Lots of good comments here. It started me thinking back. Before web sites and Google, most reporters had no idea how to get reach the railroad. I remembered as a reporter calling the SP yardmaster's number in the phone book trying to get info on why a freight train was stalled in downtown Reno, Nev. blocking all the crossings. Whoever answered was extremely angry and gave me a Trump-like response and hung up on me.

You also should know that making long distance calls was a big deal in most newspaper newsrooms. At my paper the offenders were brought to task when the phone bills came in. As a result reporters would quote whoever they could find at the scene; highway patrolmen, city police, sheriff's deputies, witnesses, victims, whoever...

When I finally met a couple of SP PR guys it opened up a whole new world for me.

John Bromley - Omaha