Southern pacific railroad history
Southern pacific railroad history. Its name stands alongside notables like the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio, and Illinois Central. The Southern Pacific Railroad, also known as SP, was a historic American railroad that operated from 1865 to 1996. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS) and reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1917. We require those posting comments in the Forum area to respect the rights and opinions of others, by placing thought into comments before they are posted. 5 %µµµµ 1 0 obj > endobj 2 0 obj > endobj 3 0 obj >/ExtGState >/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group Norfolk Southern's predecessor railroads date to the early 19th century. Disclaimer: This website may be viewed by those who interested in the mission of the Southern Pacific Railroad History Center (History Center) and the history of the Southern Pacific System. The Southern Pacific served 15 states in the West and Southwest, including the Pacific and Gulf coasts, with the network dipping south from northwestern Oregon to swing in a wide arc up into Illinois. The company was originally chartered in California on December 2, 1865, as the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Hofsommer discusses the triumph and decline July 27, Dick Davidson is elected as Union Pacific Corporation COO, and Ron Burns is elected as Union Pacific Railroad president. Hundreds of trains were operated over the trackage of Southern Pacific every day. Our mission is to provide a digital presentation of the history of the Southern Pacific System from the creation of its first predecessor company in 1853 until its merger with Union Pacific in 1996, through a comprehensive, searchable website. Postings for this area include Southern Pacific-related correspondence, articles and stories about the accomplishments of Southern Pacific employees; historical stories and articles concerning the construction of Southern Pacific’s new lines of railroad, and new facilities; the construction of significant additions to Southern Pacific’s existing trackage and facilities; and documents of a Union Pacific celebrates the shared stories that have shaped our country since 1862. The SPRHC TEAM President and Director Gene Harmon Secretary and Director Pete Baumhefner Raymond Douglas Chong Director Ann Hasse Director Willard Keeney Director Leslie Savoye Director Rick Barton Book Manager […] Sep 5, 2024 · The Central Pacific thus became the nucleus from which the Southern Pacific system developed. The railroad served 35 international points of entry. History of Southern Pacific 4449 Black After many rumors of railroad companies interested in bidding for either Southern Pacific or Santa Fe, or both, on September 4, 1987, the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation announced that the Southern Pacific Transportation Company would be sold. Apr 7, 2020 · The program features transportation historian Don Hofsommer, author of The Southern Pacific Railroad, 1901-1985. Learn about the origins, expansion, and legacy of the Southern Pacific Railroad, one of the largest and most influential railroads in the American West. The new locomotive incorporates Southern Pacific’s historic colors and graphic elements to honor the men and women of the SP. Feb 1, 1996 · The Southern Pacific Transportation Company, commonly called the Southern Pacific, operates several transcontinental railroad routes connecting the Pacific Coast with the gateway cities of Chicago, St. The original SP was founded in San Francisco in 1865, by a group of businessmen led by Timothy Phelps with the aim of building a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego, California. Outside the museum, Southern Pacific Railroad No. Click here! Official Records of the Southern Pacific Railroad. THE PUBLICATION of this historical sketch of the development of Southern Pacific seems particularly appropriate at this time when the railroad's organization has added, in terms of achievement, another outstanding chapter to the history of the road. Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) – The SP operated in Utah from the late 19th century until the 1990s. The Union Pacific initially took over the Southern Pacific in 1901 but was forced by the U. Louis and Santa Rosa, New Mexico, for $57 million in 1980, and spent $99 million The line was merged with the St. Supporters of railfanning, archeology & scale modeling of this great pioneer railroad On January 12, 1883, the southern section of the second transcontinental railroad line was completed as the Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles met the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway at a location 3 miles (4. Southern Pacific Railroad History Center. November 8, 1874: Southern Pacific tracks reach Bakersfield, California and work begins on the Tehachapi Loop. The BBB&C was reorganized as the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway in 1870. Its main line runs through the northern part of the state, connecting cities such as Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Provo. Two years later, on February 5 Feb 4, 2022 · Texas and Louisiana Lines Southern Pacific history. They brought new foods and materials, social and demographic change, and altered the physical landscape permanently. The South Carolina Canal & Rail Road was the SOU's earliest predecessor line. The Southern Pacific was represented by three railroads throughout its life. The Southern Pacific Railroad was founded in 1865 by a group of businessmen led by Timothy Phelps. The laws were passed as war measures to forge closer ties with California and Oregon, which otherwise took six months to reach. Over the next seven years, the In 1988 the Southern Pacific Company was taken over by Rio Grand Industries, and in 1996 the Southern Pacific was purchased again by the Union Pacific Railroad. [18] Aug 25, 2014 · Southern Pacific acquired a 22-mile railroad from Los Angeles to Wilmington, opened in October, 1869 and construction began during 1873 on lines north and east out of the city. In January 1845 he In 1877, Southern Pacific steamed into Yuma, putting the Arizona Territory on the fast track toward a booming railroad industry. Aug 23, 2024 · The Southern Pacific (SP) was one of America's most successful and widely recognized railroads. Southern Pacific purchased the Rock Island between St. The Southern Pacific history east of El Paso grew from the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad and the New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western Railroad, both chartered in 1850. [8] Chief promoter of a transcontinental railroad was Asa Whitney, a New York merchant active in the China trade who was obsessed with the idea of a railroad to the Pacific. Nov 16, 2009 · He won the race in 1881, when he linked the Southern Pacific to the Santa Fe Railroad at Deming, New Mexico, creating the second American transcontinental railway. Feb 25, 2018 · Rudolph had reportedly purchased it from the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and at the time it had been in use at the Willits Depot. Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society. The Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger takes effect on September 11, forming the largest railroad in the U. 10% off digital downloads and purchases of artwork, books, and merchandise from our online stores Apr 20, 2010 · In 1862, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies began building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Early success of the Coast Daylight prompted the go ahead to relaunch the Sunbeam in the red-and-orange streamlining on September 19, 1937. Railroads encouraged The combined Southern Pacific – Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad “Golden State” route was 424 miles shorter between St. Explore its history from Texas to California, Oregon, and beyond, and its role in transportation, economy, and culture. The history of the Southern Pacific stretches from 1865 to 1998 and ultimately provided rail transportation services in 13 states throughout the American West and Southwest. Information and History. Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company timeline. Lafayette, California 94549 Jul 5, 2023 · An A-B-A set of F units departs San Francisco with Southern Pacific train 372, the piggyback-heavy Advance Overnight for Los Angeles, in August 1955. The Gold Country Media website reports the proposed Southern Pacific Rail History Center has identified a 7. We invite you to explore how the nation’s largest railroad came to be and how UP continues to build America with innovation and tenacity, touching the lives of nearly every citizen. . By: Adam Burns Idaho railroads typify that of the Pacific Northwest and mountainous western areas of the country, stiff grades in the rugged mountains found in the Northern Panhandle as well as flat and rolling hills with almost desert-like, terrain found in the southern regions of the state. Missouri Pacific later acquired or gained a controlling interest in other lines in Texas, including the Gulf Coast Lines, International-Great Northern Railroad, and the Texas and Pacific Railway. The railroad was originally created to provide a rail link between San Francisco and San Diego, but it grew to become a major transportation network connecting the entire western United States. Nov 9, 2023 · Southern Pacific Railroad History Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society The SPH&TS is dedicated to preserving and disseminating the historical record of the Southern Pacific Railroad and its affiliates. Although the railroad got off to a good start, a team of magnates, so-called the Big Four¹, were eyeing the growing company. Dedicated to preserving & disseminating the historical record of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Over the years Arizona would become home to seventy-six different railroads although most of those have since been either abandoned, sold, or merged (actually, many disappeared during the industry's early years due to poor management, economies, or other Mar 26, 2021 · Union Pacific Railroad (UP) – The UP has been operating in Utah since the mid-19th century. Stereoviews, engravings, maps, and documents are treasures of western Americana that illustrate the history of the first transcontinental railroad, built from Sacramento, California over the Sierra Nevada mountains, the to end of track at the Golden Spike Ceremony at Promontory, Utah where the rails were joined on May 10, 1869 with the Union Oct 15, 2012 · It all began in Kansas in the late 19th century and came to include a long distance system created by the Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications, or SPRINT. Sep 7, 2024 · Last revised: September 7, 2024. The mission of the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society is to preserve and disseminate the historical record of the Southern Pacific Railroad and its affiliates by promoting preservation, industrial archeology and accurate scale modeling of this great pioneer company which built the Western United States. The Central Pacific got a direct route to San Francisco when it was merged with the Southern Pacific Railroad to create the Southern Pacific Company in 1885. Imagine the complications of assembling train crews, moving through trains from division to division and through terminals, coordinating train movements with terminal railroad companies and other railroad companies, arranging for the lodging of crews at away from home crew change points, deadheading crews when The original company, Union Pacific Rail Road (UPRR), was created and funded by the federal government by Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864. On August 21, 2006, our tribute to the Southern Pacific was introduced during a special employee event in Roseville, Calif. In 1929, Southern Pacific/Texas and New Orleans operated 13,848 route-miles not including Cotton Belt, whose purchase of the Golden State Route circa 1980 nearly doubled its size to 3,085 miles (4,965 The Southern Pacific Railroad was replaced by the Southern Pacific Company and assumed the railroad operations of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Oakland's Amtrak rail station is in roughly the same location today. 6-acre site in Rocklin and plans to make an offer on the property once its capital campaign Nov 16, 2020 · Second, because there is the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the corporately separate Southern Pacific Company – and the distinction between the two is important – using just "Southern Pacific" perpetuates the confusion most people have that "Southern Pacific" is a single monolith, not a complex group of companies. 1673, 2-6-0 (Mogul) is on static display. The California State Railroad Museum Library became the recipient of a large portion of the official records of the Southern Pacific. Congress chartered the Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864, with the goals of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the Pacific, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country. Roger Grant, author of Follow the Flag: A History of the Wabash Railroad Company "Sunset Limited illuminates not only the workings and ambitions of the Southern Pacific railroad but teaches us a great deal about the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American West as well. This work deserves to be called a landmark in the field. Little else is known of the history of this cart; however Roots records indicate that it may have been used by a maintenance-of-way firm called the Big Hook Crane Company which operated on the NWP out of Willits. 6, Ron Burns resigns as CEO and president of Union Pacific Railroad. June 1873: The Southern Pacific builds its first locomotive at the railroad's Sacramento shops as CP's second number 55, a 4-4-0. The original Southern Pacific Railroad was founded in San Francisco in 1865, by a group of businessmen led by Timothy Phelps with the aim of building a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego, California. Jun 27, 2022 · — A group seeking to preserve and promote the history of the Southern Pacific Railroad has a identified a site for a proposed museum and archives. Aug 12, 2024 · The Southern Pacific Railroad (combined with other railroads) was part of the second, third, and fourth railroads to offer "transcontinental" service in the United States and Canada. Business Sprint Southern Pacific 4449 Black is a steam locomotive that has a rich and significant cultural and historical significance in American railroading. 11, 1996. In 1988, shortly before the creation of the new Norfolk Southern Railway, the Southern Railway operated 9,757 route-miles, with 1,416 locomotives, 58,929 freight cars, 2,678 company service cars, and 16,496 employees. May 10, 2009 · This 1913 photo, provided courtesy of the Oakland History Room of the Oakland Public Library, shows the Southern Pacific Rail Station in Oakland, located at Broadway and Embarcadero, less than 1,000 feet from the Oakland Railroad History marker. 8 km) west of the Pecos River near Langtry, Texas. C. Chartered in 1827, the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company became the first to offer regularly scheduled passenger train service with the inaugural run of the Best Friend of Charleston in 1830. As it happened, another line was already in Los Angeles by then: the Southern Pacific, an outgrowth of the earlier Central Pacific, which ran its own line to Chicago through its hub in San Francisco. In 1929, Southern Pacific/Texas and New Orleans operated 13,848 route-miles not including Cotton Belt, whose purchase of the Golden State Route circa 1980 nearly doubled its size to 3,085 miles (4,965 Southern Pacific Railroad. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. The Canadian Pacific Railway (French: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) (reporting marks CP, CPAA, MILW, SOO), also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The possibility of railroads connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts was discussed in the Congress even before the treaty with England which settled the question of the Oregon boundary in 1846. At its most complex, Southern Pacific rostered locomotives from a half-dozen builders, including EMD, Alco, GE, Fairbanks-Morse, Baldwin, and Krauss-Maffei. Apr 25, 2022 · As a result, President Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862 (Briggs 1974:7). Central Pacific Railroad construction in the 1860's. In 1868, they purchased the Southern Pacific. Louis and El Paso than the traditional Southern Pacific route via Corsicana. The goal of linking Los Angeles and San Francisco via major coastal cities had finally been achieved after 36 years. The two railroads would once again Union Pacific purchased the Southern Pacific on 11 September 1996, ending the long and colorful history of the railroad. The Southern Pacific Railroad was replaced by the Southern Pacific Company and assumed the railroad operations of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Nov. The locomotive was built in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and was one of the 265 GS-4 locomotives produced for Southern Pacific Railroad. Map of NPR Land Grant, c1890. Settlers were attracted to nearby communities because the railroads provided access to markets. ”—H. An eastbound CPR freight train at Stoney Creek Bridge descending from Rogers Pass. All facets of the history of the Southern Pacific will be explored from its first predecessor company, the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railway Company, which started operations on September 7, 1853 between Harrisburg and Stafford, Texas, through the merger of Southern Pacific with Union Pacific on September September 11, 1996. History. Supreme Court to divest it because of monopoly concerns. They support railfanning, industrial archeology, and accurate scale modeling of this great pioneer railroad of the western United The Southern Pacific merged with Union Pacific on Sept. In 1887 the Southern Pacific assumed control of the Oregon and California Railroad, which had been established through a reorganization of the California and Oregon Railroad in 1865. UP diverted some of the traffic handled by this line to other routings after the takeover, but the Cascade line remains an important part of UP's system today. S. Dec 23, 2023 · Bill Fowler was employed by Southern Pacific at the time of the merger of Southern Pacific and Union Pacific on September 11, 1996, after which he became an officer of Union Pacific and would complete his railroad career in Omaha, Nebraska. , formerly located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street NW in the early 1900s An 1895 system map A 1921 system map. Railroads have impacted nearly every aspect of life in Arizona. The Southern Railway Building in Washington, D. William Harry photo . 1475 Purson Lane. In 1883 Southern Pacific's own tracks connected New Orleans, Louisiana, to California. 7/16/2020 Chatsworth Historical Society - Chatsworth Railroad History 12 The Southern Pacific Coast Line and the Montalvo Cutoff The Coast Line of the Southern Pacific opened on March 31, 1901. The Southern Railway achieved financial and operational success by being a well-run business in a region of the United States with great national resources, manufacturing, and a growing population. The Southern Pacific Tradition. The pioneering South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, Southern's earliest predecessor line and one of the first railroads in the United States, was chartered on December 19, 1827, and ran the nation's first regularly %PDF-1. NEW — Complete, DOWNLOADABLE TRAINLINE INDEX, issues 1-157. Feb 11, 2024 · And with a valid reason as the Southern Pacific needed an answer to the Sam Houston Zephyr, introduced in 1936 by the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad as competition for the Dallas-Houston corridor. On January 1, 1863, ground was broken at Sacramento, California for the building of the first transcontinental railroad; the Central Pacific from Sacramento and the Union Pacific from Omaha Nebraska (Elliot 1928:2). Railroads in the state got their start in 1877 when the Southern Pacific arrived in Yuma on its way to completing its line to Tucson in 1880. Dec 29, 2016 · The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, located next to the active railroad tracks in the former records vault building at the former Southern Pacific Depot, tells the story of railroads in Tucson. wejbz hybea jgxoj azfg xdiee rma pldlnwxbd awxqvn nybadn bydw