I worked for SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS back in its early days and then later. SPRINT stands for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal (SPRINT) Communications. A VP of Southern Pacific Railroad decided at the time to build a telecom company with microwave towers. I learned some of the history of railroads and the railroad acts of the 1800s that gave them right of ways through all cities, countries, states, and all Federal lands. This included miles on each side and below.
Southern Pacific sold SPRINT off so they could use the money to buy additional railroads. This is what made SPRINT valuable when sold to other Telecom they had full access across the country to get their fiber, cell towers, and buildings wherever they wanted as they still had the railroad access. T-mobile now owns SPRINT.
AHA! You are only the second person I know about how SPRINT came to be!
By the way, you forgot the word “Network” for the acronym.
This is the reason why ALL (or mostly all) SPRINT POPs (Point Of Presence) are at Southern Pacific’s railroad ROW’s. Interesting, no?
That Santa Fe is the spittin’ image of the HO train set that I had as a kid.
One of the funniest things I ever saw was the time I was running out on a back country road and came across a scene where a pipeline crew had clipped a Spring fiberoptic cable. A whole pipeline crew standing around with half a dozen cattle too, watching a guy sitting at a card table with a dissecting microscope in the middle of a field stitching it back together.
Sprint, not spring. damn typos still get past me.
Yep, every spring somebody would plow up an AT&T Long Lines fiber. Somewhere in Middle America.
Don’t get me started on The Fiber-Seeking Backhoes!
Those Cable Splicers make a considerable amount of money, too. They do Fusion Splices (look it up!) with specialized equipment, it’s difficult to get right – I was trained on it but never used the skills.
I have a Lionel with the engine that looks like that Santa Fe in the round house.
I have the HO equivalent. I happen to think the paint scheme is the most beautiful one in the world. Pity Burlington Norther – Santa Fe is so damn ugly.
That particular Santa Fe paint scheme was known as “War Bonnet”.
I worked for SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS back in its early days and then later. SPRINT stands for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal (SPRINT) Communications. A VP of Southern Pacific Railroad decided at the time to build a telecom company with microwave towers. I learned some of the history of railroads and the railroad acts of the 1800s that gave them right of ways through all cities, countries, states, and all Federal lands. This included miles on each side and below.
Southern Pacific sold SPRINT off so they could use the money to buy additional railroads. This is what made SPRINT valuable when sold to other Telecom they had full access across the country to get their fiber, cell towers, and buildings wherever they wanted as they still had the railroad access. T-mobile now owns SPRINT.
AHA! You are only the second person I know about how SPRINT came to be!
By the way, you forgot the word “Network” for the acronym.
This is the reason why ALL (or mostly all) SPRINT POPs (Point Of Presence) are at Southern Pacific’s railroad ROW’s. Interesting, no?
That Santa Fe is the spittin’ image of the HO train set that I had as a kid.
One of the funniest things I ever saw was the time I was running out on a back country road and came across a scene where a pipeline crew had clipped a Spring fiberoptic cable. A whole pipeline crew standing around with half a dozen cattle too, watching a guy sitting at a card table with a dissecting microscope in the middle of a field stitching it back together.
Sprint, not spring. damn typos still get past me.
Yep, every spring somebody would plow up an AT&T Long Lines fiber. Somewhere in Middle America.
Don’t get me started on The Fiber-Seeking Backhoes!
Those Cable Splicers make a considerable amount of money, too. They do Fusion Splices (look it up!) with specialized equipment, it’s difficult to get right – I was trained on it but never used the skills.
I have a Lionel with the engine that looks like that Santa Fe in the round house.
I have the HO equivalent. I happen to think the paint scheme is the most beautiful one in the world. Pity Burlington Norther – Santa Fe is so damn ugly.
That particular Santa Fe paint scheme was known as “War Bonnet”.