There are records of only two more demonstration trains in Kansas in the decade of the thirties, each different form prior trains, as well as form each other. At a meeting of the Federal Grain Department and KSAC in Kansas City on November 19, 1931, it was decided to offer a series of "Grain Grading Schools" on the Santa Fe, utilizing a railway coach equipped as a grain inspection station. Cooperating agencies would include the Federal Grain Department, the State Grain Department, the Santa Fe, the Kansas City Board of Trade, the Millers National Federation, and the extension service of KSAC.
Both railroad and shipper alike had been having considerable trouble with leaking grain cars. A study of the situation was made and the results relayed to D. S. Farley, assistant general manager, Topeka, and F. E. Summer, superintendent, Emporia, by one L. W. Greene. Greene cited carefully gathered statistics which indicated that the leaking grain situation was not serious at the time, nor had it been during the past grain-shipping season. Neither the number of reports of cars leaking grain nor the actual loss of grain in transit was cause for alarm. Greene did, however, stress the need for materially stiffening the grain door barricade in railroad cars.
C. C. Dana, freight traffic manager, had Greene's report in mind when he urged G. W. Lupton, assistant to the vice -president in Chicago, to support running a "Grain Grading School" train on the Santa Fe. Such an effort would insure greater uniformity at the points where grain was officially sampled and graded. It would hopefully, thereby lessen the number of requests for reinspection. Furthermore, it would afford a favorable opportunity to attract a large share of the influential grain shippers to interior points to give proper attention to the inspection and coopering of the cars as well as the economical and efficient installation of the grain doors. Most of all, it would engender better relations between all the cooperating agencies. Jarrell knew that the Rock Island and Union Pacific roads, as well as the Illinois Central, the Milwaukee and the Northern Pacific, had already helped in the movement for better grain grading. Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific were the only railroads operating extensively in grain territory yet to do their part.(68)
This time, the plan was to transport the two cars containing the grain grading station via regular passenger trains, without charge, on a ten- stop tour. The cars would remain at each site one entire day. Licensed and prospective grain inspectors would be taught the grading of grain; shippers would be lectured on the proper coopering of cars and trimming of loads. The two-week schedule would include Abilene, Lyons, Larned, Garden City and Scott City the first week, and Copeland, Stafford, Harper, Newton, and Emporia the second week. A grain door installation would be photographed in its entirety and used for demonstration purposes on the train. Personnel would include men from the various cooperating agencies.
The morning program would take three hours to cover such topics as the separation of mixed wheat, dockage determination, coopering of cars, and rye mixtures in wheat. After lunch, another session, nearly as long, would study the handling of a grain car on the terminal market, the loading and sampling of cars, damage and heat damage separations, and pest control 9insects and rodents) for elevators. Lecturers would use modern apparatus to demonstrate their points, and wisely would keep their approach straightforward. This simplicity of presentation did hold the attention of farmers and others uneducated in the technical aspect of grain grading, and they listened closely as men such as R. F. Trucott and B. G. Krebs, Santa Fe transportation inspectors, held on the importance of proper coopering of cars.
Run in early May 1932, the "Grain Grading School" may have been the least expensive train ever mounted by the Santa Fe since the staff traveled between stops by auto and neither slept nor ate on board the train. The only personnel required by the railroad was a porter to look after the tow cars. C. C. Barnard, a superintendent on the Union Pacific, and Howard Jackson, agricultural agent of the Missouri Pacific, visited the school at the request of their superiors. Ringmaster Jarrell, in charge of the schedule and publicity as usual, was disappointed in the small crowds - he had grown accustomed to the large crowds of previous trains.
The "Grain Grading School" train was not in fact really a demonstration train in the old sense, but rather a response to a secondary problem in hauling produce. A Santa Fe official praised the train, pointing out that "the elimination of disputes and misunderstandings respecting the grading of grain at destination, in-transit or at point of origin is bound to facilitate the handling of the business and lesson the tendency to present claims for damage, deterioration, etc. which entail expensive investigations, whether paid, compromised or declined."(69) It was clearly an important train for the Santa Fe, despite the fact that only sixty or seventy persons were present at each stop, with a total attendance of only some six hundred for the two - week run.
During this same year revenues and profits for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company suffered an enormous decline (though the worst year was yet of come in 1933). According to historian Keith L. Bryant, the Santa Fe management had conceded by the close of 1931 that no economic revival was imminent. President Storey was forced to recommend to the board a ten percent cut in the wages of all Santa Fe employees, hoping such a move would preclude additional layoffs and thereby maintain the current employment level. By 1933 capital spending was reduced to $2,500,000; passenger rates were slashed; some track mileage was abandoned; and common stock dividends were omitted.(70)
Storey retired as president on may 2, 1933 - the strain had been too much for him. He was succeeded by Samuel T. Bledsoe who possessed a keen sense of railroading in terms of technology and marketing though he was not a railroad man in the sense that Storey and Ripley before him had been. He was to be president until 1939 when death would claim him prematurely, yet another victim of the depression.
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