Former railroad CEOs Gaskins, Hagen and Krebs enter hall of fame

The National Railroad Hall of Fame today will induct three rail industry icons during a ceremony at BNSF Railway Co.'s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

The inductees are Darius Gaskins Jr., the former president and CEO of Burlington Northern Railroad; James Hagen, the former chairman, president and CEO of Conrail; and Robert Krebs, the former president/CEO of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, president/CEO of the Santa Fe Railway and president of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Gaskins might have had the most diverse resume of any Class I CEO, hall officials believe. Trained as an aeronautical engineer and Ph.D. economist, he had always sought to work in the federal policy arena. The career path that ultimately brought him to Burlington Northern’s CEO position is both a bit unexpected and fascinating, hall officials said in an online post.

Hagen joined the Federal Railroad Administration in 1971 as the Northeast rail system was on the verge of collapse. As head of the FRA’s economics department, he was tasked with formulating a solution to restructure the Northeast’s railroad system, hall officials said. Later, as vice president of operations and planning at the U.S. Railway Association, Hagen led a team that developed the final system plan approved by Congress to create Conrail. He then went on to serve as the head of marketing and ultimately CEO of Conrail’s system.

Krebs served the rail industry for 35 years. He was head of Santa Fe Pacific Corp. in 1996 when he assumed the position of BNSF chairman, president and CEO after Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad merged. Krebs stepped down as BNSF president and CEO in 2000, but continued to serve as chairman until he retired in 2002. He rose through the ranks to become one of only a handful of leaders to head three Class Is and oversee the merger of two major western railroads, hall officials said.

Located in Galesburg, Illinois, the hall of fame aims to honor the men and women of American railroading, and educate the public about the role railroads play in building the nation and helping to shape its future.

The newest class of inductees led railroads out of a period of decline in the 1960s and 1970s and into a renaissance that followed the rail industry’s deregulation in 1980, hall officials said.

“The rail network that serves our country today was shaped as a direct result of their work,” said Brooks Bentz, who chairs the hall’s rail industry advisory group.