Thanks garyla, here is what I found yesterday: "80 Years of Transportation Progress" was the October 1957 edition of Cotton Belt News. That was the publication of the Cotton Belt Public Relations Department. The material from the 1957 effort had been updated from seven issues of the 1947 Cotton Belt News where Anderson's thesis had been published.
Anderson's 1939 original thesis can be found at the Special Collections Library of Texas A&M-Commerce and at the Commerce Public Library Special Collections.
As is often the case, a dissertation with some broader appeal (like one about railroads!) forms the basis for a larger book later. The material from that 1939 effort is probably all contained in the following, which may not be in print but is available somewhere:
Anderson, Jacob E. 80 Years of Transportation Progress: A History of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway. Tyler, TX: Story-Wright, 1957.
Good hunting from a first cousin of two former welders at the Pine Bluff shops.
Is there anyone here at trains.com that either knew or knows of Jacob Anderson and his writing about the Cotton Belt? Anderson lived in TEXAS and wrote his thesis on the Cotton Belt in 1939.
thanks,
Ed
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