Am I correct that there was never one single railroad in the U.S. that connects coast to coast? east to west or north to south? Is this still the same today? I realise that shipping a boxcar of doorknobs from New York to Los Angeles it may be pulled by many different railroads and it will arrive, I can’t think of another country that does not have one or more single transcontinental or trans country trains, (we have 2 here in Canada) oh, yes, don’t forget the Panama Canal Railway. So correct me, does that mean when the 2 railroads met nose to nose in Utah?? for the last spike, the line to the west could have been 2-3 or more railroad companies and the line to the east may have had 5-6-7 or more independent railroads. I really have to increase my reading program. thanks I await some lively responses.
Yes there has never been one company that has a continuous line from coast to coast in the US (unless you count the SP from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Coast).
There was one railroad from San Franciso to Promontory, one from Promontory to Omaha and then you could travel on dozens of railroads from Omaha to the Atlantic.
John White’s “American Railroad Freight Car” is a good general history of early railroads.
Dave H.
Don’t let him fool you, Amtrak goes coast to coast [:P]
Not on their own track they don’t!! [:D]
Gordon
There is a sort of invisible dividing line running from Chicago, through Peoria, and then down the Mississippi through St. Louis to New Orleans, the separated the western roads from the eastern. (The Wabash did run through to Omaha, but that was the only exception.)
Part of the reason for this had to do with the realities of the railroad business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Any railroad attempting to acquire significant milage west of the dividing line was potentially in a position to unfairly burden their competition with short haul traffic.
For freight trains, the problems inherent in this situation were minimal. The large eastern railroads (NYC and PRR) could run their trains to Chicago, Peoria, or St Louis, and interchange their cars with friendly western connections. Passengers, however, had to either change trains, or have their cars switched to the trains of western lines.
Y
East to west, no. North to south, yes. All five US Class 1’s have north-south lines.
It’s true. there has been and there still is no east-west transcontinental rail lines. Lines East built west to Chicago, StLouis or New Orleans. Lines West began in these cities and built their way west.
Traditionally, the north/south lines broke at the Ohio River or the Mason Dixon line. Most of the lines went east & west rather than north & south. One exception is the Illinois Central, reaching from Chicago to the Gulf. As a part of CN, it finally reaches the northern border thru Michigan & Minnesota. If CN held the line further north to Hudson Bay, it would be the only transcontinental. It would also need some lines thru Texas to Mexico.
Roads like L&N and the Clinchfield in the CSX family give it some north-south lines as well. AT&SF and BN had other lines that link midwest cities with Gulf ports.
According to CN website map, CN lines connect to Prince Rupert in Northern British Columbia then by ship to Alaska, both east & west coasts in Canada then south to U.S. sort of down the Mississippi valley to New Orleans and over through Texas into Mexico and down to almost the bottom of Mexico on the Pacific side and the Gulf of Mexica too. So if you want to ship frozen fish heads from Prince Rupert completely through the U.S. to the bottom of Mexico—phone CN.
ahem ahem
The Central Pacific went from SACRAMENTO to Promontory. Initially traffic from Sacramento to San Francisco was by river craft, and later there were rail lines to San Francisco from Sacramento.
Sorry to sound like a nitpicker, but Sacramento has to stand in San Francisco’s shadow often enough in other ways…
That’s telling 'em, Jetrock! SACRAMENTO to Promontory Point! San Francisco wasn’t in the running back then. Actually, back in the early 20th century, there WAS a coast to coast railroad, briefly. Though it was made up of four railroads, they were all under the control of one man (George Gould) and ran from Oakland, CA to New York. Wabash, MoPac, Rio Grande and Western Pacific. Didn’t last too long, because Rio Grande folded under the accumulated debt incurred from financing the building of the WP, but for a while, he had a true transcontinental. And passengers could always ride coast to coast from New York to San Francisco during the so-called ‘Golden Age’, since the SP/UP/C&NW ‘Overland Limited’ carried a Pennsy through sleeper for years.
Tom
Not to be too much of a nitpicker twhite, but actually the Central Pacific ran from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, not Promontory Point. I still slip that up often, probably due to all history books being wrong. Promontory Point is in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific joined at Promontory Summit which is north of the Salt Lake. There was an article in Trains a number of years ago about the whole deal.
I think the BNSF is pretty close right now. Their purchase of Frisco gets them pretty close to the east.
Terrific answers-- It would seem a good thing these various railroads managed to use a standard guage track instead of each railroad using a different guage as they did in parts of Europe, When railroads actually hauled humans(passengers) were there actual changes of trains while on a trip across the U.S. way back then??? HMMMMM
now if the U.S. were only to nationalize the railroads— OOOPS !! sorry.
Conrail: Right you are. However, East of the Mississippi it’s Promontory Summit, West of the Mississippi it’s Promontory Point. We cowboys out here use the excuse that you can see the Point from the Summit. Oh, well–
Tom
Tatans: the was a line, “A hog can cross the country without changing cars, but you can’t.”
I’m not sure if there were never any cars that ran through at Chicago. The number of stations they had might make it difficult.
Tatans: The rails still carry passengers now–never stopped. There wasn’t a single railroad that crossed the country because no single railroad had the economic reach to do so. The government at the time didn’t, either–that’s why they contracted with private companies to build and operate the railroads.
Standardization of gauge came about roughly during the Civil War, although nonstandard gauges were found for another century or so afterward.
Despite having to change trains once in a while, the fact that one COULD take a train from one end of the country to another was a fairly amazing feat–compared to going around South America, taking the land-bridge route across the Isthmus of Panama, or hiking over the mountains, a couple car changes during a two-week trip was pretty convenient by comparison!
Even without a government-enforced monopoly, regional railroads often cooperated to provide long-haul passengers relative simplicity of travel, like the Chicago/Oakland “California Zephyr” which was shuttled between BN, D&RGW and WP.
The whole Promontory Summit/Promontory Point thing was drilled into us during my docent training at the Railroad Museum–I just call it “Promontory” to simplify explanations and not have to correct people quite so often (Not that I’m not fond of correcting people…)
Just one LAST question: Am I right in thinking the “California Zephyr” was allowed to use the whole train, engines included, or not , and travel all the way to California on competitors track, I think Santa Fe had a long reaching passenger fleet also? I might add as a child on the prairies I saw whole 75 car freight trains with ONLY C.P.R boxcars and maybe one U.S. boxcar in the entire train, this must not have been seen if you lived in Omaha, to see an entire freight with all one railroad name on the boxcars : TRUE?O.K. O.K. no more questions, Thanks
From the California Zephyr Virtual Museum http://calzephyr.railfan.net/ [8D]
The following locomotive types were purchased specifically for the California Zephyr
CB&Q F3A and F3B A+B+A sets
DRGW PA1 and PB1 A+B+A sets, F3A and F3B A+B+B+A sets
WP F3A and F3B A+B+B sets, FP7A and F7B A+B+A sets
Each railroad furnished the locos for its segment of the route. Other types of locos were sometimes used in latter years. [:)]
The site you gave explains it all and its a great site—thanks a million
Gauge standardization in the US came about because of Civil War experiences, but the crucial point was the Transcontinental Railroad Act, which authorized the building of the transcontinental railroad, with its attendant land grants to the railroads, along with the Postal requirements, etc. The act specified that the gauge of the Transcontinental railroad(s) (i.e., anything built that would take advantage of the land grants) would be 4’ 81/2". Whereupon the railroads that were of a different gauge set about reforming themselves so that THEY wouldn’t be left out in the cold.