[PRCo] Re: PRCo__1940s__Bankruptcy__Trustees

[Bill Robb]

>From having worked in the credit field, I can tell you that some bankruptcy trustees are primarily concerned with the fees they collect.  Anything to do with the business or creditors recovering some of their money can be secondary.
   
  Trustees deal with all sorts of businesses. They would almost certainly have no street railway experience. There mandate is to run the business with as little investment as possible and to retain as much cash as possible  If investments are going to me made that would be determined by the bankruptcy court.
   
  That being said, some businesses can't just be shutdown.  A whole city was depending on Pittsburgh Railways for transportation.  Another type of business that is hard to shutdown is a hotel.  What do you do with the building?  Any investments made by the trustees were most likely seen as reducing expenses while maintaining the transportation service to the city.
   
  Bill Robb
prcopcc at p-r-co.com wrote:
  Good Morning!
.
.
While I am normally more of a nuts and bolts as well as day to day 
operations afficianado, I have found that Knowing the people behind the 
scene (whether the photographer or worker / manager) can add real depth of 
meaning to PRCo. I would thus like to learn more about the group of 
Trustees who managed PRCo through the Bankruptcy of late 1930s into the 
1950s. Ed has probably learned much from his musings through company 
records and John is a serious student of railway history, especially very 
early history, but may also be in tune with this Bankruptcy. Others 
may find this information enlightening as we learn about the Trustees.
.
.
I have a number of questions first::
.
How do Trustees fit into Corporate Organization?
.
Are Trustees true outsiders or people from within who are appointed to this 
special function?
.
I would imagine that the corporate structure of PRCo remained largely 
intact. Thus PRCo staff would present needs to trustees with the 
latter having final say on any actual action -- is this a fair *--Over 
Generalization?--* The business acumen of the trustees could certainly 
be applied as well and there could be considerable interaction between the 
two.
.
.
The video of PCCs in North America was shot in 16mm-COLOR(!) as early as 
1942 when PRCo 12s were brand new. But at this late date when 10s were 
6-years old (having survived 4-seasons annually for this time frame) the 
10s look Freshly Delivered! This is during the bankrupatcy!
.
The bulk of the PCCs were ordered during the bankruptcy.
.
Experimentation and ordering of Interurban PCCs were in the middle of this 
bankruptcy.
.
It has been mentioned on this list that the trustees saw to considerable 
track renewal during the bankruptcy.
.
.
These observations and comments here tend to reveal quite favorable 
treatment of PRCo by the trustees. Kind of causes a warm glow within 
but I would like to have something more substantive!
.
Who were these people?
.
What is their background and experience?
.
What did they do before becoming PRCo Trustees and what did they do when 
their job with PRCo was finished?
.
Do we know any more about Trustee accomplishments in relation to PRCo?
.
.
Jim___Holland



 		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Next-gen email? Have it all with the  all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.