Hello everyone! For the past few months, I have been working on a map of what I would think the ill-fated Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railway would look like. The map is not finished, but it is finished enough for me to share it. I made it on paint.net. Below is a very long but hopefully insightful explanation of what I mapped and why.
Here is a link to the map since I can’t find a way to upload it directly to the post:
Great map! Really appreciate the time invested to develop the “what if”.
It looks strange to not see a Northern Tier route (BN) across the top. Looking at the map, one can visualize why the merger was struck down. The SP would have probably been a heavy weight on the Santa Fe. Without the coal coming out of PRB would SFSP survived?
Again, great work.
Ed
This merger was denied because it curtailed competition. However, the vast real estate ownership of both, not utilized in railroad operations, was merged and placed under management of a new company created to manage it. Catelus I think was its name.
Catellus was indeed the company set up to manage the SF-SP real estate. Prior to the merger, the SP was noted for taking the long term view in managing its real estate holdings, especially with forests.
The irony was that once BNSF happened, Cattellus was fired by BNSF for some of its poor management and less than ethical behaviors, including selling railroad property without BNSF’s knowledge or consent. Enter Staubach.