Johnson Industries

Sammonds Industries (often simply known as Sammonds) is an American corporation operating in the mass media, transportation, and aerospace industries. The company was founded in 1862 as Sammonds Brothers Holdings to fund the construction of the Central Valley Railroad between San Francisco and Fresno via Pacheco Pass, a railroad that opened in 1870. The railroad has grown to be the largest Class I railroad in North America, under the name Continental Rail (a name adopted in 1890 when the railroad's scope broadened). Shortly after the initial segment of the Central Valley Railroad was completed, a steamship company known as Continental Shipping Lines was formed in 1875, gaining an early headstart on the Pacific and soon expanding to the Atlantic in 1886, operating scheduled transatlantic services between New York and Southampton.

The 1900s was an era of immense growth for the company, and saw the formation of Sammonds Publishing (1908), Sammonds Studios (1912), Sammonds Radio (1926; parent station KSAM), Sammonds Toys (1945), Sammonds Comics (1957), Sammonds TV (1968; parent station KSJ), Sammonds Games (1982), and Sammonds Aerospace (1986).

The period between 1981-1991 was marked by a dark age when the company was bought out by Stacker & Associates. Infamous CEO Phil Stacker brought the company to near-ruin until members of the Sammonds Family, as well as fired Sammonds TV personalities and irate stockholders, staged a coup on October 9, 1991, which saw Stacker ousted and arrested when it was discovered he had committed fraud to reduce the company's value in hopes of selling off the various subsidiaries to the highest bidder, as well as conspiring to divide Continental Rail evenly amongst Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Union Pacific, CSX, Conrail, and other Class I railroads, while the passenger services would be handed over to Amtrak (Continental Rail remains the last Class I railroad to operate its own passenger services, which serve as a major source of revenue for not only the railroad, but the company as a whole).

Following the ousting of Stacker, Sammonds climbed back to the top, capturing the public's imagination with its never-retired steam locomotives and ocean liners, releasing new movies (most notably the 1997 blockbuster EarthBound) and television shows (most notably the famed and beloved Monster World), and launching its own spacecraft to service the International Space Station (under NASA, ESA, JAXA and RSA contracts), as well as providing a reliable fleet of launch vehicles for any customer's needs.

The 2000s and 2010s have been marked by multiple high-profile acquisitions. In 2009, the company acquired the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and set to work making a turnaround (mainly involving the development of new cars to replace the unpopular Car of Tomorrow, bringing old favorites such as Rockingham and North Wilkesborough back to the schedule, and by 2014, ousting Brian France and Mike Helton). The 2010s saw the acquisition of Cartoon Network from Time Warner (adding multiple channels and web platforms), but by far, the most shocking and high-profile acquisition was of the Walt Disney Company in 2013, which added a plethora of television networks (both broadcast, cable. and satellite), production studios (Sammonds was mainly eyeing Lucasfilm), theme parks, cruise ships, and websites under the Sammonds banner. These acquisitions have only bolstered the company's profits, and Sammonds Industries remains one of the most profitable companies in the world.

Origins
Sammonds Industries began life as Sammonds Brothers Holdings in 1862, when the eponymous brothers, Daniel and Johnathan, founded the company to fund the construction of the Central Valley Railroad (now Continental Rail) between San Francisco and Fresno, California, via Pacheco Pass. The growing port in San Francisco was rife with opportunity, and the growing agriculture industry in the Central Valley was a prime target for moving exports to Asia. Due to the Civil War, the railroad wasn't completed until 1870, when the first train departed San Francisco, made a stop in the railroad's hometown of San Jose, and arrived at Fresno five hours later, on time, where the train was greeted by schoolchildren.

Five years later, Sammonds Brothers Holdings was reorganized as Sammonds Industries, now eyeing rapidly-expanding markets in the Pacific and Asia. Continental Shipping Lines was established in 1875. With few Pacific-bases steamship companies in existence at the time, CSL had a virtual monopoly on the Pacific and Asian markets. CSL then began steamboat operations on the Sacramento River, which saw the growth of inland seaports in Sacramento and Stockton. Starting mainly with freighters and riverboats, the influx of immigrants from China saw the addition of transpacific ocean liners. CSL expanded to the Atlantic in 1886, entering into direct competition with Cunard and White Star.

The Central Valley Railroad was renamed Continental Rail in 1890 as its scope expanded. The railroad had already expanded to Sacramento via Oakland to connect with the First Transcontinental Railroad, as well another line from Fresno to Sacrament, creating the "California Circle Route". The first major expansion project was from Gilroy to Los Angeles, the Coastal Route, as well as a northern route from Sacramento to Portland, Oregon. In 1897, the West Coast route was further expanded to Seattle. A northern route between Seattle and Chicago was briefly considered, but James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway put pay to those thoughts. Continental Rail also began feeling pressure from the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, both of whom built parallel lines in an attempt to sap the railroad's business. Southern Pacific was granted trackage rights on the Coast Line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, via its own line built west of Continental Rail's trackage between San Bruno and San Francisco (Continental Rail's route was the more direct, and was referred to as the Bayshore Cutoff by SP). Several smaller California railroads were folded into Continental Rail and were established as branchlines, all of which are still in operation today.

Era of Expansion, 1900-1914
Sammonds Industries began rapid expansion in the early 1900s, obtaining trackage rights via the Central Pacific from Sacramento-North Platte, Union Pacific from North Platte-Chicago, and New York Central via the Water Level Route to Grand Central Terminal. Shortly afterwards, Continental Rail's flagship passenger train, the Transcontinental Zephyr, was created. Considered one of the most elegant passenger trains in the United States, it still runs today. Continental Rail also expanded its Pacific Northwest services, establishing regular services between Los Angeles and Seattle, later expanding to San Diego via ATSF trackage rights. These ventures proved fruitful, and soon, Continental Rail bought controlling interest of the New York Central in 1904, a move that was not revealed until 2014.

CSL expanded its Pacific and Atlantic services. By now, they had left the freight business to focus on the ocean liner industry, mainly competing with Cunard and White Star in the Atlantic and Canadian Pacific in the Pacific (this was a two-front war, being fought both at sea and on the rails). CSL ran a smear campaign in 1912 following the sinking of the Titanic, blaming the disaster on the incompetent helmsman who decided it would be a good idea to reverse speed while going hard to starboard, when simply maintaining speed, as investigations using their own ships had revealed. They also ran a smear campaign against Leyland Lines over the non-response of the SS Californian, who had believed that Titanic's emergency flares were fireworks, when in fact, no passenger ships were, at the time, certified to launch any fireworks of any form.

The early 1900s also saw the formation of a third subsidiary, Sammonds Publishing. The publishing arm was the first company to publish Victor Hugo's novels in translated and unabridged format.

The fourth subsidiary, Sammonds Studios, was formed in 2012 to chronicle operations of Continental Rail and CSL.

World War I, 1914-1918
Sammonds Industries was hit hard by World War I, with CSL losing roughly 45% of its fleet to submarine warfare. When the United States entered the war, Continental Rail was affected. Operating in all three divisions of the USRA, the railroad was provided with the new standardized locomotive and freight car designs, also taking the opportunity to replace their aging passenger equipment with new Pullman cars.

CSL was a key player in ending the war. One liner, the USMS Canaveral (USMS standing for United States Mail Ship, in vein of Royal Mail Service, or RMS), had a record of sinking five U-Boats, the most of any liner.

Following the end of World War I, Continental Rail retained its USRA equipment, and gave the Canaveral a well-earned retirement, eventually being converted into a hotel/museum in 1974 and moored in Stockton.

The Roaring Twenties, 1918-1929
Sammonds Industries entered into its first Golden Age in the 1920s, expanding rail operations into Canada and Mexico. The operations in Mexico proved especially fruitful following the Mexican Revolution, as the railroad contributed to reconstruction efforts in hard-hit areas.

CSL expanded its operations in the Atlantic and Pacific, establishing new routes, most notably the Vancouver-Vladivostok, Hamburg-New York, and Valencia-Boston routes. CSL also entered into an agreement with Cunard, by which any ocean liners they retired would be sold to CSL instead of the scrappers or any other line. This was in the interest of preservation, rather than competition. CSL also established a dedicated fleet of tugboats, initially operating in their homeport of San Francisco, before expanding to harbors and ports worldwide. The tugboat division is still operational.

Sammonds Studios began producing its own movies, while a new subsidiary, Sammonds Radio, was established in 1926. The first station, KSAM, serves the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Great Depression, 1929-1941
When the Stock Market crashed in 1929, Sammonds Industries surprisingly weathered the Great Depression quite well. In addition to acquiring multiple failed shortline railroads, Cunard-White Star upheld its agreement to sell ships to CSL. The initial set of ships were: All ships of the original class remain in service, except the Ceramic, which was lost during World War II as the only ship lost by CSL during the war.
 * RMS Olympic
 * RMS Mauretania
 * RMS Adriatic
 * SS Ceramic
 * RMS Homeric
 * SS Doric

Sammonds Studios co-produced King Kong with Universal Studios in 1933, and in 1938, Sammonds Radio broadcast messages stating that there was no Martian invasion in progress.

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