Full Throttle FT-COL64  SP & Cotton Belt  1092, 79036  Cylindrical hopper set  Two car set. 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 it's Cotton Belt Line, whose purchase of the Golden State Route in 1980 doubled it's size! In 1988 the SP was absorbed by Denver and Rio Grande but kept it's 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 copius 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.    NIB