Can anyone explane what caused the fall of SP or where I could find articles on the subject? They were taken over by UP before I reentered the hobby.
Thank you
Larry Smith
Don’t remember what issue but Mark Hemphill wrote an EXCELLENT article on just this subject in Trains last year.
Basicly there primary traffic either dried up (auto parts, timber) or switched to the highway (perishables). In the 70’s they diversified (Sprint, pipelines,real estate) and in the 80’s the failed SPSF merger striped SP of many of those non rr assets as SPSF was forced to sell one of the railroads, SP was the one. Then Anshutz , owner of the DRGW bought SP and found out it was a lot harder railroad to run. Ultimately he had to hire Ed Moyers of IC fame to turn things around. By the time things were looking up the BN-SF merged and UP-SP was the logical reaction, forfilling a 100 year old dream of uniteing the Harriman empire.
Go read Hemphill’s article about the “Golden Empire.” SP’s traffic just dried up, and the marketing folks were unable to keep ahead of the changes.