The really surprising thing about Conrail was that it actually worked. Few people, observing the Penn Central train wreck, held out any hope that more of the same would fix anything. But with the courts and the political machine behind it, and deep government pockets, Conrail was able to shed a whole bunch of dead wood that had eluded PC. In management, in labor, in redundant routes, and in terms of state & municiple taxes. I recently came across a large stash of my old Trains magazines from the PC/Conrail era, and have been enjoying re-reading John G. Kneiling's rants re the eastern rail scene. He had much to say on the subject, and now, 30 years later some of it actually makes sense.

One of the real tragedies of the PC failure was the Bangor & Aroostook, a small well-run railroad that was unfortunately heavily dependent on its PC connection. PC's final months coincided with the large Maine potato harvest...BAR moved the crop efficiently to their connection, but PC was unable or unwilling to foreward it or to return empty cars. Practically the entire crop sat and rotted in PC yards. BAR was on the hook for damages but was unable to collect either damages or demurrage from PC. That fiasco bankrupted a lot of Maine farmers and effectively broke BAR.

In hindsight it might have been advisable to have formed a second Conrail...sort of a "Conrail Northeast". A B&M, MEC, BAR, CV, D&H and/or EL combo would have had good midwestern and Canadian connections - and sufficient muscle to have become a powerful and profitable class one railroad in its own right.