Company Employees

1. Obtain copies of Southern Pacific's Annual Reports for those years you're interested in. These typically list key executive positions held within the company including Presidents, VPs, CFOs (Chief Financial Officers), General Counsel etc. of not only the railroad, but often for the subsidiaries as well.
   

Employee Records

1. For 20th century employee records, the UP museum is your best bet. But you have to be a VERY close relative to obtain info, such as brother or father-son relations. I don't know if they do grandparents or not.
   

2. Tony Thompson
   

3. 
   

Central Pacific Executives

1. Timothy Guy Phelps, (Central Pacific) President, 1865-1868
   

2. Charles Crocker, (Central Pacific) President, 1868-1885
   

Southern Pacific Executives

1. Leland Stanford             Southern Pacific President 1885-1890 2
   

2. Collis P. Huntington     Southern Pacific President 1890-1900 2
   

3. Charles M. Hays            Southern Pacific President 1900-1901 2
   

4. Charles H. Tweed          Southern Pacific Chairman of the Board 1900-1903 2
   

5. Edward H. Harriman     Southern Pacific President 1901-1909 2
   

6. Robert S. Lovett             Southern Pacific President 1909-1911 2
   

7. William Sproule             Southern Pacific President 1911-1918 2
   

8. Julius Kruttschnitt          Southern Pacific President 1918-1920 2
   

9. William Sproule             Southern Pacific President 1920-1928 2
   

10. Henry W. de Forest       Southern Pacific Chairman of the Board 1929-1932 2
    

11. Paul Shoup                    Southern Pacific President 1929-1932 2
    

12. Hale Holden                  Southern Pacific Chairman 1932-1939 2
    

13. Angus D. McDonald     Southern Pacific President 1932-1941 2
    

14. Armand T. Mercler        Southern Pacific President 1941-1951 2
    

15. Donald J. Russell           Southern Pacific President 1952-1964 2
    

16. Benjamin F. Biaggini     Southern Pacific President 1964- 2
    

17. Denman McNear                                     President 1976-1979
    

18. Alan Furth                                               President 1979-1982
    

19. Robert D. Krebs                                       President 1982-1984
    

20. M. Mohan,                                              President 1984-
    

21. 
    

22. I have the beginnings of a list of SP executives.
    

23. Joe Strapac
    

1. Alan Furth was President of the holding company: Southern Pacific Company, not the railroad, Southern Pacific Transportation Company. Ed Moyers was hired when Anschutz and Morgan Stanley took the company public. Jerry Davis was President at the time of the UP take over.
   

2. Gary Laakso
   

Southern Pacific Chief Mechanical Officers

1. I have collected names and service dates for Chief Mechanical Officers (title varied) up through about 1985.
   

2. Tony Thompson
   

3. 
   

Number of Employees in 1880

1. The SP reported in the US census: 7 general officers, 22 general office clerks, 95 station men, 22 engineers, 15 conductors, 37 other train men, 17 machinists, 44 carpenters, 89 other shopmen, 130 track men, and 4 others, for a total of 482.
   

2. 
   

Jobs of the S.P.

1944 Circular 4

Executive Department

President                                                    Armand T. Mercler        Southern Pacific President 1941-1951

Executive Vice-Presidents

Vice-Presidents - Passenger Traffic              Felix McGinnis1929-1945

Financial Officer                                        David Myrick        1944-

1. 
   

Executive Secretary                                     Lester Glenn Arellanes

Manager of Public Relations

Gen. Advertising ManagerFred Treadway1930-1958

Division Supervisor

Asst. Division Supervisor

Accounting Department

Accountants

Head Cost Analyst - LA Division

Cost Analyst

Board of Pensions

Dining Car, Hotel, Restaurant and News Service Department

Dining Car Department

Dining Car Dept. - ManagerHarry A. Butler1932-1949

Train News Agents

1. To offer economical “Tray Service” to patrons on board trains consisting of refreshments, sandwiches (prepared fresh at the commissaries or in the dining car), snacks along with varied souvenirs, newspapers, etc.
   

Agents Helpers

1. assisted the TNA’s
   

Train Passenger Agents

1. Trains, 9 &10, 50 & 52, 53 & 54, 94 & 95, 96 & 97, and 98 & 99 all carried Train Passenger Agents from inception of 98 & 99 until 1958. These persons were mostly men who passed through the trains answering questions, handle arrangements for ticketing and settle problems that may arise. From time to time the TPA would make use of the train public address system to point out things of interest along the trip and to announce stops and meal calls. After the war, a few women did serve in this capacity.
   

2. 
   

S.P. Master Chef                                         Otto Paul Reiss

Traveling Chef

1. 
   

Supervising Chef

1. Worked in the kitchen/bakery units at West Oak or LA Commissaries with a staff of cooks which prepared such items as soup stocks, bullions, pies, mayonnaise, dressings, sauces, bakery goods for use on dining cars and restaurant service. Also prepared meats for “cold  service”, salads, special dishes on  coffee shop cars, sandwiches used in buffet service and for news agents on departing trains. Also made “blends” used for muffins, biscuits, hot cakes. etc.
   

Dining Car Steward

1. He was nominally the foreman for the whole crew. He was the only white person on the whole crew.
   

Dining Car Chef

Chef

1. He was the boss of the kitchen. He worked the charcoal broiler.
   

Dining Car Cook

Cooks

1. Prepared meals on the trains, Commissaries, ferry boats and stations. All wore white jackets, checkered denim trousers, and white chefs hat
   

2nd Cook

1. Prepared the soups and cooked the roasts in the oven and handed out orders to the waiters.
   

3rd Cook

1. He was the fry cook and worked the range.
   

4th Cook

1. He primarily was the dishwasher, peeled potatoes, shelled peas, cleaned vegetables and helped the chef or 2nd cook.
   

Inspector

Traveling Waiter

1. 
   

Dining Car Pantryman

1. He was like the head waiter. Pantrymen worked in the pantry area of a dining car. They added the finishing touches to a plate before delivery to the waiter.
   

Stewards

Waiter

Liquor

Butcher

1. Prepared meats for meal services. Smoked, cured meats, worked on dressing beef, poultry, stuffing sausage links
   

Dishwasher

Maids

1. Originated 3/21/37 with inauguration of the streamlined Daylight. Maids wore gray satin dresses with a white apron.                             (Daylight, Wright, pg. 633)
   

Porters

Barber - Valet

Coach Cleaners

Commissary Department(*see Classic Trains Fall ‘02, pg. 38)

General Manager (Dining-Car Service)                Allan Pollok

Commissary Superintendent

Assistant Manager of the Dining Car Dept.

Kitchen

Commissary Cook

Bakery

Butcher Shop

Lead Butcher

Clerical

Commissary Clerk

Purchasing Dept.

Buyer

  

Stores Dept.

Plating Dept.

Silversmiths

Laundry and Linen Rehabilitation Plant

Seamstresses

Cutters

Engineering, Maintenance of Way and Valuation Department

Engineering Department

Chief Engineer

1. Directs system design engineers, repair shops, major construction/rebuild crews.
   

Division Engineers

1. Responsible for signals, bridges & buildings.
   

Assistant Div. Engineer

Roadmasters (of the district)

1. Directs Section Foreman (union) and crews  that maintain yards and trackage.
   

Yard Office

Gen. Yardmaster

1. Yardmasters are in charge of planning and directing shift-to-shift yard work by yard crews based on information from the yard clerks. He works the railroad yard assembly line of trains. He makes the selection and oversees the order of the cars in the consist of trains.
   

Yardmaster, Train Yard

1. Yardmasters were promoted switchmen. Only terminals/yards with switchmen instead of brakemen manning the switch engines had yardmasters. Locations that used to have switchmen include: San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Mojave, old Colton, Indio and Yuma. Salinas never had switchmen. Gemco did not have swtichmen, the crews were supervised by a Trainmaster and Assistant Trainmaster working via the clerks. When a terminal grew in size, the switchmen's union (SUNA) would negotiate for their union to take the jobs from the trainmen (BRT & BRC). The opposite applies as things shrink. Obviously, after the UTU merger it was one union anyway. SP made these decisions after negotiating with the unions.
   

Outbound Clerk

Inbound Clerk

Chief Yard Clerk

1st. Asst. Chief Yard Clerk

2nd Asst. Chief Yard Clerk

Yard Clerk

Relief Yard Clerk

Switchmen / Herders

1. A Herder was a Switchman by craft but not assigned to a crew but to a fixed position in a yard. At some yard throats where there was a lot of movement a Herder might be utilized. Some herder jobs were replaced by the installation of interlocking.
   

Car Distributer

Car Record

Scale House Man

1. 
   

Maintenance of Way Department

1. They would have their own Burro cranes, they would not use the relief train equipment except very exceptional conditions. They would have their own string of work cars, 3 or 4 or more cars, a locomotive and caboose, and would go out and do the work on their own, the work they needed to do, pick up rail and ties, do repairs.
   

Crane Operator

   His primary job is running the crane, and he spent all this time fiddling with it.

Yard Crews

1. These individuals block trains for movement. They group cars according to destination or switching conditions. They work only within the yard limits.
   

Section Gang Job

1. titles in the 1880s.  2) For a section gang, "coal passer"?
   

2. 
   

3. I'd bet it was a "middle" guy who handled coal, probably for section houses, depots, etc. The same title was used for the middle guy on an ice deck who moved the divided ice blocks to the car, called a "passer," and the for the guy who fished the hot rivets out of the furnace and passed them to the riveter.
   

4. Tony Thompson 
   

Supervisor of Women

Hospital Department

Medical Department

Chief Surgeon                                            DR. C. A. Walker

SP District Surgeon (Los Angeles)                       Dr. Francis K. Ainsworth

Stewardess - Nurse

Land Department

Land Commissioner                                           Mr. Bunker   19__ - 1938

Law Department

Lease Department

Mail and Express Traffic

Motive Power Department

Motive Passenger Department

Gen. Superintendent of Motive Power    George McCormick

Chief Mechanical Engineer - Locomotives    Frank Russel, Sr.

Chief Mechanical Officer

Road Foreman of Engines

1. Supervises the operation and assignment of engines and are responsible for instructing and qualifying engine crews.
   

1. A Road Foreman is responsible for seeing that the railroad operates in a safe and efficient manner. They are responsible for training and monitoring performance. They also are responsible for testing both new personnel and those experienced as new techniques and technologies are developed. On the Southern Pacific, in addition to his own territory, the Road Foreman can travel anywhere
   

2. on the system that a locomotive goes to fulfill this mandate.
   

Roundhouse Foreman

Roundhouse Clerk

Storekeeper

1. 
   

Chief Mechanical Engineer - Cars    E.B. Daily

Engineer of Car Design & Construction    Norman Passur

Air Conditioning Eng.    Norman Passur

Designer                                                         Norman Passur - 1935

Designer              Charles Eggelston

Car Shop Foreman

Car Inspector

Operating Department

Chief Train Dispatcher

Dispatcher

1. From a CTC console, he controls movements of all trains over the entire railroad. He is to know all sections of the road at all times. He concentrates on mainline activity in his division. His job is to keep traffic moving safely over the line and knows the whereabouts of every train operating over the lines. He will assign the respective cabs and insure that train classification priorities are followed.
   

2. He is to be aware of conflicts or delays which might affect the movement of trains. He monitors the progress of every train by CTC mechanisms or OS Reports from tower or station agents. He records on Train Sheets each time a train passes a check point. He controls trains by Train Orders and signal indications. He controls track side signals and turnouts at junctions, passing sidings and crossovers. He authorizes extra trains, annulling scheduled ones, dispatches work/wreck trains or writes Train Orders to affected trains delayed. He takes action to change meeting points, hold trains, etc. He uses a manual board (magnets representing trains) or a CTC board to record train movement on a painted track diagram.
   

3. In addition to these responsibilities, the Dispatcher should be familiar with schedules and all the types of trains serving the Coast Line. These include:
   

4. Passenger Trains(trains stopping at passenger boarding points)
   

5. Time Freights(merchandise trains which run on tight schedules)
   

6. Peddler Freights(trains stopping at all receivers along the coast)
   

7. It is also the responsibility of the Dispatcher  to set the fast clocks. Train dispatchers are union workers.
   

8. 
   

Road Crews

1. Each road crew consists of a conductor and an engineer (the roles may be combined). The conductor is in charge of the train, while the engineer runs the locomotive. They navigate trains over their system picking up and setting off cars along the way.
   

Conductor

1. The conductor directs the train so that it follows the appropriate schedule and route and conforms to any and all Train Orders. He commands all on-line switching operations. He directs the movement of the train by communicating with the engineer. He also serves as the switchman (to throw switches), the brakeman ( to couple and uncouple cars), and the flagman (to communicate with the engineer).
   

2. He holds on to the waybill when a car is part of the train, in the same order as the cars of the train. He receives a switchlist by the yardmaster as a guide to switching in route. While switching, wait a few moments for the brakeman  to walk the length of the train to carry out a task of loading/unloading.
   

Engineer

1. He is the person who operates the train. One of their jobs is to change the train numbers on the loco.
   

Brakeman

1. Known also as the flagman  is the pin-puller and flagman. He must keep freight car destinations indexed in his mind so as to minimize the total number of moves. "Trainman" was another term used for brakeman.
   

Head Brakeman

1. Worked in engine.
   

Rear Brakeman

1. Worked in caboose.
   

Call Boy

1. Crew callers (call boys, or sometimes girls), were responsible to call the train crews for work. Most SP terminals used them at least through the end of steam, especially at away-from-home terminals where crews did not have a permanent address.
   

Railroad Police

1. S.P. had a police force who had railroad police badges.
   

2. There were SP, CP, PE, NWP, and SSW police departments. SP 250, was a baggage-dorm converted to police use in the 1980's.
   

3. 
   

4. SP Chief Special Agent Dan O'Connell, headed the SP Police from 1919-1944 and was in charge of the 1939 City of San Francisco sabotage investigation.
   

Signal Department

Signal Supervisor

Signal Maintainers

    "Lamp Room" - maintainers for oil-fired / kerosene lanterns mounted on top of the switchstands.

Purchasing Department

Stores Department

Tax Department

Traffic Department

Passenger Traffic Department

   65 Market St.

Freight Office

Freight Agent

Asst. Freight Agent

Gen. Foreman

Asst. Gen. Foreman

Night Foreman

Cashier

Asst. Cashier

Chief Clerk

Freight Clerk

Freight Claim

General Clerk

Outbound Billing Clerk

Inbound Freight Clerk

Freight Rate Checkers

Delivery Orders Clerk

Demurrage Clerk

City Office

Dist. Passenger Agent

Dist. Freight Agent

City Ticket Agent

Chief Clerk

Secy. Passenger Agent

Secy. Freight Agent

Station

Ticket Agent

Ticket Clerk Cashier

Telegraph Operators

Baggage Agent

Station Master

Treasury Department

Train Service Bureau - 1949

Communications Department

signal maintainer

Loss and Damage prevention Department

Pacific Motor Trucking Company and Pacific Motor Transport Company

References

                Trainline35

                Trainline       36

1956 Circular 4

Executive Department

Vice President Executive Department (SF)    Mr. D. J. McGanney,

Operating Department (Engineering, Maintenance of Way and Valuation and Motive Power Department)

Vice-President  Operations

1. Has three functions of Transportation, Engineering and Mechanical.
   

2. 
   

Passenger Operations

Vice-Presidents - Passenger Traffic    Claude Peterson1945-

Engineering Department

Chief Engineer

1. Directs system design engineers, repair shops, major construction/rebuild crews.
   

Division Engineers

1. Responsible for signals, bridges & buildings.
   

Assistant Div. Engineer

Director of Engineering Services

Engineer Design & Construction

Gen. Yardmaster

1. Yardmasters are in charge of planning and directing shift-to-shift yard work by yard crews based on information from the yard clerks. He works the railroad yard assembly line of trains. He makes the selection and oversees the order of the cars in the consist of trains.
   

Yardmaster, Train Yard

1. Yards like Roseville, Bayshore, Ogden, Taylor and others would have YM's. Some yards like Gemco have had YM's but then lost them and have gone to "footboard YM's". (Much of this is era specific.)
   

Mechanical Department

Chief Clerk

   The Chief Clerk of the Mechanical Department was the official editor of the Classification book. That book went to press in 1943.

Transportation Department

General Supt. Transportation

1. Responsible for coordination of the divisions plus car control, rules, scheduling, clearances, freight claims, police, etc.
   

2. 
   

Division Supt.                      [Coast Line - Jimmy Jordan]

1. Responsible for transportation operations in their area.
   

2. 
   

Assistant Division Supy.       [Coast Line - Mr. Robinson]

Terminal Superintendent.     [Coast Div. - Mr. E.G. Davis]

Subdivision Trainmaster

1. Bottom level of management, determine traffic assignments to specific trains, scheduling and supervising all the union employees actually running the trains and yards and doing paperwork. As managers they are on call 24 hours a day. Transportation union crafts include on-train employees.
   

2. 
   

Terminal Trainmaster

Assistant Trainmaster

Chief Clerk

Clerks

Yard Clerk

Freight Agents

1. He works at key locations along the line. He is responsible for assigning cars to industries so products can be shipped and uses Switchlists and Waybills to tell the Train Crews which cars to pickup and deliver. It is his job to see that customers’ shipment requests are handled expeditiously.
   

Pilots

1. They are conductors and/or engineers, or management Trainmasters  or Road Foreman, of the railroad being run over, who guide train crews of foreign trains who are not qualified on the specific territory. Regular trackage rights are generally exercised by qualified foreign crews without pilots.
   

Tower Operator / Station Agent

Tower operators 

1. handle towers and interlockers and provide communications between dispatchers and crews.
   

Train Baggage Men (TBM)

1. At stations were the mail or Santa Claus trains did not set out cars it was necessary for railroad employees to load and unload the mail cars. The railroad established Train Baggage Men or TBM's  to load and unload the mail. TBM's were brakemen assigned to the baggage cars. On the Coast mail trains two TBM's were assigned out of S.F. with one working through to San Luis Obispo and second working between S.F. and Salinas. At Salinas the TBM would go off duty until the westbound mail train arrived and then work back to S.F.
   

2. 
   

Janitor

Billing Clerk

Baggage Clerk

Ticket Clerk

Watch Repairman

Signal Department

Signal Supervisor

Signal Maintainer

1. 
   

Mechanical Department

Car Department

Chief Mechanical Officer

1. Supervises a Car Dept. and a Locomotive Dept.
   

2. Each would include major shops etc.
   

Chief Clerk

   The Chief Clerk of the Mechanical Department was the official editor of the Classification book. That book went to press in 1943.

Division Master Mechanics

1. Directs local Car Foreman (union).
   

Car Shop Foreman

1. In charge of car inspectors, repairman, wreck trains, etc.
   

Master Car Repairer        (Mr. Rogani, Bayshore)

Car Men

Electrician

Machinists

Boilermakers

Painters

Sheet Metal Workers

Upholsterers

1. 
   

Car Test Department

Design Engineers

Locomotive Department

Chief Mechanical Officer

Locomotive Test Department

Design Engineers

Enginehouse Foreman (union)

1. Directs hostlers, craft repairmen, laborers, etc.
   

Hostler

1. The Engine Hostler is responsible for servicing the engines, both the yard engines and the road engines, steam and diesel. Before use, each engine must be serviced.
   

2. He is the individual who runs units out of the enginehouse into the yard on time. For inbound trains, he dumps ashes, fills tenders with fuel, and adds water and sand to locos. He also makes sure engines are sent to the roundhouse for routine maintenance or to heavy repair facilities for major repairs. Lastly he makes sure the engine is center of gravity is correct on the turntable.
   

3. At the beginning of an operating session, the hostler should first service at least one engine for each of the yards so the road crews  can begin their work.
   

Roundhouse Foreman

1. He is in charge of the roundhouse. He selects motive power for each train spelled out in the Engine Facility Call Sheet. Occasionally he may have to substitute other motive power not called for. If he does, it must be in line with tonnage and speed requirements of the train. He is lastly responsible for servicing of the engine facility itself (ash, sand, fuel).
   

2. * (Union Staff Men)
   

Roundhouse Clerk

Car Shop Foreman

Roadmaster

Storekeeper

Car Inspector

Scale House Man

Electrician

Machinists

Sheet Metal Workers

Boiler Makers

Blacksmiths

Pattern Makers

Painters

Laborers

Tender Truck Men

Platers & Polishers

Superintendent of Women

1. Mrs. Jane Warren (Sacramento Shops)
   

Flag Girls

1. Blue flag (maintenance in progress) were set out by women employees. Before removing, the flag girls would  be required to walk the length of the train to assure all service crews had completed their work.
   

2. 
   

Executive Department

Accounting Department

Dining Car Department (Dining Car, Hotel, Restaurant and News Service Department)

Hospital Department

Land Department

Law Department

Motive Power Department

Purchasing Department

Real Estate Department (former Lease Department)

Tax Department

Telephone Sales Office - 1955

Treasury Department

Pacific Motor Trucking Company and Pacific Motor Transport Company

Freight Traffic Dept.        [ Frank Kreibel }

Train Crews

Locomotive “Full Crew”

1. A "full crew" in the steam era was 6 men - Engineer, Fireman, Head Brakeman, Swing Brakeman, Rear Brakeman/flagman and Conductor.
   

2. George Simmons
   

Passenger Train Seating

1. The two brakemen and the conductor on passenger trains wore uniforms and rode in the passenger cars of the train.
   

2. Mike Tisdale
   

3. 
   

4. On Train Order and ABS trackage, lining up the switch at a passing siding for a meet with a superior train falls to the head brakeman. He needs to be at the head end and not at the back end riding in a coach seat.
   

5. 
   

6. The head brakeman did not ride the locomotive of passenger trains on the SP, at least not north of San Francisco and east of Roseville. There was no rule that said he must ride the engine.
   

7. Jack Bowden
   

Freight Train Seating

1. On any freight train, the head end brakeman always rode the cab (or doghouse if so equipped). He was the guy who would throw switches and other brakeman duties in the front of the train, while the rear end brakie did the same for the rear of the train.
   

2. Bill Daniels
   

3. 
   

4. To say that the head brakeman always rode on the engine is not necessarily true. It all depends on what time period one is talking about. Up until the July 1949 the head brakeman, as well as other brakemen, were required to be out on top of the train at certain locations on the line.
   

5. Jack Bowden
   

Jack Kerouac & Cuesta - Spring, 1953

1. http://www.newtimesslo.com/cover/2443/off-the-road/
   

2. 
   

3. JK was employed by the Southern Pacific as a brakeman out of SLO in the Spring of 1953, working up the hill to Santa Margarita.  He became a famous novelist. Jack Kerouac seemed to be between the feverish writing spurts that would produce two novels that year, his pen was still moving and he wrote little notes to express what he was experiencing in SLO.
   

4. Brian Moore
   

5. 
   

6. Here is Kerouac reciting some of his own words, working the peninsula...
   

7. http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Kerouac/october_in_the_railroad_earth.php
   

8. 
   

9. Behind big engine 3669
   

10. In the bright day of
    

11. San Luis Obispo the
    

12. mtns. of hope rise
    

13. up, treed, green, sweet
    

14. —a rippling palm
    

15. behind the pot Steams—the young firemen of
    

16. Calif. waiting to
    

17. make the hill up to
    

18. the bleakmouth panorama plateau of
    

19. Margarita where
    

20. stars of the night are holy—