burlington, bnsf, burlington route

[twhite]

Tom … you can find old photos of the PZ traveling the country for publicity prior to entering service. One picture shows the little train entering Moffat Tunnel.

Garry:

Yup, that’s one of the reasons I got it. The other was that I’ve ALWAYS wanted a PZ, it’s just too sweet NOT to have!

Tom [:D]

[RedGrey62]

This just came across on the Burlington Yahoo Group. Nice poster that will be for sale in the future, I have no connection with the person making them other than we’re both BRHS members.

http://www.burlingtonroute.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=4&pos=26

Rick Keil

[twhite]

Rick–

Now that’s SWEEEEET!

Tom [:P]

[Texas_Zephyr]

In 1911 the Great Northern and Northern Pacific purchased most of the stock of the Burlington (something like 98%). The Burlington’s income (and consequently stock dividends) got both of those railroads through the great depression. While the Q remained the “head and brains” of the Hill lines, legally and financially it was a subordinate.

Umm…I"m not sure about that part. NP and GN were headquartered together in the Empire Building in St.Paul, I would think that was more the center of power rather than the Burlington folks in Chicago.

You are thinking just about the corporate organization. I was thinking on a much larger scale and their influence over the entire industry. Follow the careers of the the high ranking railroad executives (not just the BN) and see where they started their careers. Howard Elliot of the NP came from the Q, Claude Burnham, Edward Bracken, William Besler, Harry Byram, James Gorman, Hward Hetzler, etc. all got their “training” on the Q. The CB&Q was the caldron from which many many of the railroad excutives came from. During WWI Holden from the CB&Q was named as the representative to the government for the Hill lines. Then in WWII Ralph Budd was the one the US Government called upon to head the railroads. He was almost single handedly responsible for keeping them out of the hands of USRA like in WWI. The WWII deputy commissioner Karl Fischer was also choosen from the CB&Q management pool. Even without these key people during WWII the CB&Q management was so strong their railroad carried 88% more freight aand 179% more passengers than the system was designed to handle. Of course that would have been a much greater feat if the FW&DC had turned a profit! I guess you can’t win them all.

[dinwitty]

CB&Q merged with the Northern Pacific making the Burlington Northern.

The Santa Fe (which I had stocks in), merged with the Southern Pacific to make the Santa Fe Pacific (or was that Santa Fe Southern Pacific…)

Santa Fe had controlling interest in the D&RGW and sold it all off (to the UP I think)

SFSP merged with the Burlington Northern (but releases the Southern Pacific to the Union Pacific) to make the BNSF. I had no idea the SP went to the UP till I learned later.

C&S became CB&Q controlled and prolly standard gauged the line.

UP made a huge thing about the coming SFSP/BN merger and tried to buy up SFSP stock, but that didnt work.

[RedGrey62]

CB&Q merged with the Northern Pacific making the Burlington Northern.

The Santa Fe (which I had stocks in), merged with the Southern Pacific to make the Santa Fe Pacific (or was that Santa Fe Southern Pacific…)

Santa Fe had controlling interest in the D&RGW and sold it all off (to the UP I think)

SFSP merged with the Burlington Northern (but releases the Southern Pacific to the Union Pacific) to make the BNSF. I had no idea the SP went to the UP till I learned later.

C&S became CB&Q controlled and prolly standard gauged the line.

UP made a huge thing about the coming SFSP/BN merger and tried to buy up SFSP stock, but that didnt work.

dinwitty

My understanding is that the SP ATSF merger was never approved even though they assumed it would go thru and started painting some equipment.

DRGW then bought the SP but retained the SP name (now that is a novel concept!).

ATSF merged with BN to create the BNSF.

Meanwhile, UP bought (merged?) SP to finally create Harriman’s dream of the UP and CP (Central Pacific) line from the midwest to the Pacific. Of course already having CNW and direct access to Chicago didn’t hurt.

Rick