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Wa'al Hidy, Mr. Big Ol' UP! Glad I could provide some fodder for your first post! Now, I wasn't born yesterday; I know a little about rail history and other railroads besides UP. And I know something about hauling tonnage. And I've observed something of railroads over the years that believed their own press clippings. Of these, the two that share first place are your Big Ol' UP and the Standard of the World PRR. Others include the old C&O and the Wabash. Now, here's what I want you to do. Take a look at your UP and its steam power and, in your mind, take those Big Boys and Challengers down to that piddling little N&W and put it on their grades and curves and tell it that it had to move 5000 loads of coal every day, five days a week, over that minor-league layout, plus bring enough empties back to load tomorrow, plus haul a good mix of passenger trains and time freights, and see what you could do with it. While you're at it, take your big 800s down there and tell me how they'd do getting a 15-car Pelican out of Marion, Va. on a rainy December night, on its curves and upgrade; or how it would do picking its train back up to track speed after slowing down for the 25MPH curve on Bluefield Mountain. Then go and add up the Big Ol' Uncle Pete's common stock dividends for the period 1901-1982 and tell all of us how much it was. Then, go back in your Railway Age magazines where they printed the operating statistics of all the railroads, and tell me how badly the Big Ol' UP beat the piddling li'l N&W every time in such things as Gross Ton Miles per Train Hour and operating ratio. I know, there ain't no urgency hauling coal, but if you don't get the 5000 loads out of the way that they loaded today and get them 5000 empties back to the mines, they won't have anything to load tomorrow and you won't have any place to put it if they do. Now, Big Ol' UP man, I haven't been out west for quite a while, but I do know how to read. And if your Big Ol' UP has done a bang up job assimilating the CNW and the SP and satisfying all its customers, as well as competing with the BNSF, they've done a heckuva job hiding it from the press. - your friend, the Hickabilly Trailer Trash Ol' Timer
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