[?]Hello all, is there enybody out there who can tell me how the SP and Cotton Belt were assosiated? They both had the “Bloody nose” scheme. Please clearify this for me, thank you.
Greetings from Wabash country, Belleville, MI
Southern Pacific was the owner of a majority of Cotton Belt’s stock since April 1932. Cotton Belt was a subsidiary company from that point on to the mighty Espee.
This should help fill in some of the blanks about your question.
Asked this question myself a while back, here’s the thred I started…
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30099
As an aside, SP managed to retain control of Cotton Belt even through Cotton Belt’s bankruptcy in 1935. As a result of the increase in traffic due to WW2 and afterwards, Cotton Belt again became profitable enough to pay all of its bills and the bankruptcy was terminated without a reorganization.