I believe Ogilvie's job as trustee was to select the outcome that solved the immediate need of putting the company on its feet, preserving the most jobs possible, paying back the creditors. He had a limited time to accomplish it.

He chose to preserve a central core that would preserve roughly 6,000 of the 10,000 total employees. He believed many who lost their jobs would find work with other carriers. He estimated 95% of current shippers would continue to have rail access, either through the surviving MILW or through different carriers.

He said it was a myth that his real motive was to give a big cash windfall to creditors, or that he was ignoring labor. I believe him, as those do sound like baseless accusations. That is the story that Guest is repeating here.

One small but vocal group that Ogilvie did not mention in his plan were Lines West railfans. Why he would ignore such an important group, I do not know. (sarcasm)


Guest Wrote:
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> Apparently you're not too familiar with what
> happened to the Milwaukee Road & the Rock Island
> when they interested bankruptcy. Both looted by
> their trustees.
>
> The Milwaukee Road was never technically bankrupt.
> (Meaning liabilities exceeding their assets.) Its
> just the poorly managed Milwaukee Road lacked the
> Management expertise to hep themselves to
> profitability. Instead the Bankruptcy Trustee
> (Former IL Gov. Richard Olgilvie) took one look a
> the books and realized there were millions to be
> made liquidating the company instead of
> rehabilitating it.
>
> Similar story with the Rock Island.