Alfred E. Perlman
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2016) |
Alfred E. Perlman | |
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Penn Central Railroad, Western Pacific Railroad | |
Spouse | Adele Sylvia Emrich |
Children | Michael Louis; Lee Alfred; Constance |
Alfred Edward Perlman (November 22, 1902—April 30, 1983) was a railroad executive, having served as president of the
Early career
Perlman graduated from the
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
In 1934, during the depths of the
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
New York Central and Penn Central
Modern Railroads noted that 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 in his Palm Beach, Florida mansion. 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. Perlman's attempts to create economically viable passenger traffic led to the famous Jet Train of 1966, when a
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, south of Albany, New York, built in 1924. Billed as a twenty million dollar undertaking c. 1966, the yard was rebuilt and automated, increasing capacity to handle 8,329 cars a day, up 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 four-track main line routes to
As he had done on the Rio Grande, Perlman opened a railroad research laboratory on the Central at
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 York Times 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
Western Pacific and Retirement
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.
Death
Perlman died on April 30, 1983, in
Other
In 1949, Perlman served as a consultant to the Railroad Administration Bureau of the South Korean Ministry of Transportation (the predecessor to
See also
Notes
References
- Anderson, Thom. Electronic mail, Western Pacific Railroad Historical Society, May 30, 2008.
- Consolidated Rail Corporation (1986)."Conrail's Selkirk Yard, A Visitor's Guide." Brochure.
- Goldman, Ari L. "Stuart T. Saunders, Driving Force behind Penn Central, Dies at 77." The New York Times. February 9, 1987.
- Lewis, Robert G. Who's Who in Railroading and Rail Transit. New York: Simmons-Boardman, 1977, p. 309.
- No Author. "Central Dedicates 163 Miles of New Push-Button Track." Buffalo [New York] Courier Express, January 16, 1957, p. 63.
- No Author. "The Man from Colorado," Modern Railroads, November, 1960, p. 9.
- Perlman, Alfred E. New Frontiers in Railroading, excerpts of remarks. The Economic Club of Chicago, May 15, 1962. Web page, www.econclubchi.org/History/Excerpts_AlfredEPerlman.pdf, accessed August 13, 2011.
- Perlman, Alfred E., "Pittsburgh and the P & LE" (Newcomen Society,1963)(introductory remarks recap Perlman's career).
- Railway Age. Various issues, 1930–1980.
- Time. April 18, 1960.
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.