UP Bashing? We should be bashing SP

[brothaslide]

I'm not into bashing any railroad but from a business point of view SP should be bashed.

SP was once the largest land owner in California and a profitable business. Due to bad managment and other market factors, SP was run into the ground. If SP had a good managment team back in the day', perhaps it could have been SP that bought Rio Grande and then annexed UP.

Should have, would have, could have. . . you know the rest of the story[%-)][:-^]

[Anonymous]

I've tried modeling a few SP locos just to add a bit of variety to my motive power and the hardest part of modeling them is the weathering. I swear the SP never washed anything, LOL.

As I looked through all the photos on various posts what struck me most is how most of their locos before the end looked almost black. The only part that was mostly clean was the painted on numbers where a worker had rubbed it clean so they could at least figure out what unit it was.

It was a sign of how things had degraded for the SP I guess.

Even though I model the UP and am glad it's still around I hate to see other class ones turn into just another fallen flag...

Warren

[Jetrock]

One of my favorite things about SP is the utter griminess of their equipment! I have articles about the Sacramento Shops with color photos of brand-new freshly painted SP engines and they just look wrong--SP engines shouldn't sparkle! There are still plenty of engines in SP colors at Roseville Yard, and since nobody repaints them in SP colors they look like someone covered the locomotive with old slate and a coat of rust.

SP was once called "The Octopus" due to the scope and magnitude of its corporate power, with its tentacles deep in California politics--the sometimes unscrupulous behavior of railroads was one of the major factors behind things like the Populist movement, unions, anti-trust legislation, the ICC, etcetera. There is typically plenty to criticize about any large, powerful organization, be it government, corporate or otherwise--often matched or counterbalanced by the majesty of their history and accomplishments.

The latter half of the 20th Century was bad for railroading in general, thanks to government-subsidized competition from highways, the aforementioned mismanagement and resistance to ideas that would have increased railroads' viability, and the heavy-handed control of the ICC.

[Anonymous]

The failed SPSF merger left Southern Pacific Transportation Company devoid of all other assets. The ICC allowed all parts of Southern Pacific Corporation to be merged into Santa Fe Industries. The railroad alone was left to flounder without the other assets it was unavoidable that it would decline and be sold at a considerable discount. Rio Grande purchased Southern Pacific and through a complicated legal process SP (Central Pacific) purchased Union Pacific. This was a legal manuver to claim the tax benefits due the Central Pacific corporate sucessor.

[Anonymous]

I think SP said "we don't need no stink'in wash racks".