The Southern Pacific (SP) was a huge American Railroad, founded in 1865 and incorporating many smaller railroads such as the Texas and New Orleans, Central Pacific, Morgan's Louisiana and Texas, and St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) which included the Golden State Route. The Southern Pacific, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, owned many narrow gauge routes and subsidiaries such as the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico. SP's trackage ran through Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon, including a route southward into Mexico! Rio Grande Industries (D&RGW) bought the SP in 1988, kept the Southern Pacific name, and expanded it's trackage to include Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming, virtually the entire Southwestern USA! Following years of financial problems, in 1996, the Southern Pacific was bought by the Union Pacific Railroad.
The models were manufactured with great details by Bowser Mfg., painted to a slight sheen in dark mineral brown inside and out, and equipped with custom Hay Bros. Garage coal loads. They sport the new Bowser Bettendorf trucks with super-gliding blackened metal wheels, and knuckle couplers, and feature white printing, immaculate, tiny and clean, in several sized fonts. The TNO model bears the SP circle logo. One SP model and one TNO model appear in each 2-pk.
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