The true story of the Big Blue Railroad

[ezdays]

I just spent the past few days scouring the archives of the Big Blue Railroad and how it came to be. There's a lot of information on the Internet, but to get the whole story I had to dig through a pile of musty and dusty boxes stored in our headquarter basement. The story is fairly complicated and lengthy, with mergers, acquisitions and speculators, that span over 100 years, and so I've condensed it here for you all. In addition to this interesting story, I was able to dig out some of the artwork for a lot of the old and current logos and reporting marks, so as soon as I'm able to get these things organized in my computer, I'll be sure to post that here as well. Note that I left off names and specific places so as to protect the identity of those involved, good bad or otherwise, they'd really want it that way.

Here's the honest history of our railroad:

THE STORY BEHIND THE BIG BLUE RAILROAD

The Gauge Railroad start:
Sometime around the late 1880’s, there appeared to be a void in rail service to some communities and newly created industries along the growing areas around Ohio, Pennsylvania New York and parts of Canada. It appeared that none of the bigger railroads were interested in spending the resources to develop the area, so several community-spirited individuals thought it best to strike out on their own. With enough capital in hand, the hired an energetic man that had the right contacts and towards the end of 1890, the Gauge Railroad was formed. Between 1891 and 1900, well over 1,000 miles of track was laid bringing coal and wood to a number of remote industries and allowing many isolated towns rail access for goods and passenger service. The railroad was at its peak when it was sold to a speculator in 1947. The Gauge RR thrived for a good number of years as this speculator pumped up business with clever and innovated marketing techniques, but as is true for most railroads, modern highways and even some local air carriers cut deeply into their traffic and profits and the railroad was merged into other business interests held by this speculator. At some point, the burden of running this combined empire became too great and it was sold intact and as-is to a profit-oriented company with no knowledge of how to run a railroad. They tried, but continued to stumble with poor and intermittent service resulting in the loss of customers. Passenger service dwindled to a trickle, while trains had an overabundance of billboard reefers and boxcars, the seemingly single source of revenue for this new company.

Big Blue Railway begins:
Around the turn of the century, a small group of enterprising railroad enthusiasts decided to run a competing railroad with high hopes of expanding beyond the east, and to venture where no railroader had gone before. It was in 1908 when the Big Blue Railway was established on basically a shoestring and a lot of hope. This was the first railroad to establish service between Pennsylvania and Arizona, and with a lot of luck and hard work, made it succeed. Throngs of people rode the timely passenger trains between the two states while goods and raw material were seen being transported back and forth on a regular basis. Cacti, sand, citrus, Indian blankets and prairie dogs headed east while delicacies such as Tastykakes and cheesesteaks made their way into the stomachs of many desert dwellers thanks to the Big Blue. For the first time in history, many easterners could get a first-hand glimpse of the Grand Canyon. Desert Rats were seen touring the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. It was a win-win situation for everyone, and the railway grew and expanded to other parts of the country and even into Mexico and Canada as the first transcontinental railway on the North American continent to serve three countries. The downturn of the railroads in later years had little effect on Big Blue since because of all of its enthusiastic and frugal approach, it became a lean, mean, running machine.

The merger:
The management of Big Blue is always looking for routes to expand to and so when they saw an opportunity to assimilate the routes held by The Gauge RR, well, they snapped it up, thus merging it into Big Blue in 1960 and calling itself the Big Blue and Gauge Railroad, Ltd. Expansion knew no bounds, and through unique engineering techniques and management skills, it was able to expand beyond the borders of the continent and is now able to serve the world with inexpensive transportation of goods and people. By the end of the century, the railroad shortened its name to what it’s know as today, the BB&G Railroad. Management at the BB&G vowed to remove all advertising from their consists and never again to have third-party advertising anywhere on any of their trains. You will not find advertising anywhere on the railroad except for the products and services rendered by the BB&G; this had a positive impact on customers and passengers alike resulting in a sharp increase in traffic. A refreshing difference and is a contributing factor in the continued growth and stability of the railroad. To this day, you can find a mixture of steam and diesel locomotives, wood and metal cabooses and cars from all eras, mainly due to the thrifty nature of how the railroad is run; “Never, ever, throw anything away,” says their CEO, and they’ve held steadfast to this philosophy. It’s a crazy way to run a railroad, but it seems to work.

[cnw1961]

These are some very interesting, though barely known facts about our railroad. Thank you for digging it out. It is always good to know your roots.

[Ralph]

Thanks for the background on the BB&G Don! Nice to get the history.
Ralph

[sgtcarl1]

As a relative newbie, (or should that be a newbie relative???) I have anxiously awaited the revelation of our roots. Thank you, Don, and Mikey.

[LynnB]

Thanks for the history lesson.

[Russ Bellinis]

Don, you didn't mention copper being shipped on the BB&G from the "copper state" east. Did you forget, or did the big robber barons in the other railroads monopolize the copper shipments and leave us to ship sand and prairie dogs?

[eightyeightfan1]

Thats Plagerism!!!
I read that word for word in one of my railroad history books that I own.
Maybe someone else is got a copy.
Title of the book is: The History Of Little Known Railroads Based On Websites And Forums.(Carp L. Tinnel c.2001)

[Sarge]

Cool

[ezdays]

Don, you didn't mention copper being shipped on the BB&G from the "copper state" east. Did you forget, or did the big robber barons in the other railroads monopolize the copper shipments and leave us to ship sand and prairie dogs?

Russ, you are aware that copper wasn't discovered until 1925, by then there wasn't any room on any of the trains for that. Most copper was shipped out of Arizona by wagon train.

[Lester Perry]

As put by a famous German soldier "vedy interesting"

[Bigsteel]

nice history lesson ,but i want to know,who wil build the-gauge railroads first 4-4-0 ,that would be a site to see!--josh

[tetters]

Nuthin' but lies and conspiracy I tell ya's! All of it! :o

[ezdays]

Nuthin' but lies and conspiracy I tell ya's! All of it! :o

At first glance, one might think this was all made up, but if you'll check Wikipedia under, "significant influences on railroading throughout the world", you'll find a good deal of this information there. After all, if you saw it on Wikipedia, you know it has to be true.

And Ed, yes, there is plagiarism here, I wrote a similar article back in in the fall of 2000 titled, "Significant influences on railroading throughout the world", and I'm currently in litigation with the other so called, "author" over this. I'm also talking to my lawyers, Dewey, Cheetum and Howe, about this Wikipedia thing as well.

[Sumpter250]

Speculators........hmmmmm.

sold intact and as-is to a profit-oriented company with no knowledge of how to run a railroad. They tried, but continued to stumble with poor and intermittent service resulting in the loss of customers.

Hmmmmm.
To quote an old song, "It seems to me I've heard that song before".
Nice written Don!

[ezdays]

Well, I was trapezing around the yard the other day and saw some engines and other stuff related to both the Gauge and to Big Blue. Some stuff was pretty old and there were newer things there as well. I took a couple of photos and tired to ID what I saw, now here's some of the things I was able to photograph before security chased me out. I know they don't look like actual photos, but that's the best I could do with my old analog camera hooked up to a converter box that was plugged into my computer with a very long cable.

Oh, none of these are cast in concrete, I'm open for any ideas or criticism so have at it. There's more to come.