Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicle #316. San Antonio Division Deja Vu

Mad Dog Chronicle # 316. San Antonio Division Deja Vous

I recently spent the better part of a week on the North Texas portion of the SPs San Antonio Division.  I was assigned there as Assistant Division Superintendent from September of 1975 thru May of 1978. 
I had relieved Rollin Bredenberg (RDB) when he was transferred down to the Division headquarters at San Antonio, Texas.

I had bought RDBs house in Ennis.  This was not unusual, since many of our assignments were of fairly short duration as the SP was in the practice of broadening the experience of the younger generation of
Individuals that they were training for upper management.  In fact in most cases one could expect to have at least two assignments at the assistant superintendent level before you would be considered fo promotion to Division Superintendent.
My Superintendent was W E Corbett,  the General Manager was John Ramsey.  Ramsey had been Superintendent of the Old Dallas-Austin Division when it had been headquartered in Ennis.  He insisted that I must live in Ennis.  Then a year later, Bill Lacy traded assignments with Ramsey.  Lacy asked why my office was not in Dallas.  A short while later Lacy added the Southern portion of the Cotton Belt Division to my responsibilities and gave me one month to move my office up there,  Miller Yard on the south side of Dallas was forty five miles from Ennis.   Lacy told me that the SP would pay to move my family to Dallas , but I had moved too much so I chose to stay in Ennis.  At that time Ennis had a population of 12 thousand and was outside the commuting range of Dallas.

(All of this is covered in mdc's. #91 to #118)

During this visit to North Texas I was able to spend several days looking at some of the major changes to the Railroad infrastructure that have occurred in the metroplex over the past forty five years.
For several days I was accompanied by RDB.  He recently retired from the BNSF.  Absolutely do no refer to this carrier as the"BN"  when talking to Rollin by the way!

Major changes of note:
The railroad mergers. There used to be seven class ones that operated in North Texas, now there two.  For  passenger ops only AMTRAK.  now also TRE and soon an new carrier Texrail, serving the DFW airport from Fort Worth. We looked over some of that construction, a 800 million dollar project bring even more changes to the region

Of course, many of the smaller yards are closed. of note, SPs Broadway yard.  Actually allof the small,downtown Ft Worth rail yards have disappeared.  ATSF, FWD, RI.  MKTs. Nye yard is still in service for the UP.
Then there is the new BNSF logistics center at Alliance and the UPs intermodal complex at Wilmer-Hutchins just South of Dallas on the Former H&TC main line of the SP. This location had actually been selected in 1986 for a  consolidated  intermodal hub for the  SPSF, of course never built until the UP acquisition of the SP.

Of course there was a visit to Ennis covered in mdc# 315.

mdo
grumble mumble   Pardon my French!



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/18 11:04 by mdo.

DART's purchases also changed a lot of the landscape.

CCDeWeese Wrote:
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> DART's purchases also changed a lot of the
> landscape

yes they did.  I just did not spend any time looking at them on this trip, Charlie  However I later also looked at Salt Lake UTA Front Runner  and was very impressed will cover that soon. You and I earned our money on that job for sure.
i

mdo



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/18 18:47 by mdo.

There were actually 9 railroads serving the metroplex.  T&P, MP (from Waco, abandoned about 1963), Frisco, Rock Island , FW&D (BN) , MKT, Santa Fe , KCS, and the SP but, you can make it 10 if you count the Cotton Belt seperate..

Now there are  3,  BNSF, UP, Ft Worth & Western,.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/18 19:10 by tomstp.

DEJA VU
😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Deja vois - [a new one on me, "already see"]
Deja vous - "already you"
Deja vu - "already seen"

Carol has it right.

As Yogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all over again."

Rob L.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/18 08:57 by rob_l.

rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Deja vois -
> Deja vous - "already you"
> Deja vu - "already seen"
>
> Carol has it right.
>
> As Yogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all over
> again."
>
> Rob L.

pardon my French, yogi, rob, Carol .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/18 09:27 by mdo.

mdo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rob_l Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Deja vois -
> > Deja vous - "already you"
> > Deja vu - "already seen"
> >
> > Carol has it right.
> >
> > As Yogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all over
> > again."
> >
> > Rob L.
>
> pardon my French, yogi, rob, Carol .

Just stick to your native English , Mike, and you should be okay!
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
But in the meantime, keep the Chronicles coming!
C 

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

I agree with RDB on calling it BN,but old habits are hard to break as my son calls BNSF "BN"Bill Webb