What are your views and opinions if the SPSF merger had went through? Also does anyone know if any locomotives were painted in full SPSF colors and lettering?
Each railroad had a loco painted in the full SPSF paint. These were for done temporarily for public relations purposes (when the merger was annouced). They were quickly returned to partial SPSF paint (lettering removed for the other RR).
Dan
The “Kodachrome” engines were painted such that when the merger did go through, all they had to add was the other two letters.
It had possiblities. At the time Santa Fe was looking to become more of a mainline only railroad. Southern Pacific was looking to end it’s cash flow problems. A lot of people I knew at the time were suprised when the merger was turned down.
I’m guessing that instead of 2 major railroads on each side of the Mississippi River we might have had 3-4. The ones that there would have been would’ve been much smaller than what we have now.
Personally the CNW might still be a railroad and I still might be living in the Chicago area.
Probelm was Snata fe bought the SP for all of its other companys like the pipelines and other stuff. I doubt the SPSF would have survived do to the fact that the SP was on life support at the time. The SP portain would have seen major realingments in routes and roughly 40% of the old SP would have been Dropped do to parrell trackage.
I liked the paint scheme.
SPSF would have killed the Golden St Route.
SPSF was probably doomed at conception for a variety of reasons. There was an overwhelming number of paralleling routes so that may have been a deal-killer for the STB. Corporate cultures were decidedly different, and we’ve seen the results when that comes into play. The posting that ATSF was after SP’s nonrail assets has some merit. It’s also interesting to note that Santa Fe opted not to appeal to Federal Court after the STB vetoed the deal.
Do you mean the ICC? I thought that the STB was created in the 1990s.
The January/February 2002 issue of Diesel Era had an article about SP Kodachromes in and lists them. Here is the list.
SP 1192 - SW900
SP 2539 - SW1500
SP 2575 - SW1500
SP 2700 - MP15
SP 2873 - GP9E
SP 2968 - SD35E
SP 3201 - SDP45
SP 3207 - SDP45
SP 3208 - SDP45
SP 3370 - GP9E
SP 3735 - GP9E
SP 3739 - GP9E
SP 3775 - GP9E
SP 3778 - GP9E
SP 3784 - GP9E
SP 3792 - GP9E
SP 3846 - GP9E
SP 4327 - SD9E
SP 4345 - SD9E
SP 4347 - SD9E
SP 4354 - SD9E
SP 4363 - SD9E
SP 4372 - SD9E
SP 4375 - SD9E
SP 4377 - SD9E
SP 4381 - SD9E
SP 4418 - SD9E
SP 4420 - SD9E
SP 6304 - GP35E
SP 6322 - GP35E
SP 6354 - GP35E
SP 6356 - GP35E
SP 6361 - GP35E
SP 6533 - GP35
SP 6566 - GP35
SP 6577 - GP35
SP 6606 - GP35
SP 6619 - GP35
SP 6622 - GP35
SP 6640 - GP35
SP 6644 - GP35
SP 6767 - SD45T-2R
SP 6768 - SD45T-2R
SP 6769 - SD45T-2R
SP 6770 - SD45T-2R
SP 7303 - SD40R
SP 7310 - SD40R
SP 7319 - SD40R
SP 7357 - SD40R
SP 7361 - SD40R
SP 7384 - SD40R
SP 7399 - SD44R [sic]
SP 7420 - SD45R
SP 7430 - SD45R
SP 7443 - SD45R
SP 7457 - SD45R
SP 7514 - SD45R
SP 7551 - SD45R
SP 7556 - SD45R
SP
I was one of the very few people in Wyoming who supported the SPSF merger, but for a series of very wicked reasons…
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The infighting as to whose parallel line would go would be tremendous. With the loss or downgrade of each route, the managers who came into the merger from the affected territory would have felt a psychological loss akin to gelding by a thousand small cuts.
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One carrier had a vehement, almost hysterical hatred towards passenger trains. The other carrier saw them as a benign adjunct to the operation. In fact, the other carrier probably had the best reputation towards passenger trains in the country. Same players had the same contrasting feelings about railfans as well.
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One carrier was the poster boy for arrogance. The other was more courtly.
So given these observations, the two corporate cultures would have killed each other. It would have been Penn Central all over again: The “Espee Gray-Team” vs. the “Santa Fe Blues,” “Them d@mn sons-o’-*** from Chicago” vs. “Them d@mn s.o.b.'s from San Francisco,” the “Daylights” vs.the “Warbonnets.” The entire merged proprety would have suffered badly.
Shouldnt Paint so Fast!!!
I was working for the SP in San Francisco at the time of the SPSF merger. I think it would have been a catastrophe. Even the very best managements could not have overcome the SP’s poor infrastructure and the complex nature of a parallel merger. SPSF would have been bankrupt in two years.