Re: 1946-47 a sad time

I have been working on an idex to the SVRy AFE's(Roadway Completion Reports). At present I am working on 1940, which is a very positive time for SVRy if you are only looking at the reports. During the previous 3 years they had leased 65, 70 and 75 lb. rail from UP, relaid the entire main, relaid most of the sidings and spurs with heavier rail, often using what they pulled off of the main to replace even lighter stuff. They even had some old 56lb iron rail they were replacing on sidings and spurs. They built a facility to treat ties and presumably replaced most of the ties on the main. They also built a portable rock crushing plant out of parts to reballast. They purchased some dump cars for ballasting as well as building up some. They had of course modernized the locomotive fleet with the mallets and oil conversions including 17. At this point in time just prior to WW2 one would assume the SVRy was in business to stay. With the kind of money put into upgrades who could suppose it would all be gone in 7 years. They also built some new stock cars, rebuilt the livestock facilites at Austin including installing new scales. In this time frame they also rebuilt one of the reefers. A number of new cars of all types were built, or rebuilt. There was way more money going into upgrading the rolling stock and infrastructure than one could imagine for an outfit about to throw in the towel. Unlike OLC, SVRy never was involved in bankruptcy during the depression, though operations were curtailed to a barebones level. I have read that SVRy never in it's entire span of years of operation operated in the red, which is a bit unusual.
I have skimmed over the AFE's dealing with retirement of the cars and infrastructure in 1947 and it will be difficult to work through the reports of this time period without a tear in the corner of my eye and a very heavy heart.
1961 is also a dismal year with the final retirement of whatever was left. Interestingly enough there does not appear to be an AFE for the retirement of SVRy Eng 101. John Lewis researched all of the car accounts at the Nat. Archives and put together a roster 1916-61 and he indicates he did not find an AFE for it's retirement there as well. I think it is the final AFE which after listing every last thing Earl Emlaw could think of to include he typed "retire everything".
Who would have guessed that just 10 years later there would be a rebirth?