Kansas City Southern Railway Co. - Specimen Stock Certificate
Inv# SE3040 Specimen Stock
Specimen Stock printed by American Bank Note Company, New York. Kansas City, Missouri. Great color! Very Rare!
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (reporting mark KCS) is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. KCS hauls freight for seven major government and business sectors: agriculture and minerals, military, automotive, chemical and petroleum, energy, industrial and consumer products and intermodal.
KCS has the shortest north-south rail route between Kansas City, Missouri, and several key ports along the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The KCS, along with the Union Pacific railroad, is one of only two Class I railroads based in the United States that has not originated as the result of a merger between previously separate companies.
The company owns or contracts with intermodal facilities along its rail network in Kansas City, Mo; Jackson, Miss.; West Monroe, La.; New Orleans; Wylie, Texas; Kendleton, Texas; and Laredo, Texas.
KCS operates over a railroad system consisting of 3,400 route miles that extend south to the Mexico–United States border at which point another KCS railroad, Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM), can haul freight into northeastern and central Mexico and to the Gulf of Mexico ports of Tampico, Altamira, and Veracruz, as well as to the Pacific Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, fulfilling the vision of KCS founder Arthur Edward Stilwell.
Patrick J. Ottensmeyer, who serves as chairman of the KCS Board of Directors, is also president and chief executive officer of the railroad's parent company, Kansas City Southern.
Kansas City Southern Railway is owned by Kansas City Southern (until 2002: Kansas City Southern Industries), which in turn also owns other companies like Kansas City Southern de México and the Panama Canal Railway's operator, Panama Canal Railway Company.
Stilwell began construction on the first line of what would become the Kansas City Southern Railway in 1887, in suburban Kansas City, Mo. Together with Edward L. Martin, Stilwell built the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railway, which was incorporated in 1887 and began operation in 1890.
In 1897, Stilwell completed the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad Company (KCP&G) with a route running north and south from Kansas City to Shreveport, Louisiana, terminating at Port Arthur, Texas. In 1900, KCP&G becomes The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS).
In 1962, Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc. (KCSI) was established when the company began to diversify its interests into other industries. At that time, KCS became a subsidiary of KCSI. In 2002, KCSI formally changed its name to Kansas City Southern (KCS), with KCS remaining a subsidiary.
From 1940 to 1969, the Kansas City Southern operated two primary passenger trains, the Flying Crow (Trains #15 & 16) between Kansas City and Port Arthur (discontinued on May 11, 1968) and the Southern Belle (Trains #1 & 2) between Kansas City and New Orleans (discontinued on November 2, 1969). In 1995, a new Southern Belle was created as an executive train to entertain shippers and guests. It also pulls the Holiday Express train in December, making the rounds to several KCS cities and stations.
On March 21, 2021, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and KCS announced that CPR would purchase KCS for US$29 billion. The US Surface Transportation Board would first have to approve the purchase, which was expected to be completed by the middle of 2022. However, a competing cash and stock offer was later made by Canadian National Railway (CNR) on April 20, 2021 at $33.7 billion. On May 13, 2021, KCS announced in a statement that they planned to accept the merger offer from CN, but would give CP until May 21 to come up with a higher bid.
In 2017, KCS, an American Chemistry Council (ACC) Responsible Care partner, received an Exceptional Merit designation. The ACC honored KCS for implementing energy management technology, Trip Optimizer, which improves KCS’s energy efficiency.
The E. H. Harriman Award was an award formerly bestowed on railroads for rail safety. KCS had been consistently recognized for its employee safety record (in group B: line-haul railroads with between four and 15 million employee hours per year) by the E.H. Harriman Memorial Awards Institute with a Gold Award in 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008, Bronze Award in 2003 and 2004 and a Silver Award in 2005.
In addition, KCS annually awards its “Safe Shipper” customers for originating more than 500 bulk hazmat shipments annually without incident with KCS’s Hazmat Shipper Safety Appreciation Award.
Stock and Bond Specimens are made and usually retained by a printer as a record of the contract with a client, generally with manuscript contract notes such as the quantity printed. Specimens are sometimes produced for use by the printing company's sales team as examples of the firms products. These are usually marked "Specimen" and have no serial numbers.
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