Southern Pacific Railroad

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Southern Pacific
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Reporting marks SP,SSW
Locale Arizona, California, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Utah
Dates of operation 1865 – 1996
Successor line Union Pacific
Track gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) with some 3 ft (914 mm) gauge branches
Headquarters San Francisco, CA

The Southern Pacific Railroad (AAR reporting marks SP) 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.

Contents

[edit] Timeline

SP 8033, a GE Dash 8-39B, leads a westbound train through Eola, Illinois (just east of Aurora), October 6, 1992.
SP 8033, a GE Dash 8-39B, leads a westbound train through Eola, Illinois (just east of Aurora), October 6, 1992.

[edit] Locomotive paint and appearance

Southern Pacific Railroad #4274, a type 4-8-8-2 "cab-forward" steam locomotive, leads a California-Nevada Railroad Historical Society excursion out of Reno, Nevada in December of 1957.
Southern Pacific Railroad #4274, a type 4-8-8-2 "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 sheds 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 switchers 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. 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 Sounthern 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 deffered 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 railfans 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 radiatior 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-2s, 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 railfans 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.

[edit] 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:

Southern Pacific Railroad chair car (coach) #2425, assigned to the Challenger, makes a stop in San Luis Obispo, California on July 26, 1937.
Southern Pacific Railroad chair car (coach) #2425, assigned to the Challenger, makes a stop in San Luis Obispo, California on July 26, 1937.

Locomotives Used for Passenger Service

Steam Locomotives

Diesel Locomotives

[edit] Preserved 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:

SP 1518 at IRM, July 2005.
SP 1518 at IRM, July 2005.

For a complete list, see: List of preserved Southern Pacific Railroad rolling stock.

[edit] Company officers

[edit] Presidents of the Southern Pacific Company

[edit] Chairmen of the Southern Pacific Company Executive Committee

[edit] Chairmen of the Southern Pacific Company Board of Directors

  • Henry deForest (1929-1932)
  • Hale Holden (1932-1939)
  • (position nonexistent 1939-1964)
  • Donald Russell (1964-1972)
  • (vacant 1972-1976)
  • Benjamin Biaggini (1976-1983)

[edit] Predecessor and subsidiary railroads

[edit] Arizona

  • Arizona Eastern Railroad 1910-1955
    • Arizona Eastern Railroad Company of New Mexico 1904-1910
    • Arizona and Colorado Railroad 1902-1910
    • Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway 1894-1910 later AZER
    • Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad (of 1907) 1908-1910
      • Maricopa and Phoenix and Salt River Valley Railroad 1895-1908
        • Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad (of 1886) 1887-1895
        • Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa Railway 1894-1895
    • Arizona and Colorado Railroad Company of New Mexico 1904-1910
  • El Paso and Southwestern Railroad
    • Arizona and New Mexico Railway 1883-1935
      • Clifton and Southern Pacific Railway 1883 (Narrow Gauge)
      • Clifton and Lordsburg Railway
    • Arizona and South Eastern Rail Road 1888-1902
    • Mexico and Colorado Railroad 1908-1910
    • Southwestern Railroad of Arizona 1900-1901
    • Southwestern Railroad of New Mexico 1901-1902
  • New Mexico and Arizona Railroad 1882-1897 ATSF Subsidiary, 1897-1934 Non-operating SP subsidiary
  • Phoenix and Eastern Railroad 1903-1934
  • Tucson and Nogales Railroad 1910-1934
    • Twin Buttes Railroad 1906-1929; Tucson-Sahuarita line sold to above in 1910. Sahuarita-Twin Buttes line scrapped in 1934.

[edit] California

[edit] Successor railroads

[edit] Arizona

[edit] California

[edit] Ferry service

The Southern Pacific Company's Bay City ferry plies the waters of San Francisco Bay in the late 19th century.
The Southern Pacific Company's Bay City ferry 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.

[edit] References

  • Beebe, Lucius (1963). The Central Pacific & The Southern Pacific Railroads. Howell-North Books, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 0-8310-7034-X. 
  • Diebert, Timothy S. and Strapac, Joseph A. (1987). Southern Pacific Company steam locomotive compendium. Shade Tree Books, Huntington Beach, CA. ISBN 0-930742-12-5. 
  • Lewis, Oscar (1938). The Big Four. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, NY. 
  • Orsi, Richard J. (2005). Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West 1850-1930. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 0-520-20019-5. 
  • Thompson, Anthony W., et al (1992). Pacific Fruit Express. Signature Press, Wilton, CA. ISBN 1-930013-03-5. 
  • Yenne, Bill (1985). The History of the Southern Pacific. Bonanza, New York, NY. ISBN 0-517-46084-X. 


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ (August 9, 1976) "Short and Significant: SP wins Dow safety award". Railway Age 177 (14): p 8. 
  2. ^ a b Schwantes, Carlos A. (1993). Railroad Signatures across the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA. ISBN 0-295-97210-6. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Current (operating) Class I railroads of North America
United States: AMTK, BNSF, CSXT, GTW, KCS, NS, SOO, UP - Canada: CN, CP, VIA - Mexico: FXE, TFM, KCSM
See also: List of USA/Canada/Mexico Class I Railroads, List of USA/Canadian Class II Railroads, Class III railroad, Class 2 Railroads in Canada,
Short-line railroad, List of United States railroads, List of Canadian railroads, list of Mexican railroads
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