Frank Barnett, Ex-Railway Executive

Frank Barnett, former chairman and chief executive officer of Union Pacific Corp., has died at a Manhattan hospital after a heart attack, the company announced.

Barnett, 72, a key figure in the reorganization in 1973 of six bankrupt Northeastern railroads into Conrail, died at St. Luke’s Hospital Thursday, a spokeswoman said.

Barnett joined Union Pacific in 1951 as a lawyer and became chief executive officer and chairman of the executive committee in 1967. Two years later, he was named chairman of the board, succeeding E. Roland Harriman, a son of the railroad’s founder.

Barnett helped engineer the expansion of the railroad into Union Pacific Corp., an $8.5-billion holding company consisting of railroad, oil, natural gas, refining and mining interests.