It’s not too often that new books are offered complimentary to anyone willing to simply click on a download link. “Conrail, the Early Years – Stories from the Front,” by Stephen Frasher, is a unique opportunity for anyone wanting a behind the scenes look at Consolidated Rail Corp. in its formative years, following its creation by the U.S. government from a deeply troubled collection of bankrupt Northeastern carriers in 1976.
Stephen Frasher, whose father was a New York Central railroader, contacted Railway Age last year, sending along a PDF of his book. We asked him if he would be interested in having Simmons-Boardman Books publish and sell it. He told us that he wanted to offer it to our readership free of charge. So, here it is, again. updated to mark Conrail’s 50th anniversary.
“With the golden anniversary date of the creation of Conrail around the corner, I modified my book and have made it available for free again,” Frasher said. “This is the 50th Anniversary Edition, which I expanded to include notable achievements from corporate, some challenges that Conrail faced that I was not personally involved in, and a few other stories for the places I was involved in.”
Frasher, now retired and currently residing in Hillsborough, N.C., worked in the railroad, barge and shipbuilding and forest products industries. He credits his experience at Conrail as “fundamental in preparing him for the challenges he faced throughout his career.” As Frasher’s career progressed, he and his family moved 16 times, residing in cities on the East Coast, the Midwest, and the West Coast of the U.S. Before retiring, he also lived and worked in Vancouver, B.C.
“This is a book about Conrail operations,” Frasher writes in the Preface. “I spent my time at Conrail in the operating department under the leadership of Dick Hasselman, Vice President of Operations, and Don Swanson, Vice President of Transportation. The stories about my time at Conrail are drawn primarily from memory, but also from some personal notes. I kept no diary. I have arranged these stories in chronological order, starting with my first assignment as a trainmaster at Selkirk Yard in August 1976 and ending with my resignation eight years later while Division Superintendent of the Southwest Division in Indianapolis. After leaving Conrail, I never again worked in the railroad industry.
“Nothing in these stories is intended to cast negative criticism on any person named or any event depicted. Indeed, I provide as many names as I can recall so as to ‘humanize’ the events that unfolded in the years I was there. Having said that, I find that I could not remember the names of all the people I worked with. Regardless, they played important roles in those early days of Conrail.
“My main goal in writing these stories is to provide anecdotal background to the tremendous accomplishments achieved by the men and women of all ranks throughout Conrail. I am hoping these stories are both informative and entertaining for those who have wondered about the trials and tribulations of the front line people who helped transform six bankrupt railroads into a top-notch Class I railroad. While many books have been written about Conrail over the years, I have been unable to find any that describe the challenges faced by everyday people on the front line.”
Here’s one humorous anecdote: “One bit of ‘gallows’ humor that illustrated the kinship of those who hustled to make things happen at Selkirk Yard was the ‘toilet flush.’ There was nothing private about successes or failures as each shift unfolded because almost all communications were broadcast over the radio. So, everyone always knew what was going on in the yard at all times. And once things started to go ‘sideways’, someone would invariably call the trainmaster and transmit the sound of a flushing toilet for all to hear. Welcome to the club!”
Frasher started at Conrail in August 1976 as a Trainmaster at Selkirk Yard. During the eight years he spent with Conrail, he held six different positions in five different locations. His last position was Southwest Division Superintendent on Conrail’s Southern Region, headquartered in Indianapolis.
After leaving Conrail in 1984, Frasher moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to work for Midland Enterprises, the second-largest inland river barge line in the U.S. at that time. Beginning in 1998, he accepted a succession of CEO assignments at four companies that were being challenged by various types of “distress”: Tidewater Barge Lines, Vancouver, Wash.; American Commercial Lines, Jeffersonville, Ind.; and Washington Marine Group (now known as Seaspan) and Western Forest Products, both headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. All those companies recovered from their “distress” and are still in existence today.
