Full Throttle FT-COL64 SP / Cotton Belt | Covered Cylindrical Hopper | 2-Car Set

Road Numbers 1092, 79036

Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) was founded in 1865, later acquiring the Central Pacific RR by lease. The SP, a major USA railroad by 1900, incorporated many small Southern, Western and even Mexican Lines. By 1929 the SP/T&NO was huge, not including its Cotton Belt Line, whose purchase of the Golden State Route in 1980 doubled its size! In 1988 the SP was absorbed by Denver and Rio Grande but kept its name, then serving virtually the entire Southwestern USA!

In 1996 the SP became part of the Union Pacific Railroad. St. Louis Southwestern Railway (SSW), aka Cotton Belt, was organized in 1891 and ran on copious trackage from Illinois, down through Missouri and Arkansas, into Louisiana and eastern Texas. The Southern Pacific Company gained control in 1932, but ran Cotton Belt separately until 1992 when they consolidated. From 1959, Cotton Belt diesels were painted in SP's famous gray and red "bloody nose" scheme.