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...England woods the fiddlehead ferns were unfolding, and blankets of wisteria spread over the houses. Outside Santa Fe, ribbons of green laced the brown adobe on the flatlands, and here and there the full-flowering lilacs formed purple buttons. On riverbanks of the Northwest, wild rhododendrons, spiraling up to 30 feet, were spreading red and pink and white blooms two hands wide. Spring was full-blown in the U.S., and the nation's prevailing mood seemed to be as bright as its blossoms...
grew up to be the nation's longest (13,073 miles-see map), and, next to Union Pacific (which collects almost half its profits from oil and gas), the biggest moneymaker. The Santa Fe is also one of the most modern, e.g., it is the biggest road to be 100% dieselized, and its speedy (Chicago to Los Angeles in 40 hours), elegant Super Chief is the nation's most glamorous train, with a private dining room, barber, valet, and an occasional cocktail loungeful of Hollywood stars...
...explain how the Santa Fe reached its present eminence, President Fred Gurley, 66, has a ready answer. Says he: "Our business is a simple business. All we do is move something from one place to another. You look around for ways to move something with a minimum amount of effort and cost. You want to approach these things like a lazy person...
Opening the West. The first man to do things in the lazy Santa Fe style was a Topeka lawyer named Cyrus Holliday, who dreamed of running a railroad into the great Southwest to replace the prairie schooner. By 1890 he and a succession of strong-willed presidents had battled Indians, buffalo and rival railroaders to build or buy 9,000 miles of track. In 1894 the overextended Santa Fe went bankrupt and was picked up by Railroader Edward Ripley, who added 2,000 more miles of track by 1920, quadrupled the gross and put the company in a strong financial...
...when Edward J. Engel, a Santa Fe veteran of 40 years, became president, he brought in, as executive vice president and heir apparent, young Fred Gurley, who started railroading at 17 as a Burlington clerk, made a name for himself as a diesel man. Engel had the vision to see how dieselization (with Gurley bossing the job) could give the Santa Fe greater speed, lower operating costs...