Railroaders' Nostalgia > Merger Update #33

During the SP-Santa Fe merger period the Santa Fe and I suppose the SP, would occasionally put out a merger update to employees on progress or lack of progress.  With the Trains Magazine cover story about the biggest blunders in railroading, I was reminded of the last merger update I saw.  It probably wasn't actually No. 33, but somewhere in that range.

After the ICC denied the merger a second time everyone knew the Santa Fe Southern Pacific would have to sell one of the railroads.  At the Santa Fe everyone assumed it would be SP.  This was during the time in 1987-88 that John Reed came out of retirement to be Chairman for a short period.  This last update appeared one morning on the bulletin board in the dispatchers office in San Bernardino.  It said, in so many words, the board of directors had met and decided that the AT&SF would be put up for sale and the SP would be retained.  John Reed expressed best wishes to all his former colleges at Santa Fe in their future endeavor's.

The superintendent often checked in with the chief dispatcher in the morning, coffee was in the back room where the 3rd and 4th district CTC machines were.  After getting his morning coffee he stopped in the Needles office and perused the bulletin board.  Upon seeing the merger update he burned up the floor tiles back to his office and started calling folks for more information about putting Santa Fe up for sale.  He apparently distressed a few of his peers that hadn't heard the news.  Finally, someone in the know called Bull!  Now he was embarrassed.  

The search for the author of merger update NO. 33 was mercifully short.  He confessed, to avoid everyone being fired.  Funny thing, the culprit never had any time off, but he did use a donut for his chair for a couple of weeks.  As far as I know he still has the only copy of merger update No. 33 left.

Guy had an interesting sense of humor. To me, personally, it was a stupid thing to do and he's darn lucky he wasn't fired on the spot!
Jokes are one thing, but when you mess with people's lives, that ain't funny.

So some of the guys at the Santa Fe suffered some brief anxiety. For those of us at the SP, our anxiety and concern was long term (years) as was our financial loss (no pay raises for a long time, while inflation continued upwards). When the UP did take over (kind of a merger) there was still much uncertainty, but things began to improve. Looking back I greatly miss the SP but acknowledge that what happened was necessary.

Merger cartoon No. 1 circulated in the SP offices within hours of the announcement of the first merger attempt.
It depicted Chico committing a nasty sort of assult upon a hapless looking octepus.
Chico was saying "Santa Fe All the Way", the octepus looked quite sad.
I have a couple of suspicions of people with both the imagination and the rebellious reputation that could have done it but that is not "actionable intelligence."
(It is not fit to share here.)