Nostalgia & History > Special Report on a New Kind of American Railroad...

I pondered in my mind, just how many of these 12 page national advertising mid-1970 inserts, introducing the "public-at-large" to the then new "Burlington Northern Railroad", are left in existence? Then, of those of the age to actually have seen one of these when they were new - how many even (recall?) seeing one - let alone saving it? Also, note the Newspapers it was to be provided to on the bottom of the front page. I wonder how many of these journals are still around? Finally, here is the most poignant observation about this mass-media marketing item - that the railroad it was introducing to the World at the time - has already succumbed to a merger - thus ending its' life as an "independent" carrier!

These imponderables triggered a myriad of other observations...

But let me provide a synopsis of what lie in between the covers shown here:

• The late David P. Morgan wrote the entire advertising text, entitled "Burlington Northern: A railroad worth waiting for" *

• Pages 10 and 11 included a series of questions, answered by the late John M. Budd (John Marshall Budd was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Burlington Northern Railroad from 1970 to 1971, Chairman from 1971 to 1972, and a Director from 1970 to 1977); and, Louis W. Menk, (served as the last President of Northern Pacific Railway 1966-1970, before the railroad was merged into Burlington Northern Railroad, whereupon he served as the President of the newly merged company) **

• Pages 2 and 3 provided a System Wide map of the U.S., showing all subsidiaries

• Page 4 provided color images of and an explanation of the emerging container trade with the Orient

• Page 6 provided an introductory image of the (new) Regional Vice Presidents: Fred Deines (Omaha), Ivan Ethington (Chicago), Don King (Minneapolis), Jim Westergard (Portland), Worth Smith (Seattle), and John Davies (Billings)

• Page 7 provided an introductory images of Jon Terrill and Ellis Simmons, Presidents of BN Subsidiary Roads Colorado and Southern and the Fort Worth and Denver, respectively (both roads came with the CB&Q). They emphasized the newly created benefit of having the "country's only single rail route between all Northwest ports and the Gulf"

• Between the covers are a total of 48 (mostly color) images

* (Lead in by D.P.M.: ..."A unanimous Supreme Court decision February 2, 1970 promises to change the future of American Railroading. After 74 years, the Court permitted the merger of 'the Northern lines'. Burlington Northern was the result. What can we expect of it is the question railroaders are asking, and the lives of millions of Americans will be affected by the answer"...)

** (Caption under the photo of Budd and Menk: ..."INFORMATION FROM EXPERIENCE. Since the historic merger last March, John M. Budd, Chairman of the Board, and Louis W. Menk, President, have answered hundreds of questions about the progress of Burlington Northern. Questions have come from shippers, business and civic leaders, journalists, educators, and investors. For this publication, Mr. Budd and Mr. Menk answer those questions most often asked"...)

PLEASE NOTE: In that I am not CURRENTLY planning to scan any additional pages, thus leaving out a plethora of text, if you have any specific questions regarding this document, I will gladly address that which can be readily answered from it directly. I will leave "Google" up to the rest.

I truly hope that those that loved the Burlington Northern Railroad enjoyed this amazing marketing document, probably the very last of its kind in corporate history.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

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Yep, still have my copy!

Mine is out in my Train Room

i tried to save the news paper version,the paragraph on passenger service was telling, liked the pic of of e unit at sunrise.

lou menk train killer

ATSF100WEST Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> • Page 6 provided an introductory image of the
> (new) Regional Vice Presidents: Fred Deines
> (Omaha), Ivan Ethington (Chicago), Don King
> (Minneapolis), Jim Westergard (Portland), Worth
> Smith (Seattle), and John Davies (Billings)

James Westergard was the last executive of SP&S. He was only in the BN Regional VP - Portland job a short while (maybe a year) before retiring.

Worthington Smith left within a couple of years to become Milwaukee Road president.

Ivan Ethington was promoted within a year or two to become System VP Operations.

During the first year or two after the merger, these guys really had their hands full trying to avoid a total melt-down. It was hard for them to get the merger plan to work. BN leased a lot of power as the railroad slowed down. There also was a lot of labor unrest as ex-NP men were transferred into GN territories and vice-versa. And ramping up coal volumes on the ex-NP, the ex-CBQ and ex-C&S lines was problematic to say the least.

Best regards,

Rob L.

That center photo on page 2 in the middle shows one of those old, irritating puzzle switches. Man, I hated trying to line myself out of Pasco through that thing!

For a good look at how it all played out, at least in the Pacific Northwest, Rob Leachman's "Northwest Passage" is most informative (and wonderful eye candy too.)

ATSF100WEST Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
how
> many even (recall?) seeing one - let alone saving
> it?

I remember seeing one years ago as a teenager and thinking it was pretty cool. Maybe at a train show?

> • Page 7 provided an introductory images of Jon
> Terrill and Ellis Simmons, Presidents of BN
> Subsidiary Roads Colorado and Southern and the
> Fort Worth and Denver, respectively (both roads
> came with the CB&Q). They emphasized the newly
> created benefit of having the "country's only
> single rail route between all Northwest ports and
> the Gulf"

Wide-eyed optimism for sure. I believe the most merchandise freight they ever got was about 3 trains a day each way, from Ft. Worth at least. A regional junk freight pair and a long-distance Houston-Pasco/Laurel manifest pair, plus the 91/92 intermodals. Seems to me there should've been a lot more traffic moving in this lane, and if you take away the regional coal business to Texas, I wonder if the part between Pueblo and Amarillo woulda been DOA after the BNSF merger in favor of the ex-SF route for the still-minimal non-coal traffic? Of course, plenty of coal turned it into one beautiful (and undervalued by railfans) line to fan back in the 80s and 90s before the traffic was split. I guess coal covered a lot of sins back then, probably everywhere on BN.

I wonder who does better today between PNW and Texas, BNSF or UP?

JG,
Fort Worth

jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > • Page 7 provided an introductory images of
> Jon
> > Terrill and Ellis Simmons, Presidents of BN
> > Subsidiary Roads Colorado and Southern and the
> > Fort Worth and Denver, respectively (both roads
> > came with the CB&Q). They emphasized the newly
> > created benefit of having the "country's only
> > single rail route between all Northwest ports
> and
> > the Gulf"
>
> Wide-eyed optimism for sure.

I think they had little or no clue about international traffic flows. What possible value could there be for a rail line connecting PNW ports with Gulf ports?

> I believe the most
> merchandise freight they ever got was about 3
> trains a day each way, from Ft. Worth at least. A
> regional junk freight pair and a long-distance
> Houston-Pasco/Laurel manifest pair, plus the 91/92
> intermodals.

Back in the early 1970s:

77-78 were the "priority" freights Galveston - PNW. Little intermodal. 77 was totally re-blocked at Teague, Amarillo, Denver, Cheyenne and Laurel. 122 hours Galveston - Pasco. 78 was totally re-blocked at Laurel, Casper, Pueblo, Dalhart and Wichita Falls. 128 hours Pasco - Galveston.
151-152 were manifests Ft. Worth - Denver. 152 handled the Southern California beer to ATSF at Trinidad and to CRIP at Dalhart, and also handled Texas beer.
141-142 were secondary manifests Denver - Guernsey
177-178 were secondary manifests Lincoln - Laurel.
There must have been secondary manifests between Ft. Worth and Houston, but my BN train briefs do not cover the secondary FWD trains.
So two manifests each way over most of the route up to Laurel.

> Seems to me there should've been a
> lot more traffic moving in this lane, and if you
> take away the regional coal business to Texas, I
> wonder if the part between Pueblo and Amarillo
> woulda been DOA after the BNSF merger in favor of
> the ex-SF route for the still-minimal non-coal
> traffic? Of course, plenty of coal turned it into
> one beautiful (and undervalued by railfans) line
> to fan back in the 80s and 90s before the traffic
> was split.

Not undervalued by everyone. For example, see my threads:
When They Ran the Loads Over Twin Mountain – Part I
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2079703
When They Ran the Loads Over Twin Mountain – Part II
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2080395
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part III
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2081068
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part IV
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2081843
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part V
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2082485
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part VI
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2083288
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part VII
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2084220
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part VIII
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2084996
When the Loads Ran Over Twin Mountain – Part IX
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2085363
Northbound Over Twin Mountain in 93-94 – Part I
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2087405
Northbound Over Twin Mountain in 93-94 – Part II
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2087405
Northbound Over Twin Mountain in 93-94 – Part III
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2089373
Northbound Over Twin Mountain in 93-94 – Part IV
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2090073
Northbound Over Twin Mountain in 93-94 – Part V
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2090976



>
> I wonder who does better today between PNW and
> Texas, BNSF or UP?
>

Back in the 70s, I think SP had the most in that lane. Nowadays, there is not all that much traffic between the PNW and Texas. Neither BNSF or UP has a lot. Neither road runs direct intermodal service.

Best regards,

Rob L.

I got my start on the BN in May, 1977 on a rail relay gang near Broken Bow, NE. One year later I was the timekeeper of the gang after transferring to the clerical craft. We had a "jet job" management hire visit the gang while we were working in the Sandhills relatively close to Alliance. I was instructed to show him around the work site. I vividly remember him telling me how the single track main we were working on was going to be a triple/quadruple main within several decades to handle the amount of coal traffic that was going to come online. I remarked we were having enough difficulty trying to get one main up to a standard to handle coal tonnage let alone trying to build and take care of three or four tracks. The last time I was on highway 2 three years ago the main east of Thedford, NE was still single track for quite a distance. Granted, our visitor in 1978 didn't have a crystal ball offering up information about the UP coming on the scene through the back door with the deal the UP made with the CNW. But I wonder if his optimism in '78 was just his or based on what he was hearing from other upper management at the time.

Kennard Britton
Bedford, TX