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I've never tossed one of these out, so I wanted to throw a challenge out there on a subject near and dear to my heart, railroading.

For background, Conrail was the result of a long string of disasters that hit the Northeast. One of the biggest ones was the Penn Central merger, which was probably too big and definitely included too many dysfunctional bits (internal infighting, the New Haven being added, etc.), but there were a host of other problems. So, with a PoD no earlier than 1945, try to keep the private railroad industry in the Northeast intact.

I'm going to put four conditions out there that need to be met:
-Conrail, or some quasi-public equivalent controlling most or all of the major railroads in the Northeast United States, is not to be formed. I say "most" because of the number of extremely close calls that happened with either Southern, Chessie, or another railroad picking up one or two sections of railroad. Likewise, simply splitting the public entity in two isn't an option, either. A bailout is allowable, but a full or nearly full takeover is not.
-Likewise, neither the liquidation of the railroad industry in the Northeast nor the complete consolidation of the industry in the region is an option. Liquidation would be a colossal failure (and nearly happened IRL), while a total merger (or near-total merger) seems exceedingly unrealistic under most circumstances. One or two "big mergers"? Sure, but nothing pulling everyone under one roof.
-The Interstate Commerce Commission can't simply be abolished nor can it suddenly "get religion" and decide to let the railroads do as they please (here, I invoke realism...the ICC was usually stepping in on behalf of politically powerful constituencies).
-In general, "acts of God" should generally be in line with IRL. If you want to get rid of Hurricane Agnes, something should take its place. Simply wiping out a bunch of natural catastrophes might keep everyone afloat, but...well, just doing that isn't fun, is it? I'll include at least some merger troubles in this...no railroad mergers ever seem to go perfectly well (the Conrail breakup was a mess for a week or two), though a total meltdown isn't terribly lucky, either (though it can happen).

Bankruptcies and mergers are allowable (and were a fact of life in the region at the time), and the liquidation of a smaller line (or two) would be as well. However, do be realistic...a 1946 merger of every line in the region isn't going to happen. In 1976, maybe, but not 1946.
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