SP Extra 2873, 4/27/2007

[DeserTBoB93535]

The "Kodachrome" scheme is a lasting example of how greedy execs can ruin any company. SPSF = "Shouldn't Paint So Fast." The major idiot in this mess was Benny "Bag-O-Weenies" Biaggini, the failed chairman of SPT Co. Robbie Krebs, who was at SP during this time, engineered this failure, knowing it'd get turned down, and then jumped ship over to ATSF in time to get all of SP's real estate to Catalus. Krebs set SP up for complete failure by robbing it of all its real estate income.

[pianomanmaestro]

Is this a short line RR?

[Nathanrailfan]

@pianomanmaestro No. Railroad Museum

[Alwaystrains]

Sweet. I got to operate this locomotive.

[trainfanmark]

Nice Video!

[frrswebmaster]

We were teaching a few of our engineers how to stop with air on the entire train, I am the engineer (learning) at 1:16 into the video. The nose was not rebuilt into a high nose, SP chopped very few noses on their GP9s. It came to us with the nose intact.

[Nathanrailfan]

@frrswebmaster I love this SP 2873 GP9.

[warship821]

It must have been rebuilt back to a high nose. I thought all GP9s with nose noses got the chop.

[wildfire19861987]

I had no idea a Kodachrome was preserved! Nice.

If only a Santa Fe one had been preserved also... :(

[mafarnz]

I'm glad they preserved it in Kodachrome, despite the fact that the merger failed, it's colors were a big part of RR history.

[rockguitarist946]

@mafarnz and a good reason why the government should keep their heads out of everything

[mafarnz]

@rockguitarist946 Why, just so we could have cool paint schemes? The government stopped the SPSF merger because it was acting in the publics best interest. Having only 5 (7 if you include CP & CN as Americian) big Americian railroads is not a good thing. Except for Butte, BNSF has a monopoly over all rail traffic moving in, out and through Montana. This is not a good thing! Make no mistake, MRL is pretty much a BNSF subsidiary, the only class 1 they interchange with is BNSF.

[rockguitarist946]

@mafarnz so what if the SPSF was acting in theirs and the publics best interest? is there anything wrong with that and why should we have to please the government with everything we do? also, your statement about the MRL nearly being a BNSF subsidiary is incorrect, since there are many shoreline that do interchange with only one road and the said road is the only one in the area. If the ICC had never been formed there would be a lot more railroads then there are now. So yeah, the ICC can suck it

[DeserTBoB93535]

@rockguitarist946 You obviously know nothing of history, and listen to too much right wing talk radio.

[rockguitarist946]

@DeserTBoB93535 ooh, such a good comeback!(NOT) Why do you say I know nothing of RR history? What led you to that conclusion, the fact the SPSF is my favorite road? That's about as logical as me calling someone a democrat for being a Canadian Pacific fan. It's also a known fact that the ICC is solely responsible for the RR industry's crippled condition in the 70s and 80s, possibly the late 60s too. Another thing is the Penn Central, SPSF, and BN would be around if wasn't for the government

[DeserTBoB93535]

@rockguitarist946 You again prove my point. PC would've died no matter what. Go read "The Wreck Of The Penn Central" sometime and get a clue. Greedy fatcat Mainliners from Philly killed PC with their stupidity and greed...not the ICC, not the brotherhoods, none of that. Grinstien already knew NYC was in trouble and ran his RR on about HALF the revenue PRR had when they were going down. If it wasn't for former NYC operation keeping them afloat, PC would've died the same year!

[rockguitarist946]

@DeserTBoB93535 (con't) So what if I am a fan of Michael Savage? I guess it's wrong to love your country and hate your enemies now. You're logic that the SPSF deserved to be denied because it was acting in the public's best interest is still flawed, because the public=customers, gov't=interference. Please, let's agree to disagree so I don't get into another argument on why the government is not the solution and RRs deserved free-reign back in the day

[DeserTBoB93535]

@rockguitarist946 SP was...ATSF wasn't. SP needed help; ATSF had their eyes on SP's real estate portfolio. I know...I was there at the time. The villian in that scene was Robbie Krebs, no doubt about it. "Bag-O-Weenies" was too busy fiddling with his pipelines and getting into trouble over coal slurry interference to gave a crap about the RR. Russell left him one of the US' best freight RRs, and it only took "Bag-O-Weenies" ten years to destroy it. Krebs just helped ATSF pick the carcass.

[dutchtrainmanserie22]

Awesome video 5*****

[ALS2001]

Gotta love the kodachromes!

[fjnunesaz]

i had the chance to run this one back in 96 or

97 under the rent a loco program,i would highly recommend spending the money because for most of us this is the opportunity of a lifetime,back then it was $125 per hour

[dasmikey1964]

Cool, you caught a Kodachrome in action!