And, screw it, I'll throw up Part 1 of the history of Turnbull Industries as well. Part 1 focusses on the company's initial establishment and its history under the control of the Timmerman family. Part 2 will focus on Edwin Turnbull's rise to power (including the gradual transformation of Timmerman Incorporated into Turnbull Industries), ending with the final Departure of
Snowpiercer from Chicago in 2036. I haven't completed the last bits of Part 2 yet, as I'm not sure which story option we'll be going with.
HISTORY OF TURNBULL INDUSTRIES
PART I: THE TIMMERMAN DYNASTY
Prior to the Freeze, Turnbull Industries Inc. was an American multinational conglomerate holding company and one of the most powerful business entities in the world. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company was administered by famed British-American engineer and centibillionaire Edwin Turnbull. Turnbull assumed control over the enterprise (then called Timmerman Incorporated) as CEO in 1999. Under his leadership, the company's market cap experienced a tenfold increase, peaking at $7.4 trillion in 2033. As the parent company of the Turnbull Intercontinental Railroad, Turnbull Industries is technically the last known corporation on Earth to have remained continuously active since the CW-7 launch.
The origins of Turnbull Industries can be traced back to 1802, when pioneering industrialist Gustaaf Timmerman established the Dutch Valley Company (DVC) in Albany, New York. The progeny of 17th century Dutch colonists to New Netherland, Timmerman inherited a small fortune from his family's involvement with the fur trade. The Dutch Valley Company began as a textile manufacturing company with additional stakes in local timber mills and logging firms. By the mid-1820s, the Timmermans had expanded into the shipping industry, and their associates exercised considerable influence over the Hudson River Steamboat Association.
Gustaaf Timmerman died of natural causes in 1839, willing his business empire to his only son, Lewis (later nicknamed "Papa Lewis"). Born Lodewijk Marinus Timmerman in 1796, Lewis came of age during the dawn of American mechanization. He developed a particular interest in steam power after having witnessed the
North River Steamboat passing through Albany on its maiden voyage in 1807. As President of the Dutch Valley Company, Lewis augmented the firm's shipping stocks and invested huge amounts of capital into emergent railroad companies around the Tri-State area. Cutthroat and relentlessly ambitious, he exploited his political connections to outmaneuver his rivals and corner the market. Within a decade, the Timmerman family controlled a majority stake in ten separate railroads across the American Northeast. In 1858, the Lewis established a new parent company, Timmerman Incorporated, which absorbed the DVC and its sister companies to form one of America's first official conglomerates.
Lewis "Papa Lewis" Timmerman,
c. 1870.
As head of his family's colossal enterprise, Lewis was often termed a robber baron by the press. The Timmerman patriarch attempted to rebut this characterization by presenting himself to the public as an openhanded philanthropist. He instituted a number of charities and nonprofit foundations during the Civil War, earning him the semi-derisive nickname "Papa Lewis" from the downtrodden workers under his employ. Lewis unironically embraced the title, leading to a slew of political cartoons depicting him as a rapacious "father" to dirtied and malnourished workers.
In 1863, Lewis consolidated five of his largest railroads -- the Manhattan Metropolitan Railway, the Algonquin Central Railroad, the Catskill-Adirondack Railway, the Great Lakes Extension Railroad, and the Chicago Gateway Railroad -- into one: the Empire State Central Railroad (ESCR). Headquartered in New York City, the ESCR spanned from the plains of Kansas to the heart of Boston, with several lines traversing the Canadian-American border into Ontario. It came to be regarded as the crown jewel of the Timmerman empire, becoming the second-largest railroad in the United States. Only the ESCR's chief competitor, the Keystone Railroad, stood in the way of total domination over the industry.
Established in 1845 by Philadelphian civil engineer and industrialist Irvin Farrington, the Keystone Railroad was a merger of the Crawford & Lancaster Railroad, the Pennsylvania Union Railway, and the Appalachian Valley Railroad. But the Keystone rapidly grew beyond its original charter. In 1852, Farrington orchestrated a successful bear hug against the Potomac & Ohio Railroad, which linked the states of Maryland and Virginia across the famed bridge at Harper's Ferry. The Keystone was subsequently granted tracking rights over the Roanoke Southern Railroad in 1858, facilitating its westward expansion toward the frontier.
The rivalry between Irvin Farrington and Lewis Timmerman began in the 1840s, when the two men clashed for control of the Atlantic steamship industry. However, their blood feud did not reach its peak until the so-called "Keystone Crisis" of 1867. The destruction wrought by the Civil War left most of the Keystone Railroad's southern lines in shambles. This, combined with a number of bad investments during the late antebellum period, hindered Farrington's ability to defend his company against hostile investors. By contrast, the ESCR saw its profit margins nearly double between 1861 and 1865, allowing Lewis to build up a substantial war chest. He made his move against Farrington in 1867, purchasing roughly $13 million in Keystone stock for a controlling interest in the company. But old Papa Lewis had been deceived. Having predicted Timmerman's offensive, Farrington assembled a coalition of financiers and politicians to aid him in a stock-watering stratagem that would shield the Keystone from acquisition. In purchasing the watered stock, Lewis had effectively been defrauded of his $13 million investment. A war of litigation ensued between the Farrington and Timmerman families. Lewis ultimately recouped the majority of his losses, but had failed to obtain control of the rival company.
The Keystone Crisis was a critical juncture for Timmerman Incorporated. It shattered Lewis's self-perception as an unassailable titan of industry, and he began to favor more risk-averse business strategies aimed at defending his empire rather than expanding it further. Ironically, these strategies saved Timmerman Incorporated and the ESCR from bankruptcy during the Panic of 1873. Indeed, the ESCR was among the few railroads to net a profit amidst the economic collapse. It was during this time that Lewis initiated the construction of the Timmerman Central Station in Manhattan, providing employment to several thousand workers in New York City. Completed in 1881, the Timmerman Central was the palatial terminus of the Empire State Central Railway's northeastern lines. Lewis often referred to the station as his crowning achievement "for which [his] name would be remembered forevermore."
Newspaper illustration of the skirmish between rioters
and Lewis Timmerman's security forces at the
Metropolitan Yard of Manhattan, c. 1877.
Lewis's name would be remembered forevermore, but not for the Timmerman Central Station. During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, protests ensued in Manhattan against the ESCR's cut wages. Local police struggled to maintain order, and riots erupted across the city. On July 20, strikers converged on the Empire State Central's Metropolitan Yard. Alarmed by reports of fires being set to his coaling towers, Lewis hired Pinkerton security agents to reassert control over the yard. At approximately 12:00PM in the afternoon of July 21, the agents opened fire on the crowd. Twenty were killed on the spot, and fourteen of the additional ninety injured later succumbed to their wounds. The incident sparked nationwide outrage against Lewis and the ESCR. Although the Timmermans were able to shift most of the blame upon the "anarchist" leaders of the strike, the company's profits were fractured by the negative press -- so much so that the completion of the Timmerman Central Station was delayed by almost four years.
Lewis Timmerman's culpability for the Metropolitan Yard Massacre was the death knell of his public reputation. He died in 1890 at the age of 92, mourned by few and missed by fewer. At the time of his death, the sum total value of Timmerman Incorporated and its subsidiaries was approximately $110 million. Lewis's final wish was for his empire to remain under the control of the Timmerman family for as long as fate permitted.
Fate, as it turned out, was quite generous toward the Timmermans. The progeny of Papa Lewis zealously defended their lordship over the Timmerman enterprise for generations. Despite several instances of near-bankruptcy during the early 20th century (culminating in the dissolution of three Timmerman subsidiaries after 1929 stock market crash), the company survived its darkest days and gradually reclaimed its prestige as an industrial giant. Key to the organization's perseverance was the Empire State Central Railway, which remained vital to interstate commerce throughout the Depression. The ESCR was by no means immune to the turmoil wrought by the Great Crash, but it had the advantage of superlative leadership.
Among the rising stars of the Empire State Central during the 1930s was Nelson Timmerman, a young and precocious manager of logistics in New York City. A great-great-grandson of Lewis Timmerman, Nelson entered the family business at the age of 18. His competence as an administrator and business strategist was almost immediately evident; within a year after his hiring, he'd nearly halved the cost of business in his department and turned a profit for the railroad's Manhattan division for the first time since 1930. So impressed were his superiors that they took to calling him "Crackerjack Nelson" -- a sobriquet that stuck for the duration of his long life. He rapidly ascended the managerial ranks of the Empire State Central, devising the introduction of groundbreaking innovations like the streamlined locomotive and diesel-powered engine system.
In 1948, Nelson was appointed President of the ESCR at the age of 32. He was subsequently given a seat on the board of Timmerman Incorporated in 1950, providing him access to the highest echelons of power in the conglomerate. The Crackerjack refused to let his newly-acquired influence go to waste. A student of history and longtime admirer of Lewis Timmerman, Nelson had inherited his great-great-grandfather's capacity to foresee market trajectories and socio-economic trends. He spearheaded several investments by Timmerman Incorporated into the real estate and construction industries, each netting gargantuan profits for the family's enterprise. In 1955, he co-founded Timmerman Estate Services for the acquisition, development, and marketing of commercial and residential property. A sister company, Empire Alliance Mortgage & Finance, was established in 1956 as an inlet into the financial services sector.
Nelson "Crackerjack" Timmerman,
c. 1960.
Around the same time, Timmerman Incorporated began to expand into the revitalized market of postwar Europe. Major exporters in the UK, France, and West Germany signed exclusive contracts with the Timmerman shipping consortium throughout the 1950s. Nelson was largely responsible for brokering said contracts, and his efforts led to an influx of capital that bolstered the company's domestic startups. In 1959, he was made a chief operating officer of Timmerman Incorporated, thereby allotting him even greater leeway to make decisions on the company's budget and business strategies. As COO, he masterminded the successful 1965 bear hug against the Hallman Hotels & Resorts Corporation, a multinational hospitality company with operating franchises in five countries. The profits of the renamed Timmer Hall Corporation (a play on the combination of "Timmerman" and "Hallman") swiftly recouped Nelson's initial outlay on the Hallman brand. Timmer Hall facilities became somewhat of a gold standard for hotel and resort services around the globe. It developed a reputation as a luxury trademark catering exclusively to the upper classes.
In 1970, Nelson was finally appointed CEO and Chairman of Timmerman Incorporated. His personal shares in the company amounted to roughly $2.5 billion in net assets, making him the wealthiest man in America at that time. Nelson wasted no time in consolidating his absolute authority as CEO. From 1970 to 1971, he systematically expelled any and all opposition to his vision for the future of the company. Several board members were canned outright, followed by scores of perceived dissenters in both upper and middle management. Most quietly took their severance packages and left. Those foolhardy enough to take the matter to court found themselves buried beneath an avalanche of attorneys and negative press. Some referred to the proceedings of 1970-71 as the "Great Purge," comparing Nelson's brutality to that of Stalin or Chairman Mao. Nevertheless, his unquestioned rule had been secured, and he was free to steer the firm in any which direction he pleased.
One of the first items on Nelson's administrative agenda was the revitalization of the old Dutch Valley Company, which had long since fallen to the wayside of the Timmerman portfolio. During its heyday as a textile manufacturing enterprise in the mid-19th century, the DVC was one of the largest employers in the State of New York. But the company had since devolved into something of a nostalgic keepsake for the Timmerman family. Nelson resuscitated the husk of the Dutch Valley Company by transforming it into a fashion house. The project was hugely influenced by Nelson's own wife, famed actress and fashion designer Noelle Hemingway, whom he had married in 1955. Noelle, who served as a primary consultant for the restructured DVC, became an icon of second-wave feminism in American pop culture. She aided in marketing the DVC brand as a symbol of both feminine elegance and defiant strength, allowing Timmerman Incorporated to profit from its association with a progressive trademark.
From 1970 to 1974, Nelson gradually outsourced the DVC's manufacturing pursuits overseas, replacing the company's executives with fashion-oriented directors. DVC headquarters were relocated from Albany to the bustling center of Manhattan, and the first Dutch Valley store opened to elaborate fanfare and publicity in 1975. Said publicity was fueled by Nelson's Dutch Valley Gala on Fifth Avenue -- a lavish gathering and jamboree of America's fashionable elite. The Dutch Valley Gala became an annual event, each surpassing the previous year's unbridled opulence in an ever-expanding display of wealth and power. By the turn of the 21st century, DVC stores were commonplace in plazas, malls, and shopping centers across North America.
Two years after the DVC opened its flagship store, Timmerman Incorporated financed the creation of a new hypermarket retail subsidiary. Under the corporate name of Nelson's Market Stores Inc., twenty-five Nelson's Supercenters were opened throughout New York State between 1977 and 1982. The chain exploded in popularity during the mid-1980s, when Nelson's Market Stores signed a number of lucrative contracts with Chinese-based producers, dramatically reducing manufacturing costs for the benefit of the company's American customer base. From 1985 to 2000, Nelson's Supercenters became a staple of the US economy, opening almost 2,500 stores nationwide.
In addition to his expansion into retail, Nelson oversaw the establishment of the Timmermans' first commercial airline in 1979. New Amsterdam Airlines, later rebranded NewAm Airlines, first offered short domestic flights between major cities along the Atlantic Seaboard. Its services expanded in the late 1980s to include transatlantic travel, eventually going global after the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc.
However, despite his many successes at the helm of Timmerman Incorporated, Nelson always remained a railroad man at heart. Even after becoming CEO of the holding company, he retained his title and position as President of the Empire State Central Railroad. Most American railroads struggled to stay afloat in the decades following the Second World War. The construction of the Interstate Highway System and concurrent suburbanization of American cities made the nation less reliant upon trains for public transport. This, combined with increasingly stringent regulation from the federal government, drove many privately-owned railroads into bankruptcy. While some lines were nationalized, others were decommissioned altogether. The Empire State Central was among the few private railroads large enough to persevere through the 1950s and 60s, but its profit margins continued to dwindle with each passing year. Despite countless petitions from his advisors to sell the company's shares of the ESCR, Nelson stubbornly refused. In his 1970 inaugural address to the shareholders of Timmerman Incorporated, he vowed to restore the railroad to its former glory, stating: "They don't call me 'Crackerjack' for nothing."
As part of his plan to salvage the Empire State Central from financial ruin, Nelson sought to achieve what even the great Papa Lewis Timmerman could not: a merger with the ESCR's chief competitor, the Keystone Railroad. Although many of his underlings initially balked at the idea, Nelson recognized the equally precarious state of the Keystone's finances and prospects. In a manner similar to the ESCR, the Keystone had remained under the control of its founding family since the 19th century. By the time Nelson became CEO of Timmerman Incorporated, the Keystone was headed by one Ray Farrington -- a descendant of old Papa Lewis Timmerman's archrival, Irvin Farrington. The Keystone Railroad operated as a subsidiary of Farrington Philadelphia Inc., the Farrington family's parent company of which Ray Farrington was chairman and chief executive. Unlike Nelson, Ray was fundamentally disinterested in the future of American railroading. He viewed the railroad industry as a dinosaur doomed to extinction, and was eager to divest Farrington Philadelphia of its "antiquated" holdings.
Ray Farrington (left) and Nelson Timmerman (right) in a television news
interview regarding the Keystone-Empire merger, c. 1980.
Talks between the Empire State Central and Keystone railroads regarding a potential merger began as early as 1972. Despite both organizations' best attempts at keeping the negotiations undisclosed to the public, information about the merger was eventually leaked to the press in 1974. The news was quite controversial; were the two railroads able to consolidate into one, that single entity would effectively own the entire Northeast Corridor and beyond. Critics denounced Nelson as a monopolist, labelling him with nicknames like "Tycoon Timmerman" and "Papa Nelson" (the latter of which Nelson secretly relished, being a keen admirer of his great-great-grandfather Lewis).
Despite the press leaking, negotiations between the Timmerman and Farrington families continued undisturbed. The process of integrating the unions, workflows, and administrative subdivisions of the two railroads proved incredibly laborious. Years passed, and a number of officials from both parties began to doubt whether the merger would ever be fully accomplished. But the efforts of those involved would not be in vain. In the summer of 1980, the Empire State Central and Keystone railroads were officially consolidated to form the Keystone Empire Central Railroad (KECR). Although the Farringtons retained a sizeable minority interest in the venture, Timmerman Incorporated was ceded full administrative and operational control. The Keystone Empire Central became the largest railroad in North America, owning a complex network of track that stretched from the lowlands of Quebec to the slopes of Coahuila and Nuevo León. Crackerjack Nelson had achieved the unachievable.
But the Keystone-Empire merger would not be the Crackerjack's only accomplishment in that fateful year of 1980. Nelson had always fostered a deep antipathy toward what he perceived as over-regulation of American railroads. Throughout the 1970s -- in tandem with the negotiations between Timmerman Incorporated and Farrington Philadelphia -- Nelson assembled a cabal of political and financial allies to aid him in dismantling governmental influence over the industry. Chief amongst those allies was Congressman Henry Silverton of West Virginia, who had chaired the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce since 1968. An old-time friend and colleague of Jimmy Carter, Silverton sponsored the so-called Silverton Rail Act of 1980, which President Carter signed into law on October 14th of that year. The Silverton Rail Act drastically reduced federal supervision of the railroad industry, and included terms that would grant certain exemptions from tariffs and customs duties to shippers transporting goods by train.
Not since the Gilded Age had rail companies wielded such economic power. Railroad profits soared, and Nelson took every opportunity to continue expanding his rail lines into the hinterlands of Canada and Mexico. But the Crackerjack had a final trick up his sleeve. In 1978, just two years prior to the Keystone-Empire merger, a young and ambitious student of engineering joined the Empire State Central Railroad as an apprentice. Charming, resourceful, and brilliant beyond comprehension, the man would one day become the Crackerjack's right hand.
His name was
Edwin Turnbull.