Predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway: California Southern Railroad, Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway

Description

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 20. Chapters: Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, Barnwell and Searchlight Railway, Bradshaw Mountain Railroad, California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway, California and Nevada Railroad, California Southern Railroad, Chicago and Southern Railroad, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, Crawford County Railroad, Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad, Grand Canyon Railway, Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, Nebraska, Topeka, Iola and Memphis Railroad, Oklahoma Central Railroad (1914-1942), Oklahoma City – Ada – Atoka Railway, Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway, Prescott and Eastern Railroad, Randsburg Railway, Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway, Santa Fe and Grand Canyon Railroad, Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. Excerpt: The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between what has become the city of Barstow and San Diego, California. Construction began in National City, just south of San Diego, in 1881, and proceeded northward to the present day city of Oceanside. From there, the line turned to the northeast through Temecula Canyon, then on to the present cities of Lake Elsinore, Perris and Riverside before a connection to the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in Colton. Following a frog war where the SP refused to let the California Southern cross its tracks, a dispute that was resolved by court order in favor of the California Southern, construction continued northward through Cajon Pass to the present day cities of Victorville and Barstow. The line, completed on November 9, 1885, formed the western end of Santa Fe’s transcontinental railroad connection to Chicago. Portions of the original line are still in use today as some of the busiest rail freight and passenger routes in the United States. The California Southern was organized on July 10, 1880, as a means to connect San Diego to a connection with the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad at an as-yet undetermined point. Among the organizers were Frank Kimball, a prominent landowner and rancher from San Diego who also represented the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of City Trustees of San Diego, Kidder, Peabody & Co., one of the main financial investment companies involved in the Santa Fe, B.P. Cheney, L.G. Pratt, George B. Wilbur and Thomas Nickerson who was president of the Santa Fe. The organizers set a deadline of January 1, 1884, to complete the connection, a deadline that was later adjusted due to problems in the construction of the Atlantic and Pacific that forced it to stop at Needles, California. The California Southern built its track north