Under Sanborn, Conrail had been expected to try to expand into such areas as hauling waste and already is carrying compacted refuse from northern New Jersey and the New York City area to eastern Ohio.
There's a method to Mr. Sanborn's self-deprecating style.
Among those presenting awards were singers Anita Baker, Sheena Easton and Chaka Khan, Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson, Indianapolis Colts running back Eric Dickerson and jazz musicians David Sanborn and Dexter Gordon.
On tunes such as "Slam," "Pyramid" and "Touch," the band lays down a funky, percussion-filled rhythm track that lets Sanborn pick out the melody.
I wanted to talk about the putative acidity in Chase & Sanborn's Decaffeinated coffee.
But the betting is heavy that Mr. Sanborn is the top contender.
Since October, Sanborn has been co-host of "Sunday Night," a weekly late-night musical variety show on NBC affiliates.
Asked if Hagen intended to continue Sanborn's programs, a Conrail spokesman referred to Hillman's comments as released by the railroad.
Former colleagues say the short, bespectacled Mr. Sanborn, a self-proclaimed Woody Allen look-alike, puts people at ease.
Sanborn was Crane's handpicked successor.
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1960, Sanborn began his railroad career with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1961 as an attorney.
"Why should I have to leave everything I worked for and own just because of a siren blast from a plant I hate?" asked Herbert Sanborn, a 79-year-old Seabrook resident.
This is the same user-friendly Sanborn but with an edge.
They said Mr. Sanborn, a Harvard Law School graduate with 27 years in the railroad industry, shares Mr. Crane's hands-on style of railroading and has the perspective to expand Conrail's freight business.
The animals include three federally endangered species _ Sanborn's long-nosed bat, the bald eagle and the ridge-nosed rattlesnake.