For those of you who know about his time at the NYC, is he remembered as a good and competent leader? I get the impression that history hasn't looked upon the NYC (and PRR) management all that favorably.
I never knew the man, but his press among New York Central and other fans/employees is quite mixed. All the steam fans badmouth him for scrapping all the Hudsons and Niagaras. Other rail management types have praised him for his foresight in seeing the demise of passenger service (and helping that along). I get the impression that he was indeed a good manager from the company point of view. I know he was associated with other railroads and have read some good things about his management prowess outside of the NYCS. I was among those who were upset about the steam scrapping, but it seems that the RR was in such dire financial straits that the scrap money was important to the bottom line back then. :tb-biggrin:
I have no facts to back this up, but what I've been lead to believe over the past 40 years is that he was the major force behind the PennCentral merger. Also, as Jim says, I believe Perlman was the major proponent of the "scrap everything that isn't immediately profitable" culture. I know there are many developers and homeowners who blame him for the abandonment and scrapping of the upper half of the Harlem Division in New York's Duchess and Columbia Counties. Today, anybody who lives more than 60 miles north of New York City and commutes by Metro-North must either drive 15-20 miles west to Poughkeepsie, or 10-15 miles south to Wassaic, then change trains at Brewster.
Al Perlman was one of the top dogs on the Rio Grande as well. On the 'Grande, he was well-known for what were dubbed "Perlman Pallets". These were a simple A-B-B-A covered wagons, with a Geep 7 or 9 tossed into the lashup. The 5 combined units apparently worked well. Back in the end of steam days, (generally speaking) with diesels making serious inroads, the significant manpower and maintenance savings were realized with retiring steam locos. When the folks at the top of the food chain saw those savings, it quickly spelled the end of steam. The savings to be had far outweighed the loss of retiring locomotives only a few years old, with plenty of years left in them. I cannot imagine that this would be different on any US railroad at the time. It's all about, and has always been about, the Benjamins.
Al Perlman Any mainline NYC people should bow down at his name as his changing the mainline into a modern railroad with cts saved us in the end. The choice of Conrail to use the NYC over the "P" company was the fact that the Central was in the 20th century for track conditions while the Pennsy was still the standard for 19th century operations. As for steam there were alot of roads that scraped everything. There used to be a rumor in Elkhart that they offered a Hudson but the city turned it down. Not to surprising if you remember the air quality of railroad towns in the days of steam.
I highly recommend the book "The Men Who Loved Trains" by Rush Loving Jr., from Indiana University Press. It traces the corporate history of the NYC and PRR and the people who ran the show from the glory days up until the break of of Conrail between NS and CSX. From reading the book I understand that these guys seemed to have perfected the creative accounting that got Enron in trouble years later. Only they did not do it out of personal greed but to try to save the railroad.
Too bad they didn't have a chance at the Milwaukee Road. Which went out under somewhat "Enron-like" circumstances.
