Western Railroad Discussion > God Bless the Santa Fe video

This is a video produced by Santa Fe at the time of the SF/BN merger. Lee Greenwood did an excellent job! At that time my cousin was in corporate at Santa Fe and sent me this video and prior to that a couple corporate photos posted here. He began his career with major bank in NYC and had worked on the SF/SP merger. Mike Haverty at Santa Fe liked his work and asked him to come and work at Santa Fe. He did but when the SF/BN merger happened he quit and kept his family in Chicago opting out of the move to Ft Worth. Later Mike Haverty went to KCS and asked him to joim him at KCS which he did as the CFO. Eventually he became the CEO and retired after the CP merger.

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Great video!

texchief1

This video a very interesting mix of photos from long ago and some newer video segments.  

Outstanding!!!  Left a lump in my throat.  Thanks very much for posting.

BTW, at the 4 minute mark there's a shot of a man in a yard office (Barstow?) that bears a resemblance to ex-Santa Fe veteran, and PV owner, Norm Orfall.  Is it him or just his doppelganger?

-John

WOW!  Doesn't get any better than that!  Thanks for posting.

Excellent, enjoyed very much. Thanks 😊

Posted from Android

I doubt any other railroad would have went through this trouble. Santa Fe was an EXCELLENT railroad to work for. Not mentioned is BEFORE the video was passed out, to ALL employees by the way, they also made and gave out cassett tape of the same song. I too actually get a little choked up when I view or listen to it.
JB

That was quite the promotional effort at the time, excellent work.
I have a slightly different angle on the first photo you posted; I happened to work with the photographer (Laszlo Bencze) who was doing the annual report photography for my company, Alliant Techsystems, in Mukilteo, WA. As I was escorting him around our facility (we did a lot of classified DoD work), he mentioned he was doing the Santa Fe's annual report photography next. I talked to him about my railfanning experiences and he came to my home that evening to look through my photos for possible locations. Crozier Canyon was one of the sites he ended up using. He sent me a nice letter and the photo below as thanks for my assistance on locations.
He thought this was the better photo of his work, but Santa Fe wanted a closer pic, which was the one you posted. I believe this was the 1993 Annual Report.
(I did beg to accompany him on the trek as an assistant, but no luck!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/24 09:25 by 2-10-2.

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Very enjoyable video!!

Larry

2-10-2 Wrote:
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> That was quite the promotional effort at the time,
> excellent work.
> I have a slightly different angle on the first
> photo you posted; I happened to work with the
> photographer (Laszlo Bencze) who was doing the
> annual report photography for my company, Alliant
> Techsystems, in Mukilteo, WA. As I was escorting
> him around our facility (we did a lot of
> classified DoD work), he mentioned he was doing
> the Santa Fe's annual report photography next. I
> talked to him about my railfanning experiences and
> he came to my home that evening to look through my
> photos for possible locations. Crozier Canyon was
> one of the sites he ended up using. He sent me a
> nice letter and the photo below as thanks for my
> assistance on locations.
> He thought this was the better photo of his work,
> but Santa Fe wanted a closer pic, which was the
> one you posted. I believe this was the 1993 Annual
> Report.
> (I did beg to accompany him on the trek as an
> assistant, but no luck!)
That’s a neat story. Would have been interesting to join him and watch a master work.

Posted from iPhone

The song was written by the late Chuck Gierhart of Santa Fe’s corporate communications department.

Posted from iPhone

CSX2605 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 2-10-2 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------

> > (I did beg to accompany him on the trek as an
> > assistant, but no luck!)
> That’s a neat story. Would have been interesting
> to join him and watch a master work.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Here is Laszlo Bencze at work in 1997 for BNSF, in Cajon Pass.

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I really enjoyed the video.....