Merger History Family Tree - Help Wanted!

Using your B&O example; when Chessie System was created in 1971, their locomotives carried sublettering for subsidiaries C&O, B&O and WM.  The senior management was all Chessie though.  And this comes to your comment about making a judgement call; to the casual observer B&O became Chessie System in 1971 despite existing on paper till 1986 and inclusion in CSXT.

A somewhat analogous example is the Wabash.  It existed as a separate paper entity within N&W and later NS for a period of time before being officially merged into Norfolk Southern Corporation.

Curt

Ownership of a railroad did not necessarily mean the end of its operational existence.  Sometimes this was for regulatory reasons.  

Quite often railroads that had been operationally merged were kept separate for legal or financial reasons.  This was quite common with 19th century railroad mergers, but it happened with 20th century mergers as well.  The B&O charter contained a number of tax benefits.  Chessie and then CSX chose to continue the B&O's separate existence to continue receiving those benefits.  When the cost of maintaining the B&O's separate existence exceeded the tax benefits, the CSX merged the B&O into the parent system.

While it is tempting to ignore the continued paper status of a railroad, this isn't always appropriate.  Some paper railroads resumed independent operational existence.  Others continued existing as nonoperating entities.  The Pittsburgh & West Virginia was leased by the Nickle Plate around 1950 and has not  been an operating railroad since.  However the legal entity still exists as a subsidiary of Power REIT.

Very interesting chart.  You did quite a bit of work compiling the information.   

From what I've learned above, yes there may be difference between when a company was incorporated vs. when it was done on paper. 

For your table's purposes, I'd stick to when they were incorporated - when the entity was no longer operating independently under its own management.   

According to "The Historical Guide to North American Railroads, Third Edition" from Kalmbach Books:

Illinois Central merged with Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio in 1972, forming Illinois Central Gulf.  Illinois Central Gulf changed its name back to Illinois Central in 1988, after having divested itself of most of the routes it acquired from GM&O.

Corporate entities in the US generally have charters/bylaws, stock certificates, boards of directors, accounting rules and obligations (unless privately owned), and federal tax obligations.  Railroads also generally have more federal government reporting obligations.  Eliminating all non-publicly available data (e.g. federal tax info) still leaves you with a plethora of data on which to base your chart.

However, it is your chart and you should choose a criteria that is well defined and easiest to verify.  Then, make that criteria well known in your chart, identify any and all discrepancies with causes for the discrepancy (record can't be found, event occurred before record type was maintained, record not required, etc.), and complete your chart as accurately as possible.

If anyone gives you a hard time, let them set their own criteria and make their own chart.

Good luck and have fun.

Chuck

Trains magazine has done several charts over the years of all the major railroad mergers.  You may want to contact them to compare their charts with yours.   NH Joe

Thank you all for your recommendations and support!

Bill and Barry - Thank you for your additions/corrections. The graph has been updated to reflect them.

NH Joe - I'll look into them! Do you have any links? If not no worries!

The best of luck capturing all the mergers and acquisitions.  It will be quite a project.  I looked up BNSF recently for another reason and their bio states "...result of more than 390 railroad lines that merged or were acquired during our 170 year history".

Another odd duck was the Cotton Belt, SSW.  It was in the SP orbit for a long time.  But I have heard it was kept as a separate company because SP could use it instead of the UP to move traffic east.  Long story.  And of the SP, D&RW, and SSW, the SSW was the lastof the three to officially mere into UP.

Also, UP had to wait to fully merge the MKT.  The KATY had some "poison pil" bonds that had to mature before full merger.

Graphic has been updated to include information from the Trains Magazine histories NH Joe suggested. Was able to add a few Railroads in, including all of KCS (which isn't much), and correct a few errors in the dates of mergers.

As for coming up with a consistent definition, I decided to use two:

For CSX, and the Southern half of NS: I'm going with the date that the railroads started operating under the same umbrella. Using my B&O example in the original post, I'm keeping B&O independent through the C&O purchase, due to them still being operated independently, and then merging it into Chessie System, as it was operated alongside the C&O and WM as one railroad. This is done due to these railroads' tendency to keep thing separate on paper.

For BNSF, Conrail, KCS, UP, and the Norfolk & Western half of NS: I'm using the date the railroads were officially merged, rather than ownership or operating date, due to their tendency to merge quickly after purpose

For CN and CP, I'm using the first definition for their American subsidiaries, and the second definition for their Canadian subsidiaries. This is due to the railroads' international natures, as they, in general, keep their American portions separate to ease in corporate and national regulations and paperwork.

Was there something the ICC place in its ruling that the C&O could buy the B&O, but could merge it?

I saved this from a past Fortune article- might be useful.  Good research birkuscircus, BTW.  

BurkusCircus52,

You may find what your looking for in the book "North American Railroad Family Trees" shown below.  Can be a bit pricey today, maybe a library in your area has a copy.

Zeke13

When I was with the B&O in 65 & 66 my paychecks said B&O and they didn't bounce so I was happy.  

It’s Grand TRUNK Western, not Grand Truck Western.

If you can find a copy, Trains Magazine Railroad Maps #3 has exactly what you want on pages 21-23:

PP. 21-23 is a foldout flow-chart depicting the series of mergers leading to today's rail system. I can't put up a pic because that would violate copyright law and TOS here.

Actually, the MP was bought by the UP, but was merged later than 1982.  For a while there were yellow MP engines.  Some had more square type lettering than the UP, sometimes called "North Little Rock".

So, does one consider the purchase date or the consolidation of opetatins the merge date?

Hokie, Zeke, & Geyser - Thanks for the suggestions! I'll look into them!

Rich - Thanks for pointing that out! It's been fixed

Dominic - According to Wikipedia (which is definitely 100% accurate... ), the UP bought the MP in 1980, and then: "Lawsuits filed by competing railroads delayed approval of the merger until September 13, 1982. After the Supreme Court denied a trial to the Southern Pacific, the merger took effect on December 22, 1982. However, due to outstanding bonds of the Missouri Pacific, its full merger into the Union Pacific Railroad did not become official until January 1, 1997." As such, I decided to go with the 1982 date. One of several judgment calls I had to make. Thanks for the recommendation, though!