Santa Fe Railway Transcon History

In 1857, Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale surveyed a wagon road along the 35th parallel from New Mexico across Arizona and into California. In 1866, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad based in Springfield, Missouri, obtained a Congressional charter to build from St Louis, across Indian Territory, to Albuquerque, then along the 35th parallel following the Beale survey to Needles, CA. Congress wanted the project completed by July 4, 1878. However, the railroad ran into financial trouble and by 1872, had completed only 361 miles to Vinita, Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). In 1880, the Santa Fe Railroad entered into a partnership with the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway and purchased one-half of the A&P stock. Using the A&P charter, both the SL&SF and the AT&SF shared equally in the expenses of constructing the tracks from Albuquerque to the Colorado River.

In December 1879 the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad sent Lewis Kingman to plan a route across Arizona from the Little Colorado River to the Colorado River. In February 1880 Kingman returned to Albuquerque to begin planning the actual route west. Grading began on April 8, 1880 and track laying in July. The construction crew had around 4,000 men and 2,000 mules and work advanced at about two miles per day. The railroad finally connected with the Southern Pacific south of Needles on July 12, 1883.

In the good old days (50 years ago) on the First District (Isleta to Gallup, NM), there were train order offices at Dalies, Laguna, Grants, and Thoreau. Steam engines could take water at Dalies, Marmon, Grants, North Chaves eastbound, South Chaves westbound, and Wingate. On the Second District (Gallup to Winslow, AZ) there were train order offices at Chambers and Holbrook. Steam engines could take water at Chambers, Adamana, and Holbrook. On the Third District (Winslow to Seligman) there were train order offices at Canyon Diablo, Flagstaff, Bellemont, Williams, and Ash Fork. Steam engines could take water at Angell, Flagstaff, Bellemont, Williams, McLellen westbound, Corva eastbound, and Ash Fork. On the Kingman District (Seligman to Needles, CA) there were train order offices at Nelson, Peach Springs, Hackberry, Kingman, and Yucca. Steam engines could take water at Pica, Peach Springs, Hackberry, Kingman, and Yucca.

Further east, the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railroad connected with the Pecos Valley Railroad at Texico, NM in 1899. The Pecos Valley Railroad line from Texico down through Roswell was acquired by the Santa Fe in 1901. In 1902, survey work began on the future line from Texico to Belen. The new route would have lower grades than the route over Raton Pass. Track laying from Clovis to Vaughn began in 1906 and was completed in 1907. The Belen Cutoff from Texico through Clovis to Dalies, NM began full operations on July 1, 1908. The Belen Cutoff shortened the distance from Chicago to Belen by only six miles, however it decreased the average grade from 158 feet per mile through Raton Pass to 66 feet per mile. Most of the freight traffic shifted off Raton to the Belen Cutoff in 1909.

For those modeling the Santa Fe in the late 60s, the library contains a series of pages with detailed freight train consists. The trains featured on those pages were observed at Winslow and Barstow.

There are three picture galleries of my pictures for the Santa Fe Transcon. Each picture series runs from east to west.
New Mexico begins at Texico
Arizona begins at Lupton and
California begins at Needles
Some of the picture pages contain additional information of the operations and history of the line. There is also a gallery of Jack Delano pictures from the Library of Congress covering the Transcon in 1943 between Amarillo, TX and Los Angeles, CA.

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