I think it is a proven fact that you never find something that you are looking for. Instead, you always find something else. While looking on my harddrive for a particular file, I encountered a little editorial cartoon about the Penn Central. I have absolutely no idea where this came from – the file was made nearly a year ago. I could have scanned it, or downloaded it… either way, I thought it was amusing and saved it. I love the concept of the anthropomorphized train sitting in a hospital bed, alongside a book about the “Golden days of Railroads.”

For the majority of my readers, I don’t really have to explain the significance of the Penn Central… but for the record, when the Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970, it was the largest corporate bankruptcy this country had ever seen.

The cartoon was illustrated by Hy Rosen, an artist with a long history of creating political and editorial cartoons. The first anniversary of his death just passed last week. He was 88 years old when he died. If you like the style, you can see more of Rosen’s work here.

2 Responses

  1. Steve says:

    You were quoted today in the Poughkeepsie Journal…

    Read the “Wreck of the Penn Central”, it is a tragic story of railroading, but one that was loved by the Harvard business school as the methods just used by PC keep getting repeated.

    APU, American Premier Underwrites, which is the real estate remains of PC is STILL suing (not sure which appeal this is) Amtrak for 50 million dollars, the amount that APU feels that their Amtrak Stock has been devalued, as if Amtrak was ever set up to make money. Ironically, if I recall correctly, 50 million was PC’s entry fee into Amtrak.

    • Emily says:

      Oh nice, just had to look up that Poughkeepsie Journal article.

      I read the Wreck of the Penn Central quite a while ago… some of the things were monumentally stupid – I think I recall a part where people that knew their recordkeeping was so bad, they were swiping PC’s freight cars, repainting them, and then selling them back to PC or charging rent or something like that. I should probably find my copy and flip through it again some time.

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