This is for all you SP fans out there,Question.
What was it that made you love the SP so much?
Was it the Railroad? The Locomotives? The History of the SP in general?
What? Over the Years I have grown very foned of the SP. But ever since the UP took over. Everything seems very bleek to me just to why this country feel the need to have every Railroad go merger crazy. Just like the CNW,Mo-Pac,MKT,WP,and so on. I think that Mergers are very stupid. Don’t take me wrong but that is just my thinking. But anyway…
I did grow very fond of the big deep blue SP! I hate to see every SP AC4400CW’s that go by my town with that dumb patch on their cabs.
But I guess that’s the way things have to happen in this country.
But now that the CNW&SP are now a part of the UP system,What do you do now? Do you still Photograph UP Locomotives even today?
Now that we are down to just 4 major class 1 Railroads…Well,Only time will tell. I mean ever since the UP did take control of the SP I have never seen so many SP Locomotives in my whole intire life.
I just wanted to know whet will you HARD CORE SP FANS do when every SP Locomotive is fianly painted in the UP armor Yellow? I mean there are still Hundreds of SP Locomotives still roaming the UP system. And by the way. Just how many SP fans are still out there? And what ever happend to the SP SD70M’s? Allan.
BNSFrailfan maybe you should come over here to the greater Philadelphia area, if your sice of seeing pached SP units. About 3 weeks ago in Upper Merion Twh I saw a unpached untouched, pure SP AC44CW number 164. It was on the point with a NS Dash -940CW number 9971. I jumped up and down and hollered over that one because that is something that doesn’t come around the block eveyday espeacilly over here in PA.
Not that I dislike any railroads, but the SP never did anything for me. Especially after the D&RGW merger. Anschutz’s decision to keep that entitiy flying under the SP banner never sat well with me. I guess its all moot anyway now.
Seriously, though, what is up with the venomous animosity being unleashed towards the UP. UP was forced to takeover the SP after the BNSF merger. So why is no one mad about that? And they had controlling interest in the C&NW for a long time. It kind of surprises me that they let them live as long as they did.
If there’s a Railroad Borg out there, I should think it’s the CN. How is it that no one complains about them? IC, WC, DM&IR, DWP, AC, GT, CV, etc. all gobbled up by them. The “Canadian” National running to New Orleans? Ha! I still get a kick out of that one.
The Question that I have is? Is what caused the SP to fail in the first place right before the UP took them over? Wasn’t it the SP in which caused the Meltdown of the UP system in the first place? If I am correct. Wasn’t there a rumor that the SP was going Bankrupt? Allan.
The big Union Pacific meltdown started in Houston when UP management decided not to listen to SP management. SP needed the satellite yards to help the big yard and the UP experts thought the main yard could do all the work.
I recently had a chance to hear a former SP traveling engineer (or whatever they called them–we call them Managers of Operating Practices) tell us about how lean things were on the east end of their railroad just before the UP took them over. Unbelievable stories, even to this employee of the CNW during very lean times! I’m sure that the SP, like CNW, wound up being very good at doing a lot more with a lot less, but I still think that UP probably could have learned a thing or two about operating their particular parts of the railroad by listening to them, if they cared to.
Growing up in the 1950s I was exposed to lots of trains, both real, model and in books. I had railroad books like “The Big Book of Trains,” “The Little Engine That Could” and many more. Then there were the visit to grandpa’s house, he lived next to the Southern Pacific’s Coast Line. No matter what we were playing, if we heard a train we’d stop that and run to the corner where we could watch the train pass. It could be the Lark, Daylight, Commuter, through freight or a local, I never was disappointed. Then we got an American Flyer train and Dad built my older brother and I a 4’ x 8’ railroad empire of our own.
Well as time went on, baseball, fishing, cars, motorcycles and girls took over and the railroading in me went dormant. Graduated from high school then college and onto a series of 3 jobs. At twenty nine years of age decided I needed to work for a company that had a future, where there was good wages, good retirement, good medical and good working conditions. Found that job and with it came more free time and disposable income than I’d ever had…well the model railroad bug bit, from there I got interested in logging railroads and their history.
At the local hobby shop I met a few railfans, one in particular became sort of my mentor. We started to chase trains and history, the modeling was put aside. After every roll of film would come back I’d share it with my railfan mentor and he’d look over my photos and offer suggestion when things didn’t turn out. I also would go out railfanning with this fellow, he used a 5 x 7 view camera most of the time. After a time he said, so what’s your favorite railroad now? Up to that time I’d never really thought of it, after a minute or two I replied, I think it’ll be the Southern Pacific. From that time on its always been the Espee.
Yep, I’m a foamer, if its got flanged wheels running on rails, I’ll watch it and take photos of it. I’ve always been into the western roads only because that is where I’ve been and like most
Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930 by Richard J. Orsi
The summer 2005 S.P. Trainlines magazine (published by the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society) reviews the above book. Here are some quotes from the review:
“…a valuable exploration of the myriad development and promotion activities of the SP…explores in depth the role of the SP in water development, promotion of immigration to the West, agricultural improvement, and conservation…an eloquent and much-needed balancing of accounts where the SP is concerned…this is primarily a book of text…the book is (a) rich trove of information and will reward careful perusal…I recommend it most highly.”
For me it’s cause SP was always the railroad down the street. All my life I’ve lived a stones throw from an SP main. Oxnard on the coast. Belmont on the busy SF peninsula. The Modoc line in northern California (where the Lakeview branch went through our property). And just down the street from Gemco yard. And during it’s last days Palm Springs. Plus my grandmothers family were mostly lifelong SP employees. SP was the friendly. It was a railroad that was accessable. And a railroad that put on a good show.
My thinking is the UPRR is the biggest so they get the most bashing. Something akin to David & Golitah. Jealously is the next best reason. Then there are the fallen flag lovers who blame the UPRR for the demise of their favorite RR. These are all guesses on my part though.
How far west are you in Colo? I will be at Canyonlands & Arches next month. If you are not to far away from there maybe we could connect at like Moab [:o)][:p][:)]
I used to deal with the SPRR for moving containers to/from LAX to Hout & Nola. Also to/from Oakland to the E/coast via Ogden. My OPINION was they really/truly tried there best but came up short due to the extremely limited resources they had. I can remember times that our conatiners sat in the yard for days because they were short of flatcars or locos or both. Also once the UPRR took over the WPRR the Ogden gateway was no longer needed by UPRR to get to central CA since the UPRR now owned the Feather river route all to themselves to reach Oakland/SF & wanted no pasrt of a interchange with the SPRR at Ogden.
I also signed the petition to allow the SPRR to purchase the GSR which in my opinion was nuts since after they reached KC they had no where to go. But trying to market that new route I think also put a drain into there resources.
For me there were several things that turned me on to the Southern Pacific.
At the time only them and DRGW had tunnel motors. I understood their train symbols better. I could see as many as 17 locomotives per train (on the heavier ones). They ran long trains, I’ve seen as many as 200 cars per train. They had Direct Traffic Control (DTC) around here in the San Fernando Valley along the Coastline as well as Saugas Line, the two lines merging at Burbank Junction. I did enjoy the conversations on the scanner between the crews.
I still visit the Coastline from time to time now that it’s Union Pacific controlled, but its not really the same for me. Another difference I’m still getting used to is hearing the Metrolink Valley Ventura Sub dispatcher dispating the Coastline in what once was the old Hewitt, Northridge, Chatsworth and Santa Susana blocks under DTC and the old Burbank, Sun Valley, San Fernando, Sylmar, Saugas, Humphreys, Lang Ravenna and Paris blocks on the Saugas Line.[:(]