Mine came today in Houston.

I knew the page count, but I was actually surprised to realize this was twice the size of the typical ‘railroad book’. The insider’s view of the operations and the rationale behind the changes is something rarely written about, since even a very knowledgeable railfan isn’t normally privy to this. There must have been an unusually large number of the employees who cared enough about the railroad to keep so much information, and an unusually tight-knit group who knew about these collections.

I’ll offer a side note: I worked for Fluor for 45 years, and near the end of the period of time when the company was a relatively undiversified engineering and construction company of process plants, with its relatively cyclical nature, the management decided to buy a more stable business with more steady cash flow, so they bought St. Joe Lead, which had itself just bought Massey Coal. That was in 1981. Shortly after that, the prices of many metals collapsed and this asset turned into a very large liability. Took them years to unwind all those ownerships.

RG7