Alfred E. Perlman
Encyclopedia
Alfred Edward Perlman was a railroad executive, having served as president of the Penn Central
Transportation Company, and its predecessor, the New York Central Railroad
.
with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering
in 1923. He graduated from the Harvard Business School
with a Masters degree in railway transportation in 1931. He was awarded honorary degrees from Clarkson University
and Depauw University
.
According to a November, 1960, write-up in Modern Railroads Perlman never wanted to be anything but a railroader from the age of eight. While earning his degree at MIT he worked summers on several railroads. Upon graduation, he joined the Northern Pacific Railway
as a draftsman. After a year "He decided that the way to get to the top was to start at the bottom, and he worked eight months as a track laborer." In 1925, he as promoted to inspector of icing facilities on the Northern Pacific, with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. A year later he was named assistant superintendent, Bridges and Buildings, with headquarters on the railway's Yellowstone Division at Glendive, Montana
. He was next promoted to roadmaster, severing at several points on the NP system. In 1930, the NP sent Perlman to Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Upon return he was appointed roadmaster at Staples, Minnesota
. In 1934 he was named as an assistant on the staff of the Northern Pacific's Vice-President (Operations) Howard E. Stevens (Stevens himself was a trained civil engineer).
In 1934, during the depths of the Great Depression
, Perlman was "borrowed" by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
as a consultant about financially ailing railroads, including the Denver and Rio Grande Western.
Next, Perlman joined the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
as an assistant engineer in 1935, helping reconstruct lines in Colorado
, Nebraska
and Kansas
damaged by heavy flooding.
Working on the Burlington in Colorado brought Perlman into close proximity with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
, then struggling in receivership. Perlman joined the Rio Grande in 1936 as engineer-in-charge of maintenance-of-way work; in 1941 he was promoted to become chief engineer. In 1948, Perlman was general manager; from 1952 to 1954, executive vice-president. At the Rio Grande, Perlman enhanced his reputation as an operations expert with reforms that included off-track maintenance machines (today's highway/rail equipment), transitioning the road from labor-intensive steam locomotives to fuel-efficient diesel-electrics, and the establishment of a research laboratory for what was then called "test-tube" railroading.
Modern Railroads noted Perlman was invited in the spring of 1954 to come to the New York Central Railroad
by its chairman, Robert R. Young
, to modernize and streamline its properties, as well as reorganize its personnel and operations. Young was the recent winner of a proxy fight to control the Central. Together, they worked on improving the Central's finances and reducing expenses. Young was considered a railroad visionary, but found the failing New York Central in worse shape than he had imagined. Unable to keep his promises, Young was forced to suspend dividend payments in January 1958. Later that month, Young, who had a history of clinical depression, committed suicide. Perlman assumed Young's leadership role with the Central.
For the next ten years, Perlman continued to work to strengthen and improve the Central in the face of ever-increasing air, automobile, sea and truck competition. Within six years Perlman succeeded in reducing the Central's long-term debt by nearly $100 million; reduced its passenger service deficit from $42 to $24.8 million; and by 1959 had increased earnings to $1.29 per share, double that of 1958. Included in Perlman's efforts was the famous Jet Train of 1966, when a Budd Rail Diesel Car M-497 was mated to a General Electric
jet engine. Running in Ohio, it set a speed record of 183.85 miles per hour (82.2 m/s).
Commenting in 1962 on the integration of computerized networks on the Central, especially in the replacement of clerical duties and yard operations, Perlman said:
“Like many other industries, we are using data processing machines to replace routine, repetitive clerical work. In addition, we have automatic machine tools, which perform their work faster and more efficiently without human intervention. We have maintenance-of-way equipment, which performs many laborious, complicated and delicate operations automatically. We are, in short, like most of industry, automating simple control functions that require only low-level human judgment.
“Our electronic classification yards are one of the best examples of advanced cybernation at work in the railroad industry. For example, when a freight train leaves Toledo, Ohio
its consist is electronically stored in a memory system at Elkhart, Indiana
, 100 miles away. When the train leaves Elkhart, it is pushed over a hump. When a freight car rolls down the hump, an analog computer goes to work to control the car’s speed. The computer takes into account the car’s weight, the kind of bearings, the condition of the lubricant in the journals, the direction and velocity of the wind, on which track the car must come to rest, how many curves it must go around to get there, and how far down that track it will be going before encountering another car. In the time it takes the car to move 150 feet down the incline, the computer has calculated the precise speed the car must leave the hump track in order to roll to its classification track and couple safely with the next car.
“Metal shoes, operated by electronic instructions from the computer, press against the car’s wheels to retard it to the correct speed. A radar-scanning device between the rails determines when the car has been brought down to the calculated speed and then releases the retarders. All the while, the electronic memory system is opening and closing switches to route the car automatically to the proper track."
One of the largest yard projects was at Selkirk Yard outside of Albany, New York
. Billed as a twenty million dollar undertaking circa 1966, the yard was rebuilt and automated, increasing capacity to handle 8,329 cars a day from 2,300. When completed in 1968, the Central spent $29 million, including $4 million for a diesel locomotive service facility. When opened, the rebuilt terminal was named the Alfred E. Perlman Yard.
Perlman's modernization of the Central's physical plant also included paring down main line routes to single track with centralized traffic control. On January 16, 1957, he was the first to push the button at the Erie, Pennsylvania
control center activating the world's longest stretch of electronically controlled railroad at a cost of $6,238,460. Centralized traffic contro enabled one operator each shift to control the trains between Erie and Cleveland, Ohio
. while another operator each shift controlled train movement between Erie and Buffalo, New York
. Crossovers were located an average of every seven miles. If a locomotive engineer missed a signal, the train would automatically stop, and could not be moved until the engineer complied with the signal indication. Even in blizzard conditions the train dispatchers could start snow melters located miles away with the push of a button. Freight trains could be operated at 60 miles an hour and passenger trains could be operated at 80 miles an hour over the 163-mile stretch of double-track. The two remaining segments of the former four-track main line were dismantled, saving the Central money in terms of both maintenance and taxes. With the opening of the Erie center in 1957, Perlman indicated the Central's entire New York-Chicago main line would be operated under centralized traffic control by 1963, and the company was already installing centralized traffic control between Buffalo and Syracuse, New York
.
As he had done on the Rio Grande, Perlman opened a railroad research laboratory on the Central at Cleveland, Ohio
. Perlman also brought in a young crop of like-minded managers; according to Modern Railroads, his executive team was an average of 46-years-old. Perlman said he considered developing good managers "The No. 1 responsibility of any chief executive officer . . . a machine is only as good as the man behind it."
Even as chief executive officer, Perlman was known to carry boots and denims in his business car. Among the business maxims Perlman is best remembered for is a comment which appeared in the New YorkTimes on July 3, 1958. "After you've done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over." In 1960, with railroad deregulation under the Staggers Rail Act
more than two decades away, Perlman was quoted as saying the railroad industry could solve its own problems "If we can be permitted as volume carriers to price our services competitively, based on costs."
Beginning February 1, 1968, Perlman was president, director, and chief administrative office of the Penn Central Transportation
(PC), the ill-fated merger of the New York Central with the Pennsylvania Railroad
. Stuart T. Saunder, leader of the Pennsylvania for five years, was named chairman. Penn Central operated a system with 40000 miles (64,373.6 km) of track in fourteen states and two Canadian provinces. It had total assets of $6.3 billion and annual revenues of nearly $2 billion. Within two years of merger, competition from trucking on the federally funded Interstate Highway System and St. Lawrence Seaway, deindustralization in the Northeast and Rust Belt, an economic downturn, strict regulation, heavy taxation, redundant trackage, outdated work rules, the inability to end money-losing passenger services, the forced integration of the financially disabled New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad by the Interstate Commerce Commission
, coupled with Penn Central's own bungled integration of the merged companies and mismanagement, resulted in the largest corporate bankruptcy
in American history to that time. After Pearlman's death, his son stated, "My father was Vice-Chairman of the Penn Central and has been quoted as saying that was not a merger, but a takeover."
Along with Stuart T. Saunders
and David C. Bevan (both from the Pennsylvania), Perlman was dismissed from the Penn Central on June 8, 1970. Saunders, an attorney, returned to private practice, having held onto his stock and suffered a personal loss of $700,000 (in 1970 dollars). Bevan was tried and acquitted for embezzling $4 million in Penn Central funds. Perlman, however, remained in railroading, and was hired to revitalize the Western Pacific Railroad
. He served as president from December 1, 1970 to December 31, 1972, and chairman from 1970 until his retirement on June 24, 1976. Later that year, the Western Pacific was sold to a private investment group led by Perlman protégé Robert G. "Mike" Flannery. The Western Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad
on January 1, 1983.
. He is remembered as one of Trains magazine's ten most prominent railroad presidents of the Twentieth Century.
; Bay Area Council; Newcomen Society
.
Penn Central Transportation
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American railroad company that operated from 1968 until 1976. It was created by the merger on February 1, 1968, of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad...
Transportation Company, and its predecessor, the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
.
Career
Perlman graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
in 1923. He graduated from the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
with a Masters degree in railway transportation in 1931. He was awarded honorary degrees from Clarkson University
Clarkson University
-The Clarkson School:The Clarkson School, a special division of Clarkson University, was founded in 1978 as a unique educational opportunity. The School offers students an early entrance opportunity into college, replacing the typical senior year of high school with a year of college...
and Depauw University
DePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...
.
According to a November, 1960, write-up in Modern Railroads Perlman never wanted to be anything but a railroader from the age of eight. While earning his degree at MIT he worked summers on several railroads. Upon graduation, he joined the Northern Pacific Railway
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
as a draftsman. After a year "He decided that the way to get to the top was to start at the bottom, and he worked eight months as a track laborer." In 1925, he as promoted to inspector of icing facilities on the Northern Pacific, with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. A year later he was named assistant superintendent, Bridges and Buildings, with headquarters on the railway's Yellowstone Division at Glendive, Montana
Glendive, Montana
Glendive is a city in and the county seat of Dawson County, Montana, United States. The population was 4,935 at the 2010 census.The town of Glendive is located in South Eastern Montana and is considered by many as an agricultural hub of Eastern Montana...
. He was next promoted to roadmaster, severing at several points on the NP system. In 1930, the NP sent Perlman to Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Upon return he was appointed roadmaster at Staples, Minnesota
Staples, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,104 people, 1,278 households, and 732 families residing in the city. The population density was 684.5 people per square mile . There were 1,436 housing units at an average density of 316.7 per square mile...
. In 1934 he was named as an assistant on the staff of the Northern Pacific's Vice-President (Operations) Howard E. Stevens (Stevens himself was a trained civil engineer).
In 1934, during the depths of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Perlman was "borrowed" by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was an independent agency of the United States government, established and chartered by the US Congress in 1932, Act of January 22, 1932, c. 8, 47 Stat. 5, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover. It was modeled after the War Finance Corporation...
as a consultant about financially ailing railroads, including the Denver and Rio Grande Western.
Next, Perlman joined the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...
as an assistant engineer in 1935, helping reconstruct lines in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
and Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
damaged by heavy flooding.
Working on the Burlington in Colorado brought Perlman into close proximity with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
, then struggling in receivership. Perlman joined the Rio Grande in 1936 as engineer-in-charge of maintenance-of-way work; in 1941 he was promoted to become chief engineer. In 1948, Perlman was general manager; from 1952 to 1954, executive vice-president. At the Rio Grande, Perlman enhanced his reputation as an operations expert with reforms that included off-track maintenance machines (today's highway/rail equipment), transitioning the road from labor-intensive steam locomotives to fuel-efficient diesel-electrics, and the establishment of a research laboratory for what was then called "test-tube" railroading.
Modern Railroads noted Perlman was invited in the spring of 1954 to come to the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
by its chairman, Robert R. Young
Robert R. Young
Robert Ralph Young was a United States financier and industrialist. He is best-known for leading the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and New York Central Railroad during and after World War II. He was a brother-in-law of the famous western painter Georgia O'Keeffe.Because of his initials, R.R...
, to modernize and streamline its properties, as well as reorganize its personnel and operations. Young was the recent winner of a proxy fight to control the Central. Together, they worked on improving the Central's finances and reducing expenses. Young was considered a railroad visionary, but found the failing New York Central in worse shape than he had imagined. Unable to keep his promises, Young was forced to suspend dividend payments in January 1958. Later that month, Young, who had a history of clinical depression, committed suicide. Perlman assumed Young's leadership role with the Central.
For the next ten years, Perlman continued to work to strengthen and improve the Central in the face of ever-increasing air, automobile, sea and truck competition. Within six years Perlman succeeded in reducing the Central's long-term debt by nearly $100 million; reduced its passenger service deficit from $42 to $24.8 million; and by 1959 had increased earnings to $1.29 per share, double that of 1958. Included in Perlman's efforts was the famous Jet Train of 1966, when a Budd Rail Diesel Car M-497 was mated to a General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
jet engine. Running in Ohio, it set a speed record of 183.85 miles per hour (82.2 m/s).
Commenting in 1962 on the integration of computerized networks on the Central, especially in the replacement of clerical duties and yard operations, Perlman said:
“Like many other industries, we are using data processing machines to replace routine, repetitive clerical work. In addition, we have automatic machine tools, which perform their work faster and more efficiently without human intervention. We have maintenance-of-way equipment, which performs many laborious, complicated and delicate operations automatically. We are, in short, like most of industry, automating simple control functions that require only low-level human judgment.
“Our electronic classification yards are one of the best examples of advanced cybernation at work in the railroad industry. For example, when a freight train leaves Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
its consist is electronically stored in a memory system at Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, northwest of Fort Wayne, east of Chicago, and north of Indianapolis...
, 100 miles away. When the train leaves Elkhart, it is pushed over a hump. When a freight car rolls down the hump, an analog computer goes to work to control the car’s speed. The computer takes into account the car’s weight, the kind of bearings, the condition of the lubricant in the journals, the direction and velocity of the wind, on which track the car must come to rest, how many curves it must go around to get there, and how far down that track it will be going before encountering another car. In the time it takes the car to move 150 feet down the incline, the computer has calculated the precise speed the car must leave the hump track in order to roll to its classification track and couple safely with the next car.
“Metal shoes, operated by electronic instructions from the computer, press against the car’s wheels to retard it to the correct speed. A radar-scanning device between the rails determines when the car has been brought down to the calculated speed and then releases the retarders. All the while, the electronic memory system is opening and closing switches to route the car automatically to the proper track."
One of the largest yard projects was at Selkirk Yard outside of Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. Billed as a twenty million dollar undertaking circa 1966, the yard was rebuilt and automated, increasing capacity to handle 8,329 cars a day from 2,300. When completed in 1968, the Central spent $29 million, including $4 million for a diesel locomotive service facility. When opened, the rebuilt terminal was named the Alfred E. Perlman Yard.
Perlman's modernization of the Central's physical plant also included paring down main line routes to single track with centralized traffic control. On January 16, 1957, he was the first to push the button at the Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
control center activating the world's longest stretch of electronically controlled railroad at a cost of $6,238,460. Centralized traffic contro enabled one operator each shift to control the trains between Erie and Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. while another operator each shift controlled train movement between Erie and Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. Crossovers were located an average of every seven miles. If a locomotive engineer missed a signal, the train would automatically stop, and could not be moved until the engineer complied with the signal indication. Even in blizzard conditions the train dispatchers could start snow melters located miles away with the push of a button. Freight trains could be operated at 60 miles an hour and passenger trains could be operated at 80 miles an hour over the 163-mile stretch of double-track. The two remaining segments of the former four-track main line were dismantled, saving the Central money in terms of both maintenance and taxes. With the opening of the Erie center in 1957, Perlman indicated the Central's entire New York-Chicago main line would be operated under centralized traffic control by 1963, and the company was already installing centralized traffic control between Buffalo and Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
.
As he had done on the Rio Grande, Perlman opened a railroad research laboratory on the Central at Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. Perlman also brought in a young crop of like-minded managers; according to Modern Railroads, his executive team was an average of 46-years-old. Perlman said he considered developing good managers "The No. 1 responsibility of any chief executive officer . . . a machine is only as good as the man behind it."
Even as chief executive officer, Perlman was known to carry boots and denims in his business car. Among the business maxims Perlman is best remembered for is a comment which appeared in the New YorkTimes on July 3, 1958. "After you've done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over." In 1960, with railroad deregulation under the Staggers Rail Act
Staggers Rail Act
The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is a United States federal law that deregulated the American railroad industry to a significant extent, and replaced the regulatory structure that existed since the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act.-Background:...
more than two decades away, Perlman was quoted as saying the railroad industry could solve its own problems "If we can be permitted as volume carriers to price our services competitively, based on costs."
Beginning February 1, 1968, Perlman was president, director, and chief administrative office of the Penn Central Transportation
Penn Central Transportation
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American railroad company that operated from 1968 until 1976. It was created by the merger on February 1, 1968, of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad...
(PC), the ill-fated merger of the New York Central with the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
. Stuart T. Saunder, leader of the Pennsylvania for five years, was named chairman. Penn Central operated a system with 40000 miles (64,373.6 km) of track in fourteen states and two Canadian provinces. It had total assets of $6.3 billion and annual revenues of nearly $2 billion. Within two years of merger, competition from trucking on the federally funded Interstate Highway System and St. Lawrence Seaway, deindustralization in the Northeast and Rust Belt, an economic downturn, strict regulation, heavy taxation, redundant trackage, outdated work rules, the inability to end money-losing passenger services, the forced integration of the financially disabled New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad by the Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
, coupled with Penn Central's own bungled integration of the merged companies and mismanagement, resulted in the largest corporate bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in American history to that time. After Pearlman's death, his son stated, "My father was Vice-Chairman of the Penn Central and has been quoted as saying that was not a merger, but a takeover."
Along with Stuart T. Saunders
Stuart T. Saunders
Stuart Thomas Saunders was an American railroad executive.Saunders served as president of the Norfolk and Western Railway, one of the nation's most profitable, from 1958 to 1963...
and David C. Bevan (both from the Pennsylvania), Perlman was dismissed from the Penn Central on June 8, 1970. Saunders, an attorney, returned to private practice, having held onto his stock and suffered a personal loss of $700,000 (in 1970 dollars). Bevan was tried and acquitted for embezzling $4 million in Penn Central funds. Perlman, however, remained in railroading, and was hired to revitalize the Western Pacific Railroad
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
. He served as president from December 1, 1970 to December 31, 1972, and chairman from 1970 until his retirement on June 24, 1976. Later that year, the Western Pacific was sold to a private investment group led by Perlman protégé Robert G. "Mike" Flannery. The Western Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
on January 1, 1983.
Death
Perlman died April 30, 1983 in San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. He is remembered as one of Trains magazine's ten most prominent railroad presidents of the Twentieth Century.
Other
In 1949, Perlman served as a consultant to the Korean National Railways. The following year, he served as a consultant to the Israeli State Railways. Perlman was a member of the several prominent organizations: the Transportation Association of America; American Museum of Immigration; Denver University; Elmira CollegeElmira College
Elmira College is a coeducational private liberal arts college located in Elmira, in New York State's Southern Tier region.The college is noted as the oldest college still in existence which granted degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men...
; Bay Area Council; Newcomen Society
Newcomen Society
The Newcomen Society is a British learned society formed to foster the study of the history of engineering and technology. It was founded in London in 1920 and takes its name from Thomas Newcomen, one of the inventors associated with the early development of the steam engine, who is widely...
.
Further Reading
- Bruce, H.J. "Perlman the Magnificent: Alfred E. Perlman, Czar of the New York Central, Savior of the Western Pacific, A Star Wherever He Went." Trains, March, 2002, pp. 38-45.
- No Author. "Alfred E. Perlman, 1902-1983." Trains, July, 1983, p. 5.
- Saunders, Richard. "Alfred E. Perlman." In Encyclopedia on American Business, History and Biography, Railroads in the Age of Regulation. New York: Facts on File, 1990, pp. 341-348.