What a great series of comments!!! We are getting to the very heart of why
we are Q fans; ie. what made the Q attractive. Those Boston investors were
indeed men of honor yet good, tough businessmen - in for the long haul & not
a quick profit or "in & out". This in turn created top mgt - witness
Perkins & Budd (read Overton's dual bio of the 2) and finally Murphy. The
Q was often referred to in the RR press as the "father of RR presidents" as
so many CEO's of other RRs came from the Q inc. Santa Fe, C&NW, NYC, etc.
The sound mgt meant a sound financial picture (recall that 100+ yrs of never
missing a dividend - unheard of among RRs & vitually unheard of among ALL
U.S.
corporatations). The R&D @ Aurora (& @ other points) was a major factor too
- success begats success. Recall the 1st use of diesel fuel made from coal
tar @ Aurora (I'll bring a pic to St. L. of Murphy looking at a bucket of
it). I believe certain innovations in teletype for business use were also Q
1sts. When you consider it was a granger, in an area over populated with
RRs & often the 2nd or 3rd RR to major points (Omaha, Denver, Kansas City,
St. Louis, TWin Cities, etc) it further proves good mgt hiring good people
running the RR as a transportation company (pioneering with buses, trucking
& almost air freight) = SUCCESS! Imagine if the Q had gone thru with the
once proposed extension to the West Coast but then again partnering with
the Hill Roads wasn't a bad idea either. Q people did indeed provide us
with a RR well worth railfanning, collecting & modeling! Gerald Edgar
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