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The Southern Pacific(reporting markSP) (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class Irailroad 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.[1]
"Mr. Maguire's Stand on the Railroad Question," a caricature of Democratic gubernatorial candidate James G. Maguire published in the San Francisco Examiner depicting him triumphant over the political forces of the Southern Pacific, October 8, 1898
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, 65-metre (213ft)Southern Pacific Building, also known as "The Landmark", located at One Market Street on the Embarcadero whose construction started in 1916.[6][7] At its completion, the building's first floor was devoted to retail except for the portion facing the rear courtyard (opening to Mission Street), which was reserved for Southern Pacific.[8] SP rented the second floor to a tenant, but occupied floors three through ten with various offices.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10]
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 3,085 miles (4,965km), bringing total SP/SSW mileage to around 13,508 miles (21,739km). The T&NO was fully merged into the SP in 1961.
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 10,423 miles (16,774km), mainly due to the pruning of branch lines. On October 13, 1988, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (including its subsidiary, St. Louis Southwestern Railway) was taken over by Rio Grande Industries, the parent company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (reporting marks D&RGW). 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[a] 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 15,959 miles (25,684km). Rio Grande Industries was later renamed Southern Pacific Rail Corporation.
By 1996, years of financial problems had dropped Southern Pacific's mileage to 13,715 miles (22,072km). The financial problems caused the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to be taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation; the parent Southern Pacific Rail Corporation (formerly Rio Grande Industries), 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.
G. W. & C. B. Colton, Map Showing the Line of the True Southern Pacific Railway, showing the planned trajectory in c.1881. The Coast Line in California was originally planned to run via Coalinga, though the company's eventual west coast route would differ from this.
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 (almost white in appearance), with graphite colored sides, for visibility.
SP 4449 underway, wearing the Daylight scheme (April 1981)
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-4steam 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.[11] These were 4-8-8-2, 2-8-8-2, and 4-6-6-2 (rebuilt from 2-6-6-2) locomotives set up to run in reverse, with the tender attached to the smokebox end of the locomotive.[11] Southern Pacific had snow sheds in mountain terrain, and locomotive crews nearly asphyxiated from smoke in the cab.[11] After engineers began running their engines in reverse (pushing the tender), Southern Pacific asked Baldwin Locomotive Works to produce cab-forward designs.[11] No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives.
MM/AM-class 2-6-6-2/4-6-6-2 - Cab forwardMallet/Articulated Mogul (MM-1, MM-2/AM-2, MM-3; Convention on the SP was that Mallet referred to compound expansion, while Articulated referred to simple expansion.)
F-class 2-10-2 - Fourteen Wheeler (F-1 (SP 975, SP 982) – F-5; Usually called the Santa Fe, but since the ATSF was SP's primary rival, they refused to use the name.)
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 namedpassenger trains. Trains with names in italicized bold text still operate under Amtrak:
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 60 miles per hour (97km/h), hit an open switch and careened off the track, resulting in 24fatalities. Accounts said 9 of the train's 14cars 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.[19]
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 2people 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's 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.[20]
On October 11, 1923, The DeAutremont Brothers held up SP Train #13 as it made its way through the Siskyou Mountains of southern Oregon. Thinking the train had gold on it, they killed all 4 crew members and blew up the mail car inside tunnel 13 at the summit. There was no gold on board. They were caught in 1927 and jailed. This was known as the last great train hold up in America
On April 8, 1935, following torrential rains and flooding that washed out sections of track, a 14 man Southern Pacific work crew in railcars collided with a gravel car in the darkness in Roseville, California, resulting in 11 deaths.[21]
On January 17, 1947, the Southern Pacific Nightflier wrecked 12 miles (19km) outside of Bakersfield; 7people were killed and over 50injured. 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.[23]
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.[24]
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.[25][26] As of 2014, it was the deadliest automobile accident in United States history, according to the National Safety Council.[25][27]
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.[28]
On May 12, 1989, a Southern Pacific train, SP 7551 East carrying tronaderailed in San Bernardino, California. The train failed to slow while descending a nearby slope, and sped up to about 110 miles per hour (180km/h) before derailing, causing the San Bernardino train disaster. The crash destroyed 7homes along Duffy Street and killed 2train workers and 2residents. 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 11more homes and killing 2more people.[29]
Site of the 1991 spill. The guardrail on the left was constructed after the spill.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 July15, it became apparent that the tank car had ruptured and spilled its entire contents into the river – approximately 19,000 US gallons (72m3) 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.[30]The chemical plume left a 41-mile (66km) wake of destruction from the spill site to the entry point of the river into Shasta Lake.[31] The accident still ranks as the largest hazardous chemical spill in California history.[30] At the time of the incident, metam sodium was not classified as a hazardous material.
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:
745 (Mk-5, 2-8-2), owned by the Louisiana Rail Heritage Trust, operated by the Louisiana Steam Train Association, and based in Jefferon (near New Orleans), Louisiana
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.
↑operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad; SP portion operates today as part of Amtrak's California Zephyr
↑operated from 1927 till 1949 as an international train under the subsidiary Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico between Tucson and Guadalajara, featuring through sleepers from Los Angeles to Mexico City
↑Block, Melissa; Neff, Brijet (October 15, 2012). "Sprint Born From Railroad, Telephone Businesses". All Things Considered. NPR. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2013. It all began in Kansas in the late 19th century and came to include a long-distance system created by the Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications, or SPRINT.
12Flores, Lori A. (Summer 2013). "A Town Full of Dead Mexicans: The Salinas Valley Bracero Tragedy of 1963, the End of the Bracero Program, and the Evolution of California's Chicano Movement". The Western Historical Quarterly. 44 (2): 124–143. doi:10.2307/westhistquar.44.2.0124.
Cooper, Bruce Clement, ed. (2010). The Classic Western American Railroad Routes. New York: Chartwell Books/Worth Press. ISBN978-0-7858-2573-9. BINC: 3099794.
Coscia, David (2018). Southern Pacific in the San Fernando Valley 1876-1996. Bellflower, CA: Shade Tree Books. OCLC1056109826.
Diebert, Timothy S. & Strapac, Joseph A. (1987). Southern Pacific Company steam locomotive compendium. Huntington Beach, California: Shade Tree Books. ISBN0-930742-12-5. OCLC18401969.
Hofsommer, Donovan L. (1986). The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN0-89096-246-4. OL2974063W., A standard scholarly history.
Hofsommer, Don L. (1988). "Rivals for California: The Great Northern and the Southern Pacific, 1905–1931". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 38 (2): 58–67.
Jungen, C. W. (1922). "Ocean Unit of Lines That Span Continent". Southern Pacific Bulletin. 11 (January 1922). San Francisco: Southern Pacific. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
Lewis, Daniel (2007). Iron Horse Imperialism: The Southern Pacific of Mexico, 1880–1951. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN978-0-8165-2604-8. OCLC238833401.
Mayo, H. M. (1900). "Cuba and the Way There". Sunset. 4 (January 1900). San Francisco: Passenger Department Southern Pacific Company: 95–98. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
Lewis, Oscar (1938). The Big Four. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Railroads in italics meet the revenue specifications for Class I status, but are not technically Class I railroads due to being passenger-only railroads with no freight component.
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SP 4449 underway, wearing the Daylight scheme (April 1981)
SP 4294 "cab-forward" locomotive
Restored SP #18 operational at Laws
Restored No. 1744 while it operated on the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad
