I think is was on that Other Train board, but someone who worked for BN in those days wrote a good sized history / analysis of the removal of that SP&S line and it was basically a move that all the folks who knew the area opposed but one manager was obsessed with doing. Lots of fights and finally it was pushed through only to have the operations folks discover within a couple years that this was a huge mistake. However, the land for the SP&S was under easement, so they lost rights to it once the rails were gone. No one had bothered to check that before abandonment. In summary, it was soon considered to be a very stupid move.