[PRCo] Re: Merry Christmas Westmoreland County

[Schneider Fred]

That differential is changing.   At Thanksgiving it was more like 20  
cents.

On Dec 10, 2008, at 8:38 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> I doubt if VW or Sony ever had any ownership in this facility.   
> I'll bet it
> belongs to an industrial development authority.  The story is going  
> around
> that there are two tenants wanting to take space in the place...but  
> they
> were going to sublet from Sony anyway, not replace Sony.
>
> Yes, I coined the name of the railroad.
>
> I'll bet gas is $1.39 or $1.49 in Carlisle, because it's $1.79 at  
> the end of
> my street.  There has typically been a 30-40-cent differential.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of
> Schneider Fred
> Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:43 PM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Merry Christmas Westmoreland County
>
> For those that did not see it....
>
> Back in the 1980s Volkswagen was touted as the economic savior of  
> southern
> Westmoreland County when the opened a brand new factory to
> build the Golf automobile; the American version was called a Rabbit.
> I nicknamed mine Thumper.   After a few years of the union beating
> them to death including pouring things like sugar into the gas  
> tanks of
> brand new cars, VW of America threw in the towel and closed the
> plant.   The United Auto Workers won.   They didn't have to work any
> more.
>
> Eventually VW sold the plant to Sony.   The announcement that made
> today's papers is that SONY is laying off 8,000 people worldwide.
> Closing the New Stanton plant in February is included.   A total of
> 560 people in Westmoreland County will be idled.   Note the word
> worldwide.   Underscore it.   Don't for one minute think we are in
> this by ourselves.
>
> Will we tear up the Milton Shapp Memorial Railroad or will someone
> else buy the empty factory?   (I think it was Ed Lybarger who coined
> that name after Governor Shapp spent millions to build a branch  
> north from
> Mount Pleasant to the factory for Volkswagen.)
>
> If you want to tie this to trolleys, the factory was probably half way
> between the Hunker and Hecla Junction mainline routes of West Penn  
> Railways
> south of Greensburg.
>
> Back to worldwide.   If you have not picked up on it, General Motors
> has factories in something like eight countries.   If we bail them
> out, we are bailing out the economies of seven other countries.   If
> we don't bail out GM, Ford and Chrysler, we also let the other
> suppliers collapse.   They are also building parts for BMW, Honda,
> Nissan, Toyota, Mercedes Benz who also have factories in this  
> country.  If
> the guy making seat fabric and wiring harnesses and tires goes  
> down, so do
> those other cars and their factories close and
> layoff people.   Goes back to I see the problem but I don't see the
> answers.
>
> Lowest gas price I saw today was $1.69 9/10s at a Sheetz station.
>
>
>
>
>