John W. Ingram (April 6, 1929 – January 27, 2008) was the President of the

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

in its final years, from 1974 to 1979.

Career

Ingram was

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce railroa ...

(FRA) Administrator from 1971 to 1974, and took over the Rock Island in 1974, and resigned in November 1979, only several months later on January 24, 1980, the Rock Island was ordered to be liquidated in federal bankruptcy court. In 1974, Ingram wanted a new paint design for the Rock Island, this new paint, was blue, black and white (former colors had been red and yellow). In September 1979, the Rock Island clerks walked out on strike against the railroad. The

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

ordered the

Kansas City Terminal Railway The Kansas City Terminal Railway is a Class III terminal railroad that serves as a joint operation of the trunk railroads that serve the Kansas City metropolitan area, the United States' second largest rail hub after Chicago. It is operated b ...

to take over operations, and Ingram resigned. At that point, William M. Gibbons, who was already the receiver and trustee of the railroad, took over as president. The Rock Island was shut down in March 1980 after being bankrupt for several years. Ingram began his railroad career during his college years in New York City as a brakeman or the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

(NYCRR). After graduation in 1951 he was hired as a research analyst in the Economic Analysis Office of the NYCRR. While there he was one of the founders of the Transportation Research Forum (TRF) along with Herbert Whitten of the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

(C&O). In about 1960 he joined the Marketing Department of the Southern Railway in Washington, DC. Soon he developed what became known as the "Big John" covered hopper car to transport bulk grain at low freight rated from the Midwest to poultry farms in the Southeast which led to fast growth of that industry and became the primary means of grain shipment by rail throughout the nation. In 1971 he joined the Federal Dept. of Transportation as FRA Administrator. He was the older brother of Radio Hall of Fame member

Dan Ingram Daniel Trombley Ingram (September 7, 1934 – June 24, 2018) was an American Top 40 radio "disc jockey", in a 50-year career on radio stations, which included WABC and WCBS-FM, both ln New York City. Career "Big Dan" started broadcasting at ...

References

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 20th-century American railroad executives 2008 deaths 1929 births Administrators of the Federal Railroad Administration {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub