'' locomotive]]
The , (later to become the
Southern Pacific Railroad ), was planned by
Theodore Judah and financed mostly through the efforts of "
The Big Four " (''who also called themselves "The Associates"''), who were
Sacramento, California businessmen
Leland Stanford ,
Collis Huntington ,
Charles Crocker , and
Mark Hopkins . It was created to build the
First Transcontinental Railroad in
North America .
Alfred A. Hart was the official photographer of the CPRR construction.
A replica of the
Sacramento, California Central Pacific Railroad passenger station is part of the
California State Railroad Museum , located in the
Old Sacramento State Historic Park . The company's first two locomotives, the ''
Gov. Stanford '', and ''
C. P. Huntington '', are also both housed at the same museum.
Nearly all of the company's early correspondence is preserved at Syracuse University as part of the Huntington papers collection, released on microfilm (133 reels). The following libraries have this microfilm: University of Arizona at Tucson; Virginia Commonwealth University at Richmond.
Additional collections of manuscript letters are held at Stanford University and the Mariner's Museum at Newport News, Virginia.
The railroad originally terminated with a connection to the Union Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah. Shortly after completion of the line the Central Pacific purchased the track from Promontory to Ogden from the Union Pacific so that the railroads could have a terminal in a city.
In 1885 the Central Pacific Railroad was leased by the
Southern Pacific , though it technically remained an corporate entity until 1959 when it was formally merged into Southern Pacific. The original right of way is now part of the
Union Pacific who purchased Southern Pacific in 1996.
The first "transcontinental", the Union Pacific-Central Pacific (Southern Pacific) mainline made up the historic "Overland Route" from Omaha to San Francisco Bay.
- June 21 1861 : "Central Pacific Rail Road of California" incorporated; name changed to "Central Pacific Railroad of California" October 8, 1864, after the Pacific Railway Act amendment passes that summer.
- signs the Pacific Railway Act , which authorized the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific to build a railroad to the Pacific Ocean .
- , at the foot of "K" Street at the waterfront of the Sacramento River .
- .
- April 26 1864 : Central Pacific opened to Roseville, 18 miles, where it makes a junction with the California Central Rail Road, operating from Folsom north to Lincoln.
- Train on the Central Pacific operates between Sacramento and Newcastle, California
- .
- .
- (formerly known as "Illinoistown.")
- December 3 1866 : Central Pacific opened 92 miles to Cisco, California.
- , 105 miles.
- April 28 1869 : Track crews on the Central Pacific lay 10 miles of track in one day. This is the longest stretch of track that has been built in one day to date.
- .
- .
- to Oakland .
- June 23 1870 : Central Pacific is consolidated with the Western Pacific and San Francisco Bay Railroad Co. to form the "Central Pacific Railroad Co." (of June, 1870).
- .
- between South Vallejo and Sacramento, Calistoga and Marysville until April 1 , 1885 (see below).
- when railroad workers on strike in Martinsburg, West Virginia , derail and loot a train; United States President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in Federal troops to break the strike.
- s for American railroads was first implemented. The zones were named Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Within one year, 85% of all cities having populations over 10,000, about 200 cities, were using Standard Time .
- .
- June 30 1888 : Listed by ICC as a "non-operating" subsidiary of Southern Pacific.
- July 29 1899 : Central Pacific is reorganized as the "Central Pacific Railway".
- June 30 1959 : Central Pacific is formally merged into the Southern Pacific.
