[milwaukee-electric] KMCL/National City Lines.

[Louis Rugani]

On September 5, 1942 the Kenosha system came under the ownership of the new Kenosha Motor Coach Lines (KMCL) which had been incorporated on June 27, 1942. By 1948, KMCL began purchasing new diesel coaches, which finally supplanted all trolley-bus operations in March of 1952.

The president of Kenosha Motor Coach Lines was Henry P. Bruner (November 16, 1900 - November 30, 1993). Bruner had been a transportation consultant in Indiana, and with personal assets of approximately $16,000 managed to acquire southeastern Wisconsin transit properties valued at $1,242,000. He acquired the Racine city system in 1939 from The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transport, known as Racine Motor Coach Lines.

On December 27, 1943 KMCL under Bruner purchased the ten and one-half mile Kenosha-Racine segment of the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha rapid transit trackage from Milwaukee's Transport Company for $100,000, with a down payment of $22,500 and an annual payment of $7,750 plus an annual right-of-way rental of $6,500. (The book value of the line was $952,388.)

On September 27, 1944 KMCL, with a $75,000 down-payment, an annual payment of $5,000 and a yearly land rental of $5,000, acquired for $300,000 the remaining Racine-Milwaukee line of 24 miles, which included in its appraised book value of $1,720,214 Transport Company cars 1111, 1113, 1118 and 1120, and duplex trains 1180-1181, 1182-1183, 1184-1185 plus line-car D-23. The Transport Company furthermore had guaranteed KMCL a salvage value of $181,000 - $73,000 for the Kenosha-Racine segment and $158,000 for the Racine-Milwaukee portion.

These dealings brought about a $1 million stockholder lawsuit against KMCL and the Transport Company, which charged its officers and directors with profiteering by underbidding the purchases. The court denied the affirmations, a decision later upheld after appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

On July 18, 1945 the Shore Line Transit Corporation of Indiana quietly purchased all of the outstanding KMCL stock.

On September 27, 1945 another interurban segment, the 28-mile Milwaukee-Port Washington line, was sold to KMCL for $142,000 (a $37,5000 down payment, a $2,000 annual payment and a $3,900 annual land rental.) More rolling stock was included: cars 1139, 1140 and 1141, plus duplex trains 1186-1187, 1196-1197 and 1198-1199 plus line-car D-3 (ex D-23), M-1, 202, F250, F251 and F252, and section cars 40638 and 44037.

In December of 1946, KMCL bought the 23-mile Milwaukee-Waukesha-Hales Corners rapid transit line for $325,000 ($37,500 down and $7,500 a year plus annual land rental of $18,600), with an additional agreement to pay trackage rights to the Transport Company for operations over Milwaukee streets. In this transaction, all the remaining Transport Company rolling stock was tendered to KMCL. (The Transport Company retained all real-estate ownership plus operating rights over the Milwaukee-West Junction trackage.) Throughout all these purchases by KMCL, the operational crews remained employees of the original company.

Following these dealings the Transport Company was able to realize tax deductions of $3,432,676 on the sales of its interurban lines. Bruner's total risk was $169,000.

Bruner told the Milwaukee Journal on May 22nd, 1947 that KMCL "would like to abandon passenger service as soon as possible." His petition to abandon the Kenosha-Milwaukee rapid transit line was granted in stages. The last Kenosha-to-Racine train left at 12:55 a.m. on September 13, 1947 (with Frank Hemmingsten as motorman and Carl Hansen, conductor) and service on the Racine-Milwaukee line ended when the last train left Racine at 10:15 p.m. on December 31, 1947. (Quin Valdes was the last motorman, and Emil Nichol the conductor.) The next day, all replacement bus service by Bruner's subsidiary company Milwaukee & Lake Shore Line was canceled following a 10.8-inch snowfall. The bus line was not a success and was given up within one year.

Repeated attempts to abandon the Milwaukee-Waukesha-Hales Corner lines were denied, and Northland Greyhound acquired all KMCL stock on August 27, 1948. Northland Greyhound's initially stated intent to continue service but soon claimed losses of $20,000 per month and intent to abandon. That line would instead be resold to become The Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speedrail Co. KMCL, now Kenosha Motor Coach Company, was sold to Lakeshore Transit-Interurban. 
 

=Lou=

~~~~~~~~~~ **-=\/=-** ~~~~~~~~~~

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.       Robert Anthony


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Greig
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 2:33 PM
To: milwaukee-electric at lists.dementia.org
Subject: [milwaukee-electric] Re: National City Lines.

What was NCL's connection to Kenosha Motor Coach Lines?  I know that the North Shore Line was actually a majority owner of KMCL for a time, when it was still an interurban.

--- On Tue, 3/22/11, Louis Rugani <x779 at webtv.net> wrote:

> From: Louis Rugani <x779 at webtv.net>
> Subject: [milwaukee-electric] National City Lines.
> To: milwaukee-electric at lists.dementia.org
> Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 2:25 PM
> "I don't want a tit for tat rail
> argument here."
> 
> The gentleman posted the tit, so I posted the tat.
> 
> "But let's take it off this listserve 
> as a courtesy to the rest of the readers here."
> 
> I didn't consider anything remotely discourteous. My
> investigations show that NCL had its corroding fingers in
> Kenosha Motor Coach Lines, and thereby in Milwaukee. 
> 
> =Lou=
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~ **-=\/=-** ~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but
> conformity.? ? ???Robert Anthony
> 
> 
> 
>