While the Central Pacific fought punishing conditions moving eastward through mountains, across ravines, and through blizzards, the Union Pacific faced resistance from the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes who were seeing their homelands invaded and irrevocably changed. Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company 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. The son of legendary mogul, Jay Gould, he was then working to complete his late father's dream of a true, coast-to-coast railroad. Western Pacific GP40's #1776 (#3540) and #1976 (#3541) clad in their striking Bicentennial livery at Stockton, California circa 1976. 1 (Built as Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal #12. In 1998 a gentleman by the name of Andre Kristopans put together a web page highlighting virtually every unit every out-shopped by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. Richard C. Overton, Burlington Route: A History of the Burlington Lines (New York: Knopf, 1965). The vaunted Southern Pacific name carries a complex history although its immediate heritage can be traced back to the Transcontinental Railroad's completion. Stanford was elected president (at the same time he was elected governor), Huntington vice-president in charge of fund raising and purchasing, and Hopkins treasurer. This historic system has been in operation since before the Civil War and much of the general public has at least a general knowledge of UP since it formed the eastern segment of the Transcontinental Railroad. Keddie finally outmaneuvered his nemesis by partnering with another mogul, George Gould. The route had a gradual rise and required the line to cross the summit of only one mountain rather than two. Once believed to be too frail to perform arduous manual labor, the Chinese workers accomplished amazing and dangerous feats no other workers would or could do. They say timing is everything and as Keddie's latest venture got underway, George Gould entered the picture. For operations of the current railroad, see Union Pacific Railroad; for the holding company that owns the current railroad, see Union Pacific Corporation. It was the industry's deregulation in 1980 which, ironically, closed the book on the storied Western Pacific. After Southern states seceded, Congress agreed on a northern route to the Pacific and to the use of federal lands to subsidize the construction of a railroad and telegraph line. ), 1 (Built as New York, Ontario & Western #503. Afterwards, a series of freight branches were added reaching Hamilton City (October, 1907), Woodland (July, 1912), and Colusa (June, 1913). The canyon was extremely rugged with unstable rock that caused many slides. Theodore Judah, a civil engineer who helped build the first railroad in California, promoted a route along the 41st parallel, running through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. Roger Puta photo. It was incorporated in 1861 by Judah and "The Big Four" (who called themselves "The Associates"): Sacramento, California businessmen Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. Needing to find a partner, Union Pacific offered to purchase its much smaller counterpart and the acquisition was made official on December 22, 1982. With no further construction undertaken, it subsisted primarily on livestock and grain traffic, along with the aforementioned timber business. Alas, in 2013 the site closed by thankfully Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails.net site (another fine resource). Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive.com is simply the best web resource in the study of steam locomotives. The six-month trip to California had been reduced to two weeks. In his book, "More Classic American Railroads," author Mike Schafer notes how Arthur Keddie was the most persistent. Together, they opened a competing line through the beautiful Feather River Canyon. Please click on the links to take a tour of this well-supported, ambitious community effort to preserve the history of the “Southern Pacific Golden Empire” for today… and for the future! The new company took over on July 15th and its new president, Charles Levey, worked very hard to increase business. Welcome to the Southern Pacific Railroad History Center! The first trains began to run in America in the 1830s along the East Coast. By early 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific were closing in on each other across northern Utah, aided by a Mormon workforce under contract to both companies. A rail line built along this route would require tunneling through granite mountains and crossing deep ravines, an engineering feat yet to be attempted in the U.S. By 1918 it added three non-electrified branches reaching Turlock, Hatch, and Manteca that were designed solely for freight traffic. The new corridor handled freight from San Francisco/Oakland to the Pacific Northwest, and ultimately Chicago in competition against the SP. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. The Pacific Railway Act, which became law on July 1, 1862, offered government incentives to assist men of talent, men of character, men who are willing to invest in developing the nations first transcontinental rail line. Several years later, Keddie tried a second time when he helped establish the San Francisco & Great Salt Lake Railroad, incorporated on May 21, 1892. A year later, the Sacramento Northern Railway was formed as a holding company, which later merged all WP's interurbans under this name. Huntington and his partners paid Judah to survey the route. Many were pulled up in the 1970's and 1980's although others were removed long before that. The Central Pacific's Big Four formed their corporation with a similar arrangement, awarding the construction and supplies contract to one of their own, Charles Crocker, who, for the sake of appearances, resigned from the railroad's board. By the 1840s, the nation's railway networks extended throughout the East, South, and Midwest, and the idea of building a railroad across the nation to the Pacific gained momentum. The railroad workers were armed and oftentimes protected by U.S. Calvary and friendly Pawnee Indians, but the workforce routinely faced Native American raiding parties that attacked surveyors and workers, stole livestock and equipment, and pulled up track and derailed locomotives. For nearly 80 You will be hard pressed at finding a better online resource regarding diesel locomotives than Craig Rutherford's TheDieselShop.us. By the 20th Century his goal was nearing reality as he controlled the Missouri Pacific, Wabash, Western Maryland, Wheeling & Lake Erie, and the Rio Grande properties consisting of the Denver & Rio Grande (D&RG) and Rio Grande Western (RGW). (A bridge over the Missouri River would be built later to join Omaha to Council Bluffs, the official eastern terminus.) These backers would later come to be known as the "Big Four.". Although the Central Pacific had a two-year head start over the Union Pacific, the rough terrain of the Sierra Nevadas limited their construction to only 100 miles by the end of 1867. Judah agreed and he and Strong drew up letters of incorporation for the Central Pacific Railroad Company. CENTRAL PACIFIC–UNION PACIFIC RACECENTRAL PACIFIC–UNION PACIFIC RACE, a construction contest between the two railroad companies bidding for government subsidies, land grants, and public favor. In 1864, a track-laying crew from the Central Pacific Railroad came eastward across the plain from Sacramento, building the western half of the nation's first transcontinental railroad.They crossed a small rail line (the California Central Railroad) that linked the young towns of Lincoln and Folsom, and gave the spot the imaginative name of Junction. Authorizing the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroad companies to construct the lines, the legislation provided … The company's decision to locate its Western terminus in Tacoma ignited Seattle's indignation and brought the city together to form its own railroad company, the Seattle & Walla Walla. At a price tag of $700,000 this trackage provided WP access into Reno from a connection along the main line at Reno Junction (near Chat). No particular route became a clear favorite as political groups were split over whether the route should be a northern or southern one. Drew Jacksich photo. Durant hired Grenville Dodge as chief engineer and General Jack Casement as construction boss. Canadian Pacific Railway was founded in 1881 to link Canada’s populated centres with the vast potential of its relatively unpopulated West. 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