the largest corporate combination in U.S. history, the PRR’s merger with the New York Central to form Penn Central. /9
Former PRR chairman James Symes had picked Saunders as his successor to see the merger through regulatory approvals (in part, the PRR had to agree to sell its N&W holdings). Saunders even landed on the cover of Time Magazine in January 1968. /10
But within 2 years, Saunders was out, and Penn Central became the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. Most of the former PRR lines still in operation today are controlled by the N&W’s successor, Norfolk Southern. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/09/obituaries/stuart-t-saunders-driving-force-behind-penn-central-dies-at-77.html?smid=tw-share /11
