Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad

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The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (LA&SL) is a now-defunct rail company that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities, via Las Vegas, Nevada. Incorporated in 1901 as the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, the line was largely the brainchild of William Andrews Clark, a Montana mining baron and United States Senator. Construction of the railroad's main line was completed in 1905, and the company adopted the LA&SL name in 1916. The railway was also known by its nickname, "The Salt Lake Route."

[edit] History

The development of the railway line that later became the LA&SL began in 1871, when the Utah Southern Railroad, began constructing trackage southward from Salt Lake City. The Utah Southern, controlled by the much larger Union Pacific Railroad (UP), built a line to a station known as Juab, Utah in 1879. From there, a second UP subsidiary known as the Utah Southern Railroad Extension took up the work, completing trackage as far as Milford, Utah in 1880. By the end of the century, these and other lines had been absorbed into the Oregon Short Line Railroad, a far larger UP subsidiary.

Work on extending the Milford line southward began by 1889, but no tracks were actually laid due to financial issues. Construction resumed in 1899, however, when the route was completed as far as the Utah-Nevada border. Substantial grading work also took place in Nevada, and the UP's stated intent was to continue expanding the line all the way to southern California.

Another player entered the scene in 1901, however, when William Andrews Clark incorporated the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad and announced plans to construct his own line between Salt Lake and southern California. Clark's forces began construction work in Nevada, along the existing UP grade, and a brief "railroad war" ensued before Clark and the UP called a truce in 1903. Their agreement called for Clark's railroad to acquire the existing UP trackage south of Salt Lake City; in turn, the UP received a 50% ownership interest in the LA&SL. Construction of the remaining line proceeded rapidly, and the complete Salt Lake-Los Angeles line was opened in 1905. In California, the LA&SL negotiated a trackage rights agreement allowing it to use the existing Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway route over Cajon Pass, in lieu of constructing their own tracks across the pass.

The LA&SL operated independently until 1921, when the UP agreed to acquire Clark's half-interest in the railroad. From that point on, the LA&SL lines were operated as an integral part of the UP system, although the LA&SL corporation continued to exist on paper until 1987. The former LA&SL main line remains an integral part of the UP network today.

[edit] Route and stations

Following standard railroad practice, the LA&SL designated a series of locations along its route as "division points" -- bases for the railroad's operational and maintenance activities. Traveling southwestward from Salt Lake, the LA&SL division point towns were Lynndyl, Utah; Milford; Caliente, Nevada; Las Vegas; Yermo, California; and San Bernadino, California. The railway also maintained a substantial presence in the remote town of Kelso, California. Nearly the entire route of the railroad traversed rugged and largely unpopulated desert terrain. There were no major population centers between the railroad's endpoints until the city of Las Vegas began its rapid growth in the mid-twentieth century.

The LA&SL was known for its depot buildings, many of which were large and imposing structures designed in the Mission Revival architectural style. The largest such depot, at Milford, was razed in 1979, but landmark LA&SL stations in Caliente and Kelso survive today. Several smaller Mission Revival depots erected by the railroad still exist in southern California, as well. At least two of the railroad's smaller stations, at Lund and Black Rock, Utah, were designed by the noted architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood.

[edit] References

• Signor, John R. The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad Company: Union Pacific's Historic Salt Lake Route. San Marino, California: Golden West Books, 1988. ISBN 0-87095-101-7.