Talk:D. William Brosnan

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Additional reference[edit]

Just found this reference. Need to integrate the information here. Slambo (Speak) 14:32, 15 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lack of Sources and Objectivity[edit]

"While Brosnan was a brilliant railroader and innovator, his ham-fisted tactics of management, specifically during the takeover of the Central of Georgia Railroad in 1963, forever marked him as a ruthless tyrant to many."

A "ham-fisted" "tyrant?" Regardless of the mixed metaphors here, it's not very objective. Do you have sources that say he was ham-fisted and/or tyrannical? You also say, "For many years after Brosnan was gone one could not find any former Central of Georgia (and very few Southern) agreement employees who would speak of him in printable language." Really? Again, you need sources. This entry smacks of the venting of a disgruntled employee. Also, it lacks such basic information as when he was born. Since there were several men in the family named D. William Brosnan, you need a birth date.216.48.60.35 (talk) 19:39, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In 2019 Henry Posner III, of Railroad Development Corporation, spoke/wrote about Brosnan's legacy:

"If you look at what Bill Brosnan did at the Southern, and in my opinion he was the Greatest Railroader Ever, not Hunter Harrison. He was a dictator; he was not a very nice person, which is why only 2 people in this room have ever heard of him. He was written out of the history books because no one liked him. He did not even make it into the book The Men Who Loved Trains, which I think is the best alltime book ever, but for a footnote which I believe is a reference to him throwing a desk at somebody; that was it. This was a guy who got permission for railroads to lower their rates; who automated track machinery; who invented distributed power; and a long list of other things that came from one individual who by force of will made things happen, and nobody has ever heard of him…. because he was not a nice person."

"For the Southern it was Bill Brosnan’s ability to single handedly, through force of will, create a culture; and that book is probably the worst rail biography ever written, The Railroads’ Messiah. It’s 1,200 pages; I started reading it in February; I finished it last week. It is a slog; it is so bad that the Lexington Group [1] in 1997 wrote a scathing review that this is the worst biography ever written, which is why I bought a copy; but it sat on my shelf until I was invited to Brosnan Forest for the first time. The book is so bad that it was privately published." http://rrdc.com/speech_MRRA_MN_07_22_2019_print.pdf

Acwilson9 (talk) 07:05, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]