santafe.html

I had to leave this file LARGE..5 MB..so to show the town names...make smaller and can not read the names...

Overview

Headquarters Chicago, Illinois Kansas City, Missouri Los Angeles, California Reporting mark ATSF Dates of operation 1859-1996

Successor BNSF Railway

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (reporting mark ATSF), often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at various times, it operated an airline, the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway, and the Santa Fe Railroad tugboats. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, and ferryboats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys to the Pacific Ocean.

The railroad officially ceased independent operations on December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

History

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway

The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The railroad reached the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farmland from the land grants that it was awarded by Congress for laying track. As the railroad was first being built, many of the tracks were laid directly over the wagon ruts of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1869, the first general office building of the company was built in Topeka. This building also served as a passenger station and freight depot. When the line was extended to Newton, Kansas in 1871, the railroad became a major cattle shipper to ensure a steady revenue stream, at the end of Texas cattle drive trails. Despite being chartered to serve the city, the railroad chose to bypass Santa Fe, due to the engineering challenges of the mountainous terrain. In 1880, a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico, brought the Santa Fe railroad the 20 miles to its namesake city. It continued to connect with the Southern Pacific at Deming.

The system was eventually expanded with branch lines into California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Illinois. It reached Arizona and California by acquiring control of the western portion of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1880. It reached Chicago by acquiring the Chicago and St. Louis Railway in 1887. By 1887 the mainline had been completed from Chicago to Los Angeles, making it one of the country’s most important railroads and one of the few that directly connected the Midwest with the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean under one corporation.

The principal lines consisted of:

Chicago to Kansas City to La Junta, Colorado, to Los Angeles; Emporia, Kansas, to Oklahoma City to Fort Worth to Houston; Emporia, Kansas, to Dalies, New Mexico; Barstow to Richmond, California (the Valley Division); Temple to Farwell, Texas; Denver to La Junta, Colorado; Albuquerque, New Mexico, to El Paso, Texas; Dallas to Presidio, Texas; and

Kansas City to Tulsa.

The primary back shops at Topeka, Kansas, were first established in the 1860s. The original shops were relocated in 1878 to the south side of Seward Avenue and expanded in 1902 to double the repair capacity. The shops at Albuquerque, New Mexico, were built in 1880 and materially expanded in 1925. Another shop site was established at San Bernardino, California, in 1886. To maintain rolling stock in the state of Texas, a fourth major shop facility was built in Cleburne, Texas, in 1899. An AT&SF trademark in the late 19th century incorporated the British lion out of respect for the country's financial assistance in building the railroad to California. Gold bond of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, issued October 1, 1889 Physical confrontations led to two years of armed conflict that became known as the Royal Gorge Railroad War. Federal intervention prompted an out-of-court settlement on February 2, 1880, in the form of the so-called "Treaty of Boston", wherein the Denver & Rio Grande railroad was allowed to complete its line and lease it for use by the Santa Fe railroad. Building across Kansas and eastern Colorado was simple, with few natural obstacles, but the railroad found it almost economically impossible because of the sparse population. It set up real estate offices in the area and promoted settlement across Kansas on the land granted to it by Congress in 1863.

The Santa Fe entered Texas by starting what became the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway in 1886 and acquiring the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1887. The Santa Fe reached San Francisco by buying the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railway in 1891. They completed a Grand Canyon branch in 1901. The Santa Fe acquired the properties of the Southern California Railway in 1906. They acquired a Phoenix branch with the purchase of the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway in 1911.

Expansion

A comparison map prepared by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1921, showing the "Old Santa Fé Trail" and the AT&SF and its connections. In 1928, the Santa Fe acquired the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway.

On March 29, 1955, the railway was one of many companies that sponsored attractions in Disneyland with its five-year sponsorship of all Disneyland trains and stations until 1974. In 1960, AT&SF bought the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad (TP&W); then sold a half-interest to the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). The TP&W cut straight east across Illinois from near Fort Madison, Iowa (Lomax, IL), to a connection with the PRR at Effner, Indiana (Illinois-Indiana border), forming a bypass around Chicago for traffic moving between the two lines. The TP&W route did not mesh with the traffic patterns Conrail developed after 1976, so AT&SF bought back the other half, merged the TP&W in 1983, then sold it back into independence in 1989.

Attempted Southern Pacific merger

AT&SF began merger talks in the 1980's. The Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad (SPSF) was a proposed merger between the parent companies of the Southern Pacific and AT&SF announced on December 23, 1983. As part of the joining of the two firms, all rail and non-rail assets owned by Santa Fe Industries and the Southern Pacific Transportation Company were placed under the control of a holding company, the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific Corporation. The merger was subsequently denied by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) on the basis that it would create too many duplicate routes.

The companies were so confident the merger would be approved that they began repainting locomotives and non-revenue rolling stock in a new unified paint scheme. While Southern Pacific (railroad) was sold off to Rio Grande Industries, all of the SP's real estate holdings were consolidated into a new company, Catellus Development Corporation, making it California's largest private landowner, of which Santa Fe remained the owner. In the early 1980s, gold was discovered on several properties west of Battle Mountain, Nevada along I-80, on ground owned by the Santa Fe Railroad (formerly SP). The Santa Fe Pacific Corporation (a name correlation of Santa Fe and Southern Pacific) was to develop the properties. They were sold to Newmont during 1997 in preparation for the merger with Burlington Northern). Sometime later, Catellus would purchase the Union Pacific Railroad's interest in the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT).

Burlington Northern merger

On September 22, 1995, AT&SF merged with Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway (BNSF). Some of the challenges resulting from the joining of the two companies included the establishment of a common dispatching system, the unionization of AT&SF's non-union dispatchers, and incorporating AT&SF's train identification codes throughout. The two lines maintained separate operations until December 31, 1996, when it officially became BNSF.

1870 1945 Gross operating revenue $182,580 $528,080,530 Total track length 62 miles (100 km) 13,115 miles (21,107 km) Freight carried 98,920 tons 59,565,100 tons Passengers carried 33,630 11,264,000 Locomotives owned 6 1,759 Unpowered rolling stock owned 141 81,974 freight cars 1,436 passenger cars Revenue Freight Ton-Miles (Millions) ATSF/GC&SF/P&SF Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka FtWorth & Rio Grande KCM&O/KCM&O of Texas Clinton & Oklahoma Western New Mexico Central 1925 13,862 14 42 330 2 1 1933 8,712 12 18 (incl P&SF) (incl P&SF) (incl ATSF) 1944 37,603 45 (incl GC&SF) 1960 36,635 20 1970 48,328 (merged) Revenue Passenger-Miles (Millions) ATSF/GC&SF/P&SF Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka FtWorth & Rio Grande KCM&O/KCM&O of Texas Clinton & Oklahoma Western New Mexico Central 1925 1,410 5 6 8 0.1 0.1 1933 555 0.1 0.8 (incl P&SF) (incl P&SF) (incl ATSF) 1944 6,250 0.2 (incl GC&SF) 1960 1,689 0

1970 727 (merged)

Passenger service

The Santa Fe was the only railroad to run trains from Chicago to California on its own tracks. The railway's extensive network was also home to a number of regional services. These generally couldn't boast of the size or panache of the transcontinental trains, but built up enviable reputations of their own nonetheless. Of these, the Chicago-Texas trains were the most famous and impressive. The San Diegans, which ran from Los Angeles to San Diego, were the most popular and durable, becoming to the Santa Fe what New York City-Philadelphia trains were to the Pennsylvania Railroad. But Santa Fe flyers also served Tulsa, Oklahoma, El Paso, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona (the Hassayampa Flyer), and Denver, Colorado, among other cities not on their main line. To reach smaller communities, the railroad operated mixed (passenger and freight) trains or gas-electric doodlebug rail cars. The latter were later converted to diesel power, and one pair of Budd Rail Diesel Cars was eventually added. After World War II, Santa Fe Trailways buses replaced most of these lesser trains. These smaller trains generally were not named; only the train numbers were used to differentiate services. AT&SF ceased operating passenger trains on May 1, 1971, when it conveyed its remaining trains to Amtrak. These included the Super Chief / El Capitan, the Texas Chief and the San Diegan (though Amtrak reduced the San Diegan from three daily round trips to two). Discontinued were the San Francisco Chief, the ex-Grand Canyon, the Tulsan, and a Denver–La Junta local. ATSF had been more than willing to retain the San Diegan and its famed Chiefs. However, any railroad that opted out of Amtrak would have been required to operate all of its passenger routes until at least 1976. The prospect of having to keep operating its less-successful routes, especially the money-bleeding 23/24 (the former Grand Canyon) led ATSF to get out of passenger service altogether.

Amtrak still runs the Super Chief and San Diegan today as the Southwest Chief and Pacific Surfliner, respectively, although the original routes and equipment have been modified by Amtrak.

Named trains

The Angel: San Francisco, California - Los Angeles, California - San Diego, California (this was the southbound version of the Saint) The Angelo: San Angelo, Texas - Fort Worth, Texas (on the GC&SF) The Antelope: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Kansas City, Missouri Atlantic Express: Los Angeles, California - Kansas City, Missouri (this was the eastbound version of the Los Angeles Express). California Express: Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri - Los Angeles, California California Fast Mail: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California - San Francisco, California California Limited: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California California Special: Clovis, New Mexico - Houston, Texas (with through connections to California via the San Francisco Chief at Clovis) Cavern: Clovis, New Mexico - Carlsbad, New Mexico (connected with the Scout). Centennial State: Denver, Colorado - Chicago, Illinois Central Texas Express: Sweetwater, Texas - Lubbock, Texas Chicagoan: Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois (this was the eastbound version of the Kansas Cityan passenger train). Chicago Express: Newton, Kansas - Chicago, Illinois Chicago Fast Mail: San Francisco, California - Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois Chicago-Kansas City Flyer: Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri The Chief: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California Eastern Express: Lubbock, Texas - Amarillo, Texas (this was the eastbound version of the West Texas Express). El Capitan: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California El Pasoan: El Paso, Texas - Albuquerque, New Mexico El Tovar: Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois (via Belen) Fargo Fast Mail/Express: Belen, New Mexico - Amarillo, Texas - Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois Fast Fifteen: Newton, Kansas - Galveston, Texas Fast Mail Express: San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles) - Chicago, Illinois Golden Gate: Oakland, California - Bakersfield, California, with coordinated connecting bus service to Los Angeles and San Francisco Grand Canyon Limited: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California Hassayampa Flyer: Phoenix, Arizona - Ash Fork, Arizona (later Williams Junction, Arizona) The Hopi: Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois Kansas Cityan: Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri (this was the westbound version of the Chicagoan passenger train). Kansas City Chief: Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois The Kite-Shaped Track: Los Angeles-area excursion Los Angeles Express: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California (this was the westbound version of the Atlantic Express). The Missionary: San Francisco, California - Belen, New Mexico - Amarillo, Texas - Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois Navajo: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles) Oil Flyer: Kansas City, Missouri - Tulsa, Oklahoma, with through sleepers to Chicago via other trains Overland Limited: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California Phoenix Express: Los Angeles, California - Phoenix, Arizona The Ranger: Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois The Saint: San Diego, California - Los Angeles, California - San Francisco, California (this was the northbound version of the "Angel") San Diegan: Los Angeles, California - San Diego, California San Francisco Chief: San Francisco, California - Chicago, Illinois San Francisco Express: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles) Santa Fe de Luxe: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California - San Francisco, California Santa Fe Eight: Belen, New Mexico - Amarillo, Texas - Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois The Scout: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles) South Plains Express: Sweetwater, Texas - Lubbock, Texas Super Chief: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California The Texan: Houston, Texas - New Orleans, Louisiana (on the GC&SF between Galveston and Houston, then via the Missouri Pacific Railroad between Houston and New Orleans). Texas Chief: Galveston, Texas (on the GC&SF) - Chicago, Illinois Tourist Flyer: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles) The Tulsan: Tulsa, Oklahoma - Kansas City, Mo. with through coaches to Chicago, Illinois, via other trains (initially the Chicagoan/Kansas Cityan) Valley Flyer: Oakland, California - Bakersfield, California

West Texas Express: Amarillo, Texas - Lubbock, Texas (this was the westbound version of the Eastern Express).

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