I am modeling the southern pacific line that ran through , , and . This is the old line that was taken over by the and became known has the cotton rock. Do any of you fellow modelers have any information about this line that you would share?
Never heard of it called the “Cotton Rock”. The railroad referred to it as the Golden State, the same as the Rock Island. As a matter of fact on the UP (which now owns it) still refers to it as the Golden State.
http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/maps/attachments/upcomnam.pdf
The SP operated it as ABS-DTC with CTC “islands”. The UP CTC’d the majority of it over the last 6 or 7 years.
The ‘Cotton Rock’ is the old Tucumcari line from Topeka to the SP connection. It was know as the Golden State Route. The Chicago - Los Angles ‘Golden State’ was a joint CRI&P/SP passenger train. When the Rock Island shut down, SP bought the line. The Topeka-Kansas City section of the line was trackage rights over the UP. SP then made a deal with BN to use their Kansas City-Chicago line to complete the La-Chicago route.
Jim