The ICC could do no such thing.
Departing from that further is so far into unreality that we might as well ask to move the Rocky Mountains offshore so we don’t have to deal with helper grades.
S. Hadid
As part of the fallout from the UP/SP-RI merger, I could see something strange like that falling out. The other transcons scream bloody murder about both UP and SP reaching the Mississippi River, so everybody starts talking about trackage rights, gateways and who knows what not. Some weaker roads ask for inclusion, some lines object. Finally, somehow, out of the sausage grinder we get the SP’s lines in Oregon and Northern California sold off to the enlarged UP and the Central/southern California lines (along with Cotton Belt) combined with the RI.
A lot of “what ifs” in there, I realize-but when I recall how the C&O/B&O merger ended up triggering the Penn Central merger (which added the New Haven into it) and the subsequent rise of Conrail, anything is at least possible. And don’t forget that when the SP was bought out, it was first by the D&RGW before that went to the UP.
If you wonder ‘what would have happened if’, remember that it was not the SP that in February, 1902, shook hands with the Rock Island in New Mexico. It was the El Paso and Northeastern through its subsidiary El Paso & Rock Island; but coal and timber was its goal when first started . Later the EP&NE merged with the El Paso and Southwestern, creating a system stretching from Tucumcari to Benson, AZ and the Mexican border.
The SP had arrived in El Paso much earlier in May, 1881, but had its eye on a route to New Orleans, not to the north.
Unfortunately neither the Rock nor the EPSW were rich but if a good route to the Pacific through Mexico had been available, the EP&SW could have prospered. The EPSW fell on hard times and the SP took it over. For awhile, the SP ran both lines but most of the EP&SW has been abandoned.
Art
Ah, good point! Let me add another suggestion to get the RI to tidewater…
IIRC the WP was backed heavily by the D&RGW, though they never merged. If we could wave the magic wand and put those two together, maybe the RI could have gotten not to Los Angeles via Tucumcari but to San Francisco via Colorado Springs. Hmm-the California Rocket instead of Zephyr?
So what % if the RI is dead right of way and what % went to other railroads?
I believe in 1980 they had about 7,086 route miles, 6,250 owned and 836 on trackage rights.
Of those 6,250 miles, about 4,000 are currently operated. Union Pacific has about 1950, Iowa Interstate 450, Kyle Railroad 414, BNSF 128, AOK 127, CSX 90, and there are about 20 other owners. My numbers are about 2 years old, before I got a computer, and I’ll have to update them.
The WP-D&RGW financial connection was part of an attempt by George Gould during the 1900’s to put together a transcontinental system. MP, NKP, W&LE, P&WV and WM were part of this attempt, and it came apart due to the inability to put together a connection between the last two.
This was prior to the building of the Dotsero Cutoff, so connecting with MP at Pueblo made more sense than connecting with RI at Colorado Springs or Denver.
If I recall my RI history correctly there was a point in the early 1900’s when the Rock Island had purchased control of the Frisco and the C & EI. They then began buying up the SP’s stock. They managed to go bankrupt before they got very far with that project.
I’ve seen some promotional flyers from that period that feature the Rock Island - Frisco system.
What would it have been like had the RI been successful in buying into the SP in the early 1900’s?
Mark Gosdin
Prior to World War 1, the RI had trackage rights on the joint line between Denver, thru Colorado Springs and on to Pueblo. I think when the USRA took control of the railroads during that era is when access to Pueblo, and the joint line, ended.
Jeff