Southern Pacific Transportation Company: Difference between revisions

{{main|History of the Southern Pacific}}

The original Southern Pacific, Southern Pacific Railroad, was founded as a land holding company in 1865, later acquiring the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] in 1885 through leasing.<ref>{{Harvp|Yenne|1996|p=29}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvp|Yenne|1996|p=51}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Farmer, Jared |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/889889389 |title=Trees in paradise : a California history |date=2013 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-07802-2 |oclc=889889389}}</ref> By 1900, the Southern Pacific system was a major railroad system incorporating many smaller companies, such as the [[Texas and New Orleans Railroad]] and [[Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad]]. It extended from [[New Orleans]] through [[Texas]] to [[El Paso]], across [[New Mexico]] and through [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]], to [[Los Angeles]], through most of [[California]], including [[San Francisco]] and [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]]. Central Pacific lines extended east across [[Nevada]] to [[Ogden, Utah]], and reached north through [[Oregon]] to [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]]. Other subsidiaries eventually included the [[St. Louis Southwestern Railway]] (Cotton Belt), [[El Paso and Southwestern Railroad]],

 

[[File:SP 6453 EB Floriston PRS spc Feb 1971.jpg|thumb|left|An [[EMD FP7]] leads a Pacific Rail Society Special through [[Floriston, California]], in February 1971.]]

 

== Passenger train service ==

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

* ''[[49er (passenger train)|49er]]''

* ''[[Cascade (train)|'''Cascade''']]'' {{refn|operates today as part of the ''[[Coast Starlight]]'' train <!-- obviously not the same name today, but ancestrally it is the same train as the Starlight north of OAK, w/o any interruption in service in 1971-->|group=note|name=casc}}

* ''[[City of San Francisco (train)|City of San Francisco]]'' {{refn|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]]''|group=note|name=cosf}}

* ''Coast Mail''

* ''Coaster''

* [[John Sontag]], a young Southern Pacific employee, was injured c.&nbsp;1888 while coupling cars in the railroad yard in [[Fresno, California|Fresno]]. He accused the company of not providing him with medical care while he was recuperating from his on-the-job injury and then not rehiring him when he had healed. He soon turned to a life of crime (mostly train robberies) and died of gunshot wounds and [[tetanus]] in the Fresno jail in 1893 aged 32&nbsp;years.<ref name=Sontag_Evans>{{cite web |url=http://www.eshomvalley.com/sontag_evans.html |title=Sontag and Evans |website=eshomvalley.com |access-date=6 August 2013}}</ref>

 

 

* In the early hours of 1 June 1907, an attempt to derail a Southern Pacific train near [[Santa Clara, California]], was foiled when a pile of railway ties was discovered on the tracks. A work train crew found that someone had driven a steel plate into a switch near [[Burbank, California]], intending to derail the [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] local.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

* On 12&nbsp;August 1939, the westbound ''[[City of San Francisco (train)|City of San Francisco]]'' [[1939 City of San Francisco derailment|derailed]] from a bridge in [[Palisade Canyon]], between [[Battle Mountain, Nevada|Battle Mountain]] and [[Carlin, Nevada|Carlin]] in the Nevada desert. Among the passengers and crew members 24&nbsp;people were killed and many more injured, and 5&nbsp;cars were destroyed. An act of sabotage was determined to be the most likely cause; however, no suspect(s) was(were) ever identified.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

* On New Year's Eve 1944 a [[Bagley train wreck|rear-end collision west of Ogden]] in thick fog killed 48&nbsp;people.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Arave |first1=Lynn |title=Remembering Utah's Worst Train Wreck |url=https://www.standard.net/news/local/remembering-utah-s-worst-train-wreck/article_73fc2d7a-0157-5455-bf54-f83d369dbc20.html |access-date=17 June 2019 |work=Standard-Examiner |date=26 Dec 2014 |language=en |archive-date=June 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617024038/https://www.standard.net/news/local/remembering-utah-s-worst-train-wreck/article_73fc2d7a-0157-5455-bf54-f83d369dbc20.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

* On 17&nbsp;January 1947, the Southern Pacific Nightflier wrecked {{convert|12|mile}} outside of Bakersfield; 7&nbsp;people were killed and over 50&nbsp;injured. 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.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Bakersfield Californian]] |date=17 January 1947 |title=7 Dead in "Owl" Wreck |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/2105075/ |access-date=30 December 2018 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

* On 17&nbsp;September 1963, a Southern Pacific freight train [[Chualar bus crash|crashed]] into an illegally converted bus at a grade crossing in [[Chualar, California]], killing 32 [[Bracero program|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.<ref name="Flores"/><ref name="Martin">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xpJsKX_bWgC&q=Chualar | title=Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration, and the Farm Workers | publisher=ILR Press | author=Martin, Philip L. | year=2003 | page=50 | isbn=0801488753}}</ref> As of 2014, it was the deadliest automobile accident in United States history, according to the [[National Safety Council]]<ref name="Flores">{{cite journal | title=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 | author=Flores, Lori A. | journal=The Western Historical Quarterly |date=Summer 2013 | volume=44 | issue=2 | pages=124–143 | doi=10.2307/westhistquar.44.2.0124}}</ref><ref name="Herald-2014">{{cite news|url=http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_25256461/second-survivor-1963-chualar-bus-crash-emerges |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006131423/http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_25256461/second-survivor-1963-chualar-bus-crash-emerges |archive-date=2014-10-06 |title=Second survivor of 1963 Chualar bus crash emerges |work=Monterey Herald |date=March 1, 2014 |access-date=5 February 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

* On 28&nbsp;April 1973, a Southern Pacific freight train carrying munitions [[1973 Roseville Yard Disaster|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.<ref>{{cite news| title=Freight train blasts shock area| url=https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/history/article145902054.html| last=Berthelsen| first=John| date=29 April 1973| newspaper=Sacramento Bee| access-date=7 June 2021}}</ref>

* On the night of 14&nbsp;July 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 15&nbsp;July, it became apparent that the tank car had ruptured and spilled its entire contents into the river – approximately {{convert|19,000|usgal|m3}} 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 [[mollusk]]s, 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.<ref name=Cal_Toxic_Control/>

 

 

==Preserved locomotives==

*[[Southern Pacific 786|786]] (Mk-5, [[2-8-2]]), owned by the City of Austin, leased to the [[Austin Steam Train Association]]. Currently under full mechanical restoration in [[Austin, Texas]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Locomotives|url=https://www.austinsteamtrain.org/the-train/locomotives/|access-date=2021-09-13|website=Austin Steam Train Association|language=en}}</ref>

*[[Southern Pacific 794|794]] (Mk-5, [[2-8-2]]), the last Mikado built for the [[Texas and New Orleans Railroad]] in 1916 out of spare parts in their [[Houston]] shops. It currently resides with cosmetic restoration at [[San Antonio Station]], [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], but plans are to restore it to operating condition.

*[[Southern Pacific 1518|1518]] ([[EMD SD7]]), former EMD demonstrator 990 and first SD7 built, located at the [[Illinois Railway Museum]], [[Union, Illinois]]

*[[Southern Pacific 2353|2353]] (T-31, [[4-6-0]]), on display at the [[Pacific Southwest Railway Museum]] in [[Campo, California]].

*[[Southern Pacific 2467|2467]] ([[Southern Pacific class P-8|P-8]], [[4-6-2]]), on loan by the [[Pacific Locomotive Association]], [[Fremont, California]] to the [[California State Railroad Museum]]

*7457 ([[EMD SD45]]) the first [[Electro Motive Division|GM Electro-Motive Division]] [[EMD SD45|SD45]] diesel-electric road switcher locomotive to be built for that railroad in 1966. It last saw service on [[Donner Pass]]. It was donated to the [[Union Station (Ogden, Utah)#Spencer S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Rail Center|Utah State Railroad Museum]] in 2002.

 

 

== Honorary tribute ==

* [[Jack Kerouac]], novelist

* [[Harry K. McClintock]], singer-songwriter, [[The Big Rock Candy Mountains]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=10426 |title=Harry (Haywire Mac) McClintock |publisher=Hillbilly-Music.com |access-date=April 23, 2023}}</ref>

 

==See also==