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Not until after its fourth bankruptcy, in 1938, did the Erie begin to steam upgrade again, with Oldtime Railroadman Robert Eastman Woodruff,* 66, at the throttle. Woodruff, who had risen from section hand to president in 36 years with the Erie, bought new diesels for fast freight, streamlined the Erie's creaky business methods, cleared $21.8 million in 1941. The next year, Erie directors cheerfully announced that "icicles have sprouted in hell." They paid a 50¢ common dividend, their first in 69 years. Dividends have been declared every year since (1950's payment: $1.75 a share).
Erie has spent $114 million on new equipment in the past ten years, now hauls a bigger percentage of freight with diesels than any other trunk line in the U.S. Its radio communications system, linking the engineer with the caboose and with wayside dispatchers, is the most elaborate in the U.S.; its accident rate is less than half the U.S. railroad average. Wall Street's scarlet woman has become as correct and prudent as a Park Avenue dowager.
*He also made his cattle thirsty by letting them lick salt while driving them to market, then filled them up with water before weighing them for sale. From this practice came the financial term "watered stock."
*No kin to Coca-Cola's Robert Winship Woodruff.