Southern Pacific Railroad


The Southern Pacific 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.

History

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. It later acquired the routes of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1885 through leasing. 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, El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at, the Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico, and a variety of narrow-gauge routes.

The company was headquartered in the Flood Building in San Francisco's downtown shopping district in 1907. Ten years later, they moved into the historic 11-story, Southern Pacific Building, also known as "The Landmark", located at One Market Street on the Embarcadero whose construction started in 1916. At its completion, the building's first floor was devoted to retail except for the portion facing the rear courtyard, which was reserved for Southern Pacific. SP rented the second floor to a tenant, but occupied floors three through ten with various offices. For nearly a century, the building was topped with a large sign emblazoned with a gothic "S·P" marking the company's San Francisco roots.
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.
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, bringing total SP/SSW mileage to around. The T&NO was fully merged into the SP in 1961.
File:SP 6453 EB Floriston PRS spc Feb 1971.jpg|thumb|right|An EMD FP7 leads a Pacific Rail Society Special through Floriston, California, in February 1971.
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, mainly due to the pruning of branch lines. On October 13, 1988, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company was taken over by Rio Grande Industries, the parent company that controlled the Denver and [Rio Grande Western Railroad]. 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. Rio Grande Industries was later renamed Southern Pacific Rail Corporation.
By 1996, years of financial problems had dropped Southern Pacific's mileage to. The financial problems caused the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to be taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation; the parent Southern Pacific Rail Corporation, 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, 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. These were 4-8-8-2, 2-8-8-2, and 4-6-6-2 locomotives set up to run in reverse, with the tender attached to the smokebox end of the locomotive. Southern Pacific had snow sheds in mountain terrain, and locomotive crews nearly asphyxiated from smoke in the cab. After engineers began running their engines in reverse, Southern Pacific asked Baldwin Locomotive Works to produce cab-forward designs. No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives.

List of locomotives used

Steam locomotives

Source:
Narrow Gauge Locomotives
Until May 1, 1971, the Southern Pacific at various times operated the following named passenger trains. Trains with names in italicized bold text still operate under Amtrak:
  • 49er
  • Acadian
  • Apache
  • Argonaut
  • Arizona Limited
  • Beaver
  • Californian
  • Cascade
  • City of San Francisco
  • Coast Daylight
  • Coast Mail
  • Coaster
  • Coos Bay Limited
  • Del Monte
  • Fast Mail
  • Golden Rocket
  • Golden State
  • Grand Canyon
  • Hustler
  • Imperial
  • Klamath
  • Lark
  • Newsboy
  • Oil Fields Flyer
  • Oregonian
  • Overland
  • Owl Limited
  • Pacific Limited
  • Peninsula Commute
  • * Loop Service
  • Rogue River
  • Sacramento Daylight
  • San Francisco Challenger
  • San Joaquin Daylight
  • San Jose Limited
  • Seashore Express
  • Senator
  • Shasta Daylight
  • Shasta Express
  • Shasta Limited
  • Shasta Limited De Luxe
  • Shore Line Limited
  • Starlight
  • Statesman
  • Sunbeam
  • Sunset Limited
  • Suntan Special
  • Tehachapi
  • West Coast
  • El Costeño
  • ''El Yaqui''

    Notable accidents

  • On March 28, 1907, the Southern Pacific Sunset Express, descending the grade out of the San Timoteo Canyon, entered the Colton rail yard traveling about, hit an open switch and careened off the track, resulting in 24 fatalities. Accounts said 9 of the train's 14 cars disintegrated as they piled on top of one another, leaving the dead and injured in "a heap of kindling and crumpled metal". Of the dead, 18 were Italian immigrants traveling to jobs in San Francisco from Genoa, Italy.
  • The Coast Line Limited was heading for Los Angeles, on May 22, 1907, when it was derailed just west of Glendale, California. Passenger cars reportedly tumbled down the embankment. At least 2 people were killed and others injured. "The horrible deed was planned with devilish accurateness" the Pasadena Star News reported at the time. It said spikes were removed from the track and a hook placed under the end of the rail. The Star coverage was extensive and its editorial blasted the criminal elements behind the wreck:
    The man or men who committed this horrible deed near Glendale may not be anarchists, technically speaking. But if they are sane men, moved by motive, they are such stuff as anarchists are made of. If the typical anarchist conceived that a railroad corporation should be terrorized, he would not scruple to wreck a passenger train and send scores and hundreds to instant death.
  • On April 8, 1935, following torrential rains and flooding that washed out sections of track, a 14 man Southern Pacific work crew in railcars 1935 [Roseville, California railroad crash|collided with a gravel car] in the darkness in Roseville, California, resulting in 11 deaths.
  • On New Year's Eve 1944, a rear-end collision west of Ogden in thick fog killed 48 people.
  • On January 17, 1947, the Southern Pacific Nightflier wrecked outside of Bakersfield; 7 people were killed and over 50 injured. Four coaches and a tourist sleeper were overturned, landing far off the tracks; the other seven cars remained upright. The locomotive stayed on the tracks and its crew was uninjured. A 29-year-old passenger, Robert Crowley from Miami, Florida, had been conversing with a man across the aisle who was killed instantly. Crowley, who was a combat war veteran, said “I never saw such a mess” even on a battlefield.
  • On May 8, 1948, in Monterey, California, a Southern Pacific passenger train, the Del Monte Express, struck a car driven by influential marine biologist Ed Ricketts at the now defunct railroad crossing at Drake Avenue. Ricketts succumbed to his injuries three days later in the hospital.
  • On September 17, 1963, a Southern Pacific freight train crashed into an illegally converted bus at a grade crossing in Chualar, California, killing 32 bracero workers. It would later be a factor in the decision by Congress in 1964 to terminate the bracero program, despite its strong support among farmers. It also helped spur the Chicano civil rights movement. As of 2014, it was the deadliest automobile accident in United States history, according to the National Safety Council.
  • On April 28, 1973, a Southern Pacific freight train carrying munitions exploded in Roseville Yard injuring 52 people, the cause of this was due to a hot box on a railcar setting the floor ablaze, heating a bomb until it detonated.
  • On May 12, 1989, a Southern Pacific train, SP 7551 East carrying trona derailed in San Bernardino, California. The train failed to slow while descending a nearby slope, and sped up to about before derailing, causing the San Bernardino train disaster. The crash destroyed 7 homes along Duffy Street and killed 2 train workers and 2 residents. Thirteen days later on May 25, 1989, an underground pipeline running along the right-of-way ruptured and caught fire due to damage done to the pipeline during cleanup from the derailment or from the derailment itself, destroying 11 more homes and killing 2 more people.
  • On the night of July 14, 1991, a Southern Pacific train derailed into the upper Sacramento River at a sharp bend of track called "the Cantara Loop", upstream from Dunsmuir, California, in Siskiyou County. Several cars made contact with the water, including a tank car. Early in the morning of July 15, it became apparent that the tank car had ruptured and spilled its entire contents into the river – approximately of metam sodium, a soil fumigant. Ultimately, over a million fish, and tens of thousands of amphibians and crayfish were killed. Millions of aquatic invertebrates, including insects and mollusks, which form the basis of the river's ecosystem, were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of willows, alders, and cottonwoods eventually died; many more were severely injured.

    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:
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