Hello everyone. For those of you that dont know, I am a Pere Marquette Railroad afficianado and collect historical PM pictures and documents. On Saturday my 3 yr old brother got ahold of my 1948 Pere Marquette E7 photo acctually taken by the railroad and ripped it. He then found and destroyed my Bachmann HO scale Pere Marquette 1225 (also my favorite locomotive) so collecting is now on hold untill I get the money to replair the photo and buy and new model. I did put a lock on my closet so all the remaining historical andimportant stuff is now safe. Anyway today in the mail I recieved a 1942 Pere Marquette Railroad annual report I got from an auction. It is original and for 1942 the only thing that makes it non-mint is the staples which are a bit rusty and the pages that are a little wavy! This report lists the costs of maintenence and equipment and many other things. In general describes everything associated with the PM. I think it was meant for important people that had a say in what goes on with the Pere Marquette so it is a mystery has how the original owner got ahold of it and kept it in such great shape. Did the Frisco publish anything like this? If so what years. I know the Pere Marquette ran a publication for employees up until the mid to late 1930's. I think they ran the annual report from 1941 until the Chesapeake and Ohio Merger in 1947. It would be interesting to find any remaining Frisco reports. Thanks, Logan Schupp
Pretty much every railroad published annual reports. The information was for the benefit of current and prospective investors (VERY important people). Frisco annual reports are all over the place at train shows around here. I can imagine other RR anual reports are easier to find in each company's respective region. If you're looking to buy, check eBay: collectibles > transportation > rairodiana-trains > "paper." Tom Check here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Annual-Reports-/36010/i.html?_catref=1 Frisco: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...kw=&_osacat=36010&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 PM: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...sco&_osacat=36010&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
Logan, Tom has summed it up pretty well. Annual Reports are a good, general "big picture" overview of a corporation's previous year, along with management's analysis of the corporation's operations and financial condition. They're thorough enough for the shareholders and provide good information for other interested parties (including railfans, in the case of railroads), along with complying with the Securities & Exchange Commission's requirements. While not the full report, here's a cover page from the 1975 Frisco Annual Report: http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?2809-SLSF-75-Annual-Report Best Regards,
Later years have more photos and graphics. Early years are densely packed with monochrome tables of data. For example, here is a page from 1926 with a 20 year history of freight and passenger statistics. Try dividing "passengers per train" by "passengers per car" to get the average length of a passenger train or "tons per train" by "tons per car" to get an approximation of freight train length.
This thread got me wondering where to find Annual Reports. While the MSU and Springfield Library links from the Frisco Portal yield many very fine Frisco-related items, neither lists clear availability of Annual Reports. Scratching the surface of the John W. Barriger Collection at the Mercantile Library gives a clue Frisco Annual Reports may be there. http://www.umsl.edu/barriger/collections/index.html http://www.umsl.edu/barriger/collections/jwbpapers.htm Drilling down, clues arose that they were likely in "Series I - Corporate Records," "Subseries 302—St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company (Frisco Lines)." A quick attempt to get a listing using those two links in the searchable on-line database yielded nothing. This is not surprising because the collection is HUGE so searching has to be precise. George "maybe a later try will be more successful" Nelson
If anyone needs any information from the Frisco's annual reports, I have every one from 1920 thru 1979 (except for 1925 - still looking for it!), plus I have 1918 and 1909. Ken
Thanks for all the information guys! I checked out all the links and there is alot more out there than I thought. Being I dont have a drivers liscence until my birthday in August I probably wont get to any railroad shows. Hopefully when I do some more frisco and Pere Marquette reports will surface. The one I have wasnt cheap though. With shipping it was $50 but it was well worth it!
THe Barriger Collection at the University of Missouri St Louis Mercantile Library has a full set of Frisco Annual Reports. The from and content of the reports were dictated by the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1887 onwards. About 1915 the ICC chaged the reporting format . The pre 1915 annual reports have lots of location specific items (eg. floods on Central Division, replacements of bridges etc.) After 1915 they are more tabular in nature with an emphasis on finances and operations.They are not helpful in tracking events in a particular geographic area. The Securities & Exhange Commission was created in 1933-1934 and railroads with outstanding debt were subject to SEC reporting rules. Some entities, for instance the Muskogee Group (Midand Valley etc) had no public debt and did not need to file.
Wow. I'd love to see 1943 posted here, Ken, or at least any pertinent operational data. Or, send me a PM if that's a better way to make arrangements. Best Regards,
Chris - Why 1943? Are you, like Don Wirth, honoring my birth year by basing your layout era on 1943? Thanks! (Ha!) Ken
Ken, back when I decided that I was interested in the steam era, I had delusions of grandeur for modeling the River Division right in the thick of the WWII traffic deluge. While I've since decided that modeling a busy Chaffee Sub mainline with troop trains aplenty isn't for me, I still like the idea of running troop trains as extras, not to mention that I have a 1943 ORER reprint and my sole Pacific has a larger-sized sand dome, similar to the Frisco's shoppings c. late '42-early '43. I've known all along that I might decide to bend reality here and there (for instance, running a Mogul when I want), but I had to find a single year for my focus, lest I just want to buy everything in sight. So, in my opinion, you came into the world during a pretty interesting time: lots of rail traffic, and a Cardinals' team that had just started a pretty nice run under Mr. Southworth and Company. Best Regards,
Chris - I've pulled out my 1943 SLSF annual report - now I'm trying to figure out how to scan it so I can post it. It's 40+ pages long, and is large - bigger than the faceplate on my scanner. I got these from several sources, a bunch of them from the railroad itself right before the merger, before BN came in and everything was thrown out. This one is in mint condition! Frisco Lines - a 4945 mile system on 12/31/43. Ken
Ken, do you have photoshop? if you do scan pages in as many sections as you need, then do a photo merge on them.
FYI, attached are what most will regard as the three most interesting tables contained in the 1943 Annual Report for the St Louis-San Francisco Railway Company: Summaries of freight traffic, freight and passenger cars, and locomotives, for the year 1943, with some comparisons to 1942. Ken
Thanks Ken--A lot more railfan "meat" in these compared to the later years reports with more financial stats. Tom
Tom - Lots of financial data, mostly boring, in those 40+ pages as well! I tried to post only operating data. One bit of data that is very interesting is the passenger data - ridership on the SLSF was up a bunch, 1943 vs 1942, no doubt due to the WW2-related traffic. Ken
Here is the 1943 summary (clear back to 1916!) of annual passenger and freight traffic and revenue. Look at the huge increase in passenger traffic for 1943, but miles carried per passenger remained the same! They got 2.24 cents per mile from each passenger, over twice from what they got from the average freight load (0.88). But, there was a heck of a lot more freight traffic, and freight did not require expensive coaches, Pullman's, diners, conductors, depots, etc. Interesting data! Ken
Ken, this will do just fine and dandy! Many, many thanks for posting and sharing. Indeed, I'm more interested in the operational stuff, and this is spectacular! Best Regards,
