Southern Pacific Transportation Company Explained

Railroad Name:Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Logo Filename:Southern Pacific Lines (logo).png
Founders:William Tell Coleman
Timothy Guy Phelps
William Rosecrans
Leland Stanford
Marks:SP
Locale:Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah
Start Year:1865
End Year:1996
Predecessor Line:Central Pacific Railroad
Successors:Santa Fe Pacific Corporation
Union Pacific Railroad
Gauge: with some narrow gauge branches
Hq City:San Francisco, California
System Map:SP Map.png
Map Size:250

The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.

The original Southern Pacific began in 1865 as a land holding company. The last incarnation of the Southern Pacific, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, was founded in 1969 and assumed control of the Southern Pacific system. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company was acquired in 1996 by the Union Pacific Corporation and merged with their Union Pacific Railroad.

The Southern Pacific legacy founded hospitals in San Francisco, Tucson, and Houston. In the 1970s, it also founded a telecommunications network with a state-of-the-art microwave and fiber optic backbone. This telecommunications network became part of Sprint, a company whose name came from the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.[1]

History

See main article: History of the Southern Pacific. 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. The company was purchased in September 1868 by a group of businessmen known as the Big Four: Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Jr. and C. P. Huntington. The Big Four had, in 1861, created the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR)[2] It later acquired the Central Pacific Railroad in 1885 through leasing.[3] [4] [5] By 1900, the Southern Pacific system was a major railroad system incorporating many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad. It extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, through most of California, including San Francisco and Sacramento. Central Pacific lines extended east across Nevada to Ogden, Utah, and reached north through Oregon to Portland. Other subsidiaries eventually included the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt, reporting marks SSW), El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at 328miles, the 1331miles Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico, and a variety of narrow-gauge routes.

The SP was known for its mammoth back shops at Sacramento, California, which was one of the few in the country equipped to design and build locomotives on a large scale. Sacramento was among the top ten largest shops in the US, occupying 200 acres of land with dozens of buildings and an average employment of 3,000, peaking at 7,000 during World War II. Other major shop sites were located at Ogden, Utah; Houston, Texas; and Algiers, New Orleans. After the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco, including the SP shops there, new shops and yards were built six miles south of the city at Bayshore. The Alhambra Shops in Los Angeles consisted of 10 buildings and employed 1,500 but declined in importance when the Taylor Yard was built in 1930.[6]

The SP was the defendant in the landmark 1886 United States Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, which is often interpreted as having established certain corporate rights under the Constitution of the United States.

The Southern Pacific Railroad was replaced by the Southern Pacific Company and assumed the railroad operations of the Southern Pacific Railroad. 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 3085miles, bringing total SP/SSW mileage to around 13508miles. The T&NO was fully merged into the SP in 1961.

In 1969, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company was established and took over the Southern Pacific Company; this Southern Pacific railroad is the last incarnation and was at times called "Southern Pacific Industries", though "Southern Pacific Industries" is not the official name of the company. By the 1980s, route mileage had dropped to 10423miles, mainly due to the pruning of branch lines. On October 13, 1988, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (including its subsidiary, St. Louis Southwestern Railway) was taken over by Rio Grande Industries, the parent company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (reporting marks D&RGW). Rio Grande Industries did not merge the Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad together, but transferred direct ownership of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, allowing the combined Rio Grande Industries railroad system to use the Southern Pacific name due to its brand recognition in the railroad industry and with customers of both the Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. A long time Southern Pacific subsidiary, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway was also marketed under the Southern Pacific name. Along with the addition of the SPCSL Corporation route from Chicago to St. Louis, the former mainline of the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railroad that once belonged to the Alton Railroad, the total length of the D&RGW/SP/SSW system was 15959miles. Rio Grande Industries was later renamed Southern Pacific Rail Corporation.

By 1996, years of financial problems had dropped Southern Pacific's mileage to 13715miles. The financial problems caused the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to be taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation; the parent Southern Pacific Rail Corporation (formerly Rio Grande Industries), the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and the SPCSL Corporation were also taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation. The Union Pacific Corporation merged the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and the SPCSL Corporation into their Union Pacific Railroad but did not merge the Southern Pacific Transportation Company into the Union Pacific Railroad. Instead, the Union Pacific Corporation merged the Union Pacific Railroad into the Southern Pacific Transportation Company on February 1, 1998; the Southern Pacific Transportation Company became the surviving railroad and at the same time the Union Pacific Corporation renamed the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to Union Pacific Railroad. Thus, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company became, and is still operating as, the current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Locomotives

Like most railroads, the SP painted most of its steam locomotives black during the 20th century, but after 1945 SP painted the front of the locomotive's smokebox silver (almost white in appearance), with graphite colored sides, for visibility.

Some passenger steam locomotives bore the Daylight scheme, named after the trains they hauled, most of which had the word Daylight in the train name. The most famous "Daylight" locomotives were the GS-4 steam locomotives. The most famous Daylight-hauled trains were the Coast Daylight and the Sunset Limited.

Well known were the Southern Pacific's unique "cab-forward" steam locomotives.[7] These were 4-8-8-2, 2-8-8-2, and 4-6-6-2 (rebuilt from 2-6-6-2) locomotives set up to run in reverse, with the tender attached to the smokebox end of the locomotive.[7] Southern Pacific had a number of snow sheds in mountain terrain, and locomotive crews nearly asphyxiated from smoke in the cab.[7] After a number of engineers began running their engines in reverse (pushing the tender), Southern Pacific asked Baldwin Locomotive Works to produce cab-forward designs.[7] No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives.

List of locomotives used

Steam locomotives[8]

Narrow Gauge Locomotives

Diesel locomotives

Passenger train service

Until May 1, 1971 (when Amtrak took over long-distance passenger operations in the United States), the Southern Pacific at various times operated the following named passenger trains. Trains with names in italicized bold text still operate under Amtrak:

Notable accidents

Sontag's partner in crime, Chris Evans also hated the Southern Pacific, which Evans accused of forcing farmers to sell their lands at reduced rates to the company.[10]

The chemical plume left a 41mile wake of destruction from the spill site to the entry point of the river into Shasta Lake.[21] The accident still ranks as the largest hazardous chemical spill in California history.[22] At the time of the incident, metam sodium was not classified as a hazardous material.

Preserved locomotives

There are many Southern Pacific locomotives still in revenue service with railroads such as the Union Pacific Railroad, and many older and special locomotives have been donated to parks and museums, or continue operating on scenic or tourist railroads. Most of the engines now in use with Union Pacific have been "patched", where the SP logo on the front is replaced by a Union Pacific shield, and new numbers are applied over the old numbers with a Union Pacific sticker, however some engines remain in Southern Pacific "bloody nose" paint. Over the past couple years, most of the patched units were repainted into the full Union Pacific scheme and as of January 2019, less than ten units remain in their old paint. Among the more notable equipment is:

Honorary tribute

On August 19, 2006, UP unveiled a brand new EMD SD70ACe locomotive, Union Pacific 1996, as part of a new heritage program. It was the final unit in UP's Heritage Series of locomotives, and was painted in a color scheme inspired by the "Daylight" and "Black Widow" schemes.

Company officers

Presidents

Chairmen of Executive Committee

Chairmen of Board of Directors

Notable employees

See also

References

General

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sprint Born From Railroad, Telephone Businesses . Block . Melissa . Neff . Brijet . 2012-10-15 . . NPR . https://web.archive.org/web/20121024223334/http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162963607/sprint-born-from-railroad-telephone-businesses . 2012-10-24 . live . 2013-01-14 . 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..
  2. Web site: R . Miriam . 2020-07-31 . Moments in History: Leland Stanford, 1824-1893 and Jane Stanford, 1828-1905 . 2024-07-10 . Palo Alto History Museum . en-US.
  3. .
  4. .
  5. Book: Farmer, Jared . Trees in paradise : a California history . 2013 . Norton . 978-0-393-07802-2 . 889889389.
    • Book: The Back Shop Illustrated, Volume 3: Southeast and Western Regions. Starr, Timothy. 2024. Privately printed.
  6. .
  7. Web site: Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive Index .
  8. Book: Schwantes, Carlos A. . 1993 . Railroad Signatures across the Pacific Northwest . University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA . 0-295-97210-6. 27266208.
  9. Web site: Sontag and Evans . eshomvalley.com . 6 August 2013.
  10. News: . 29 March 1907 . [no title cited].
  11. News: . Diabolism Incarnate . Editorial . May 1907.
  12. News: Arave . Lynn . Remembering Utah's Worst Train Wreck . 17 June 2019 . Standard-Examiner . 26 Dec 2014 . en . June 17, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190617024038/https://www.standard.net/news/local/remembering-utah-s-worst-train-wreck/article_73fc2d7a-0157-5455-bf54-f83d369dbc20.html . dead .
  13. News: . 17 January 1947 . 7 Dead in "Owl" Wreck . 30 December 2018 . subscription .
  14. News: . n.d.. Doc Ricketts Memorial . 14 February 2019.
  15. Book: Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration, and the Farm Workers . ILR Press . Martin, Philip L. . 2003 . 50 . 0801488753.
  16. A Town Full of Dead Mexicans: The Salinas Valley Bracero Tragedy of 1963, the End of the Bracero Program, and the Evolution of California's Chicano Movement . Flores, Lori A. . The Western Historical Quarterly . Summer 2013 . 44 . 2 . 124–143 . 10.2307/westhistquar.44.2.0124.
  17. News: Second survivor of 1963 Chualar bus crash emerges . https://web.archive.org/web/20141006131423/http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_25256461/second-survivor-1963-chualar-bus-crash-emerges . 2014-10-06 . Monterey Herald . March 1, 2014 . 5 February 2019 . live .
  18. News: Freight train blasts shock area. Berthelsen. John. 29 April 1973. Sacramento Bee. 7 June 2021.
  19. News: 3 Die as Runaway Train Tumbles Onto Homes. Malnic. Eric. Warren. Jennifer. 13 May 1989. Los Angeles Times. 30 December 2018.
  20. Book: Cantara Trustee Council . 2007 . Final Report on the Recovery of the Upper Sacramento River.
  21. Web site: California Department of Toxic Substance Control . 20th anniversary of largest chemical spill in California history . 2007.
  22. Web site: Locomotives. 2021-09-13. Austin Steam Train Association. en.
  23. Web site: History of Southern Pacific 982 Steam Locomotive. 2021-04-28. www.facebook.com. en.
  24. Web site: Orange Empire Railway Museum – Bringing Southern California's Railway History to Life..
  25. Web site: W. Burch Lee Funeral Here in Afternoon: Former Clerk of Federal Court Expires After Week of Illness. The Shreveport Times through findagrave.com. March 22, 2015.
  26. Web site: Harry (Haywire Mac) McClintock . Hillbilly-Music.com . April 23, 2023.