Idea by Espee

TREP is a fictional merger between Topeka Railroad (Espee's railroad) &
Eastern Pacific Railroad


Pre-Merger/Merger Preparations
By the late 70s TR was in starting to struggle with competitors like UP and BN, this was bad as TR was the fourth smallest of the “super-7” at the time however, the EP being the second largest of the “super-7”, was still facing large problems, and they had spent most of their existence interchanging freight with TR. So, on August 7th, 1981, TR would send out a request for a merger between TR and EP; EP would immediately take the proposal and they started developing the scheme that the units would use, although the two railroads had deferent specs and horns, the EP design team would fit both of the specs called Topeka Bonnet, around this time TR started on the name for now it would be called TREP until something else could be made. Soon TR would paint SD40-2 3896 into Topeka Bonnet and EP would follow with SD40-2 4567 with plans to paint more of their fleets into Topeka Bonnet. However, before they could ask the I.C.C they would have to get public interest for the merger, so by September 4th that year, EP would paint the famous EP 3338 into a scheme to promote TREP she would run various excursions until September 24th when she was displayed next to TR 3896 and EP 4567, after which she was painted back into Starlight colors.
The I.C.C Proposal. EP will have their Topeka Bonnets only display EP lettering and TR's will display TR lettering, once approved, both TR and EP will fill the missing letters
By February 18th, 1982, EP and TR would send their plans to the I.C.C, although some were sceptical that the I.C.C would remove some routes, everyone thought that it would be approved; and at first it looked like that, as the I.C.C only had a few problems with the merger. Due to this the two railroads started painting there locomotives into the scheme by the end of it TR had 26 units in the scheme and EP had 31 units in the scheme as well as both having 7 freight cars in Topeka Bonnet [64 in total], however the plans were soon to change. . .


The Failure
in 1984 after TR is still trying to get approve with the I.C.C. EP cancel the plans for the merger, EP would eventually donate 4588 to the Nevada State Railroad Museum and have 4267 placed into to storage (still in storage today) EP painted most of their SD40-2's into EP Colors.





In The End
All though the EPSF was failed in 1990, but when Southern Pacific & Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe merged in 1994, in 2005 SPSF painted their SD70ACe into EPSF Livery to honer that once one a most famous Railroad made a attempt to merge.