The was an
American Railroad . The railroad was founded as a land holding company in
1865 , forming part of the
Central Pacific Railroad empire. The Southern Pacific's total route miles has varied significantly over the years. In
1929 , the system showed 13,848 miles of track (in contrast to 8,991 miles of track in 1994). By 1900, the Southern Pacific Company had grown into a major railroad system which incorporated many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad, and which extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through
Tucson , to
Los Angeles , throughout most of California including
San Francisco and
Sacramento ; it absorbed the
Central Pacific Railroad extending eastward across
Nevada to
Ogden, Utah and had lines reaching north throughout and across
Oregon to
Portland .
On
August 9 ,
1988 , the
Interstate Commerce Commission approved the purchase of the Southern Pacific by
Rio Grande Industries , the company that controlled the
Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad . The Rio Grande officially took control of the Southern Pacific on
October 13 ,
1988 . After the purchase, the combined railroad kept the Southern Pacific name due to its brand recognition in the railroad industry and with customers of both constituent railroads. The Southern Pacific subsequently was taken over by the
Union Pacific Railroad in
1996 following years of financial problems. The railroad is also noteworthy for being 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 .
- begins construction between Houston, Texas and Alleyton, Texas .
- , led by Timothy Phelps , found the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego, California .
- purchases the Southern Pacific.
- 1870 : Southern Pacific and Central Pacific operations are merged.
- June .
- and work begins on the Tehachapi Loop
- after travelling over the newly completed Tehachapi Loop .
- at Yuma, Arizona . Southern Pacific purchases the Houston and Texas Central Railway.
- 1879 : Southern Pacific engineers experiment with the first oil-fired locomotives.
- .
- takes place in Hanford, California , a dispute over property rights with SP.
- .
- at the Pecos River . The golden spike is driven by Col. Tom Pierce , the GH&SA president, atop the Pecos River High Bridge
- .
- February 17 1885 : The Southern Pacific and Central Pacific are combined under a holding company named the Southern Pacific Company.
- April 1 1885 : The Southern Pacific takes over all operation of the Central Pacific. Effectively, the CP no longer exists as a separate company.
- s on the Southern Pacific enter operation.
- 1886: Southern Pacific wins the landmark Supreme Court case '' Santa Clara County V. Southern Pacific Railroad '' which establishes Equal Rights under the Law to Corporation s. ''circa'' 1900. Completed in 1894 and still in use, it is the first permanent structure to be constructed in the Mission Revival Style .]]
- '' magazine is founded as a promotional tool of the Southern Pacific.
- and the events leading up to it, is published.
- system in Los Angeles.
- across the Great Salt Lake , bypassing Promontory, UT for the railroad's mainline.
- is completed between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA .
- strikes, damaging the railroad's headquarters building and destroying the mansions of the now-deceased Big Four.
- (PFE) refrigerator car line.
- , the railroad's subsidiary south of the U.S. border, is incorporated.
- orders the Union Pacific to sell all of its stock in the Southern Pacific.
-
- allows the SP's control of the Central Pacific to continue, ruling that the control is in the public's interest.
- Railroad.
- May passenger trains in Los Angeles are united into a single terminal as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal is opened.
- s owned entirely by SP enter mainline operation on the SP.
- .
- is sold to the Mexican government.
- train marooned for three days in heavy snow on Donner Pass ; that summer, an earthquake hits the Tehachapi pass, closing the entire route over the Tehachapi Loop until repairs can be made.
- ") equipment enters service on the SP.
- s in regular operation on the SP are retired; the railroad is now fully dieselized.
- 1959 : The last revenue steam powered freight is operated on the system by narrow gauge #9.
- is rejected by the ICC.
- through Cajon Pass .
- 's first annual Rail Safety Achievement Award in recognition of the railroad's handling of Dow products in 1975.1
- .
, leads a westbound train through Eola, Illinois (just east of Aurora ), October 6 , 1992 .]]
- , parent of the Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe Railway , to form . When the Interstate Commerce Commission refuses permission for the planned merger of the railroad subsidiaries as the Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad SPSF shortens its name to Santa Fe Pacific Corporation and puts the SP railroad up for sale while retaining the non-rail assets of the Southern Pacific Company.
- Railroad, takes control of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The merged company retains the name "Southern Pacific" for all railroad operations.
- finishes the acquisition that was effectively begun almost a century before with the purchase of the Southern Pacific. The merged company retains the name "Union Pacific" for all railroad operations.
"cab-forward" steam locomotive, leads a California-Nevada Railroad Historical Society excursion out of
Reno, Nevada in December of 1957.]]
Like most railroads, the SP painted the majority of its
Steam Locomotive fleet black during the 20th century, but after the 1930s the SP had a policy of painting the front of the locomotive's
Smokebox light silver (almost white in appearance), with graphite colored sides, for visibility.
Some express passenger steam locomotives bore the ''Daylight'' scheme, named after the trains they hauled, most of which had the word ''Daylight'' in the train name. This scheme, carried in full on the
Tender , consisted of a bright, almost vermilion red on the top and bottom thirds, with the center third being a bright orange. The parts were separated with thin white bands. Some of the color continued along the locomotive. 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. These were essentially
2-8-8-4 locomotives set up to run in reverse, with the
Tender attached to the smokebox end of the locomotive. Southern Pacific used a number of
Snow Shed s in mountain terrain, and locomotive crews nearly asphyxiated from smoke blowing back to the cab. 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. No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives, which became a distinctive symbol of the Southern Pacific.
During the early days of
Diesel Locomotive use, they were also painted black. Yard
Switcher s had diagonal orange stripes painted on the ends for visibility, earning this scheme the nickname of ''
Tiger Stripe ''. Road freight units were generally painted in a black scheme with a red band at the bottom of the carbody and a silver and orange "winged" nose. The words "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" were borne in a large serif font in white. This paint scheme is called the ''Black Widow'' scheme by railfans. A transitory scheme, of all-over black with orange "winged" nose, was called the ''Halloween'' scheme. Few locomotives were painted in this scheme and few photos of it exist.
Most passenger units were painted originally in the ''Daylight'' scheme as described above, though some were painted red on top, silver below for use on the ''
Golden State '' (operated in cooperation with the
Rock Island Railroad ) between Chicago and Los Angeles. Also, silver cars with a narrow red band at the top were used for the
Sunset Limited and other trains into Texas. In 1959 SP standardized on a paint scheme of dark grey with a red "winged" nose; this scheme was dubbed ''Bloody Nose'' by railfans. Lettering was again in white. During the failed
Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad merger in the mid 1980s, the "Kodachrome" (Named after Kodak's film strip box colors of the day.) paint scheme was applied to many Southern Pacific locomotives. When the Southern Pacific Santa Fe merger was denied by the
Interstate Commerce Commission , the Kodachrome units were not when it came to paint, some even lasted up to the days of Southern Pacific's end as an independent company. The
Interstate Commerce Commission 's decision left Southern Pacific in a decrepit state, the locomotives where not repainted immediately, although some were repainted into the ''Bloody Nose'' scheme as they were overhauled after months to years of deferred maintenance. After the
Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad , owner Philip Anschutz purchased the Southern Pacific in 1988, the side lettering became often done in the Rio Grande "speed lettering" style. The Rio Grande did not retain its identity, the Southern Pacific was the dominant road in the purchase.
Southern Pacific road switcher diesels were well-known by
Railfan s for several distinct features beyond their paint schemes. The units often featured elaborate lighting clusters, both front and rear, which featured a large red
Mars Light for emergency signaling, and often two sets of twin sealed-beam headlamps, one on top of the cab between the number boards, and the other below the Mars Light on the locomotive's nose. The Southern Pacific, starting in the 1970s, employed cab air conditioning on all new locomotives, and the air conditioning unit on top of the locomotive cab is quite visible. The Southern Pacific also placed very large snowplows on the pilots of their road switchers, primarily for the heavy winter snowfall encountered on the
Donner Pass route. Many Southern Pacific road switchers used a Nathan-AirChime model M3 or M5
Air Horn , which formed chords which were distinct to Southern Pacific locomotives in the
Western States .
The Southern Pacific, and its subsidiary
Cotton Belt , were the only operators of the
EMD SD45T-2 "Tunnel Motor" locomotive. This locomotive was necessary because the standard configuration
EMD SD45 could not get a sufficient amount of cool air into the diesel locomotive's radiator while working Southern Pacific's extensive snow shed and tunnel system in the Cascades and Donner Pass. These "Tunnel Motors" were essentially EMD SD45s with radiator air intakes located at the locomotive carbody's walkway level, rather than EMD's typical radiator setup with fans on the locomotive's long hood roof blowing fresh air downwards through the radiator. Inside tunnels and snow sheds, the hot exhaust gases from lead units would accumulate near the top of the tunnel or snow shed, and be drawn into the radiators of trailing EMD (non-tunnel motor) locomotives, leading these locomotives to shut down as their diesel prime mover overheated. The Southern Pacific also operated
EMD SD40T-2 s, as did the
Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad .
Unlike many other railroads, whose locomotive numberboards bore the locomotive's number, the SP used them for the train number all the way up to the proposed
Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad merger. By the
Rio Grande Industries era, SP had adopted the more standard practice of using the number boards for the road number.
Toward the end of the railroad's corporate life, Southern Pacific locomotives were known for being very dirty. Some
Railfan s jokingly observed that the railroad's heavily used locomotives were only washed when it rained.
Union Pacific recently unveiled
UP 1996 , the sixth and final of its Heritage Series
EMD SD70ACe locomotives. Its paint scheme appears to be based on the Daylight and Black Widow schemes.
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 :
on
July 26 ,
1937 .]]
''Steam Locomotives''
''Diesel Locomotives''
There are many Southern Pacific locomotives still in revenue service with railroads such as the Union Pacific, and many older and special locomotives have been donated to parks and museums, or continue operating on scenic or tourist railroads. Among the more notable equipment is:
, July 2005.]]
- 4294 ( AC-12 , 4-8-8-2 ), located at the California State Railroad Museum , Sacramento, California
- 4449 ( GS-4 , 4-8-4 ), located at the Brooklyn Roundhouse, Portland, Oregon
- 2472 ( P-8 , 4-6-2 ), owned and operated by the Golden Gate Railroad Museum , Redwood City, California
- 2467 ( P-8 , 4-6-2 ), on loan by the Pacific Locomotive Association , Fremont, California to the California State Railroad Museum
- 1518 ( EMD SD7 ), located at the Illinois Railway Museum , Union, Illinois
- 4450 ( EMD SD9 ), located at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum , Portola, California - former commute train engine
''For a complete list, see:
List Of Preserved Southern Pacific Railroad Rolling Stock .''
plies the waters of
San Francisco Bay in the late 19th century.]]
The Central Pacific Railroad (and later the Southern Pacific) maintained and operated a
Fleet Of Ferry Boats that connected Oakland with San Francisco by water. For this purpose, a massive pier, the
Oakland Long Wharf , was built out into San Francsico Bay in the 1870s which served both local and mainline passengers. Early on, the Central Pacific gained control of the existing ferry lines for the purpose of linking the northern rail lines with those from the south and east; during the late 1860s the company purchased nearly every bayside plot in Oakland, creating what author and historian
Oscar Lewis described as a "wall around the waterfront" that put the town’s fate squarely in the hands of the corporation. Competitors for ferry passengers or dock space were ruthlessly run out of business, and not even stage coach lines could escape the group's notice, or wrath.
By 1930, the Southern Pacific owned the world's largest ferry fleet (which was subsidized by other railroad activities), carrying 40 million passengers and 60 million vehicles annually aboard 43 vessels. However, the opening of the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 initiated the slow decline in demand for ferry service, and by 1951 only 6 ships remained active. SP ferry service was discontinued altogether in 1958.
