Southern Pacific Railroad: Map, History, Logo

Last revised: November 8, 2026

The Southern Pacific was one of the most successful and widely recognized railroads in America. The name sits with the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Illinois Central. Railroaders called it the Espee. At full reach the map was a crescent from Portland, Oregon, to New Orleans. The story runs past the tracks. It takes in the land fight that fixed the critics’ name, The Octopus, a refrigerator-car fleet that moved the crops of California, and a private wire network that went to the public as Sprint.

The heritage begins with the transcontinental railroad. After the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific met at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869, the Central Pacific’s Big Four set out to dominate California. Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins did it through the Southern Pacific. Steam locomotives built since 1900 are a separate roster.

The classic system also took in celebrated subsidiaries. The Texas & New Orleans covered Texas and Louisiana. The Cotton Belt reached St. Louis. The Pacific Electric was the Los Angeles interurban. The Northwestern Pacific ran north from the Bay into the redwoods. In 1988 Rio Grande Industries, parent of the Denver & Rio Grande Western and controlled by Philip Anschutz, bought the Southern Pacific and kept the Southern Pacific name. Common control passed to the Union Pacific on September 11, 1996. The merger followed on February 1, 1997. Most of the principal lines remain in regular service.

Southern Pacific PA-2 6019, PA-2 6014, and PA-1 6008 at the West Oakland Shops in 1952

From left to right: Southern Pacific PA-2 #6019, PA-2 #6014, and PA-1 #6008 await their next assignments at the West Oakland Shops in 1952. Stewart Liebman photo. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: At a glance · Central Pacific · The 1865 railroad · California · Sunset Route · Shasta and the Coast · Harriman · Subsidiaries · Passenger trains · Freight and locomotives · Sprint · Rio Grande and Union Pacific

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Southern Pacific. Mark SP. Slogan The Friendly Southern Pacific. Cotton Belt mark SSW
Headquarters	San Francisco, 65 Market Street
Gauge	4 feet, 8½ inches. A narrow-gauge remnant survived in the Owens Valley
States	California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana. With the Cotton Belt: Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee (Memphis). Kansas came with Golden State operation in May 1980. Colorado came with the Rio Grande in 1988
Charter	Southern Pacific Railroad, December 2, 1865, in California. Congress authorized the route on July 27, 1866
Big Four purchase	September 29, 1869
Holding company	Southern Pacific Company, chartered in Kentucky on August 14, 1884. Central Pacific leased April 1, 1885
Route miles, 1884	4,711, including subsidiaries and leased lines
Route miles, 1890	8,000
Route miles, 1950	15,039
Equipment, 1963	2,096 diesel locomotives, 77,401 freight cars, 1,002 passenger cars
Principal lines	San Francisco–Ogden (Overland Route). San Francisco–Los Angeles via San Luis Obispo (Coast Line). San Joaquin Valley line, over Tehachapi. San Francisco–Portland (Shasta Route), by the Siskiyou Line and later the Cascade Line. Los Angeles–New Orleans (Sunset Route). El Paso–Tucumcari and the Golden State Route. Cotton Belt lines to St. Louis. Klamath Falls–Fernley (Modoc Line)
Most notable president	Collis P. Huntington
Cotton Belt stock	Purchased April 14, 1932. Southern Pacific shares issued April 19, 1932
El Paso & Southwestern	Southern Pacific control, October 31, 1924
Rio Grande Industries	Control dated October 13, 1988. The Southern Pacific name stayed
Union Pacific	Common control September 11, 1996. Merged February 1, 1997

The Southern Pacific Railroad logo. Author’s work.

Central Pacific

The Southern Pacific name has a complicated corporate history, and the operating story starts with the Central Pacific. The Central Pacific was chartered on June 28, 1861. Thousands of Chinese workers carried it over the Sierra Nevada, through the snowsheds of Donner Pass, and on to the meeting with the Union Pacific at Promontory. That day opened the West to a new kind of settlement. A traveler could cross the continent in days.

The Big Four were already looking past the golden spike. Their first task was a railroad from Sacramento into Oakland and San Francisco, so the transcontinental trains could reach the Bay. On November 11, 1869, they completed that extension through two subsidiaries, the Western Pacific Railroad of the 1860s and the San Francisco Bay Railroad. The 1860s Western Pacific was a local company. The Western Pacific Railroad that later built east from Oakland is a different road.

The 1865 railroad

The original Southern Pacific Railroad had no tie, at its chartering, to the Big Four or to the company remembered today. A 1933 outline from the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society, Historical Outline, Southern Pacific Company, March 1933, makes that separation plain. The corporation was chartered on December 2, 1865. Bill Yenne, in The History Of The Southern Pacific, records the next step. On July 27, 1866, Congress authorized another route to the Pacific, from San Francisco to the Colorado River at the southeastern corner of California, there to meet the Atlantic & Pacific building from the east.

Some of that line would be new. Much of the Bay end already existed. On February 4, 1868, the project acquired the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad, which linked its namesake cities. For a brief time it looked as if the Big Four might have to share California with an independent Southern Pacific. They ended that prospect by purchasing the original company on September 29, 1869.

In 1870 the Southern Pacific and the Central Pacific combined operations. The formal lease of the Central Pacific came later, on April 1, 1885. Brian Solomon, in Southern Pacific Railroad, dates the next corporate layer to October 12, 1870, when a new Southern Pacific Railroad was formed to take in the original company and the other properties, including the Central Pacific. On August 14, 1884, the Southern Pacific Company was created in Kentucky to manage everything the Big Four controlled.

Southern Pacific F7A 6129 leading an eastbound freight near Bakersfield in the 1950s

Southern Pacific F7A #6129 leads an eastbound freight near Bakersfield, California during the 1950s. American-Rails.com collection.

California

The march out of the Bay Area began in March 1869, when the railroad opened 30 miles south from San Jose to Gilroy. Beyond Gilroy the line entered the San Joaquin Valley: Modesto in November 1870, Fresno in May 1872, and Bakersfield in November 1874. The first train reached Los Angeles on September 5, 1876. Los Angeles was then a town of fewer than 10,000 people.

Thirty-two miles south of Bakersfield the surveyors met the Tehachapi Mountains. The Big Four hired the engineer William Hood. His line held an eastbound compensated grade of 2.52 percent and a westbound compensated grade of 1.36 percent, and it topped out at 4,025 feet. Nine miles below the summit a sweeping loop gained another 77 feet and kept the grade in hand. The Tehachapi Loop is still in daily use. Union Pacific owns it. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe operates over it, the heir to a Santa Fe trackage right that is as old as the rivalry between the two roads.

Southern Pacific FP7 6459 leading the Pacific Rail Society Spring Special into Caliente in April 1971

Southern Pacific FP7 #6459 leads the Pacific Rail Society’s Spring Special downgrade into Caliente, California after a short photo stop in April, 1971. Photographer Drew Jacksich notes the train had come from Los Angeles and was heading to Bakersfield (and back) that evening.

From Los Angeles the railroad turned east. The Colorado River at Fort Yuma, Arizona, was reached in May 1877. The Atlantic & Pacific was stalled. The Big Four amended their charter and kept building, toward a meeting in Texas with the Texas & Pacific, then under Jay Gould.

By then the Southern Pacific was the transportation company of California, and the state knew it. On May 11, 1880, at Mussel Slough in the San Joaquin Valley, a fight over railroad land claims and the settlers on that land turned violent. Frank Norris published The Octopus in 1901 and fixed the nickname. It was the critics’ name. The company advertised itself as The Friendly Southern Pacific. The political fight was over the land grants and the monopoly. William Barstow Strong of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe later broke that grip, and Huntington never got it back.

Southern Pacific F7s led by 6141 on a westbound freight near Pomona, circa 1956

A handsome set of Southern Pacific F7’s, led by #6141, leads a westbound freight consist near Pomona, California, circa 1956. Gordon Glattenberg photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Sunset Route

Huntington raced the Southwest. El Paso was reached on May 19, 1881, after four years of building from the river. The Texas & Pacific was still about 100 miles short. Huntington kept going and was at Sierra Blanca by November 25. Gould took the matter to court. The Gould-Huntington Agreement of November 26, 1881, settled it. The Texas & Pacific received trackage rights over the Southern Pacific from Sierra Blanca to El Paso, and gave up its charter and franchises west of that point. Those rights went to the Southern Pacific.

On January 12, 1883, the line was complete to the Pecos River, where it met the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio, another Huntington property building west from San Antonio. Through that subsidiary, and control of the Louisiana & Texas Railroad & Steamship Company, the Southern Pacific opened through service from Los Angeles to New Orleans. The new corridor was the Sunset Route. The train that made the name famous is the Sunset Limited. It ran at first from San Francisco through Los Angeles to New Orleans, and later from Los Angeles to New Orleans.

In 1881 Huntington also picked up the Texas & New Orleans Railroad. From 1927 the Texas and Louisiana subsidiaries, except the Cotton Belt, were operated under the Texas & New Orleans name. In 1884 the Southern Pacific, with subsidiaries and leases, was a 4,711-mile network.

Texas and New Orleans PA-1s 200-A and 200-B in Daylight paint at Schenectady in June 1949

An American Locomotive builder’s photo featuring new Texas & New Orleans (Southern Pacific) PA-1’s #200-A and #200-B wearing the Daylight livery at Schenectady in June, 1949. Warren Calloway collection.

Shasta and the Coast

The partnership came apart. Mark Hopkins died on March 29, 1878. Charles Crocker sold out in 1871, came back in 1873 as a minority owner, and died on August 14, 1888. Stanford and Huntington grew further apart. On February 28, 1890, Stanford handed the presidency to Huntington. Huntington died on August 13, 1900. He left a railroad in the shape of a crescent, Portland to New Orleans by way of California and the Southwest.

The northern arm had been a long time building. The California & Oregon Railroad, a project dating from 1865 and acquired by the Central Pacific in 1870, was meant to connect Marysville with Portland. It reached Redding in 1872 with the Big Four’s backing, then sat. In 1887 it was extended to Ashland, Oregon, and met the Oregon & California, Henry Villard’s line south from Portland, originally the Oregon Central. That same year the bankrupt Oregon & California was acquired. On December 17, 1887, Charles Crocker drove a last spike. The new corridor to Portland was the Siskiyou Line, grades as high as 3.3 percent, and it became part of the Shasta Route. By 1890 the Southern Pacific owned a network of 8,000 route miles.

Southern Pacific PA-1 6021 leading the northbound Cascade circa 1956

A beautiful Southern Pacific PA-PB-PA set, led by PA-1 #6021, leads train #12, the northbound Cascade, out of the Bay Area, circa 1956. This service ran the Shasta Route, linking Oakland and San Francisco with Portland, Oregon. Gordon Glattenberg photo. American-Rails.com collection.

In 1901 the railroad finished the Coast Line, a direct route from San Francisco to Los Angeles by way of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, with the Pacific in view for miles at a time. On March 21, 1937, the Coast Daylight was inaugurated on that line and became one of the great American streamliners. The Daylight fleet followed: the Sacramento Daylight, the San Joaquin Daylight, and the Shasta Daylight.

Southern Pacific F7s and a GS-class 4-8-4 with northbound train 71 at Serrano, circa 1955

An A-B-A set of Southern Pacific F7’s, along with a GS-class 4-8-4, has northbound train #71 at Serrano, California, circa 1955. This largely mail and express run operated the Coast Line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Gordon Glattenberg photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Pacific FP7 6448 with the Coast Daylight at Glendale in May 1967

Southern Pacific FP7 #6448 is stopped at Glendale, California with train #98, the eastbound/southbound Coast Daylight, in May of 1967. American-Rails.com collection.

Harriman

Edward H. Harriman acquired control of the Southern Pacific in 1901, through the Union Pacific. He died on September 9, 1909. In those few years he put money into the property: bridges rebuilt, main lines double-tracked, and new locomotives and cars. Two projects stand out. One was a better way to Portland than the Siskiyou. The other was a crossing of the Great Salt Lake.

The Natron Cutoff, also called the Cascade Line, left Eugene and headed east and southeast, passing east of Crater Lake and through the Cascade Range. Work began in the Harriman years and then stalled. The Supreme Court in 1912 required the Union Pacific to give up the Southern Pacific, and the legal fight slowed the grading. The line was finished in February 1926, rejoining the Siskiyou Line at Black Butte, California. The Modoc Line opened in 1929, at a cost of $16 million, as an inside route between southern Oregon and western Nevada, from Klamath Falls to Fernley.

Southern Pacific F7s led by 6242 in the Sacramento River Canyon near Castella on January 26, 1964

A quartet of Southern Pacific F7’s, led by #6242, eases downgrade through the Sacramento River Canyon near Castella, California on January 26, 1964. Tom Gildersleeve photo. Author’s collection.

Across the Great Salt Lake, Harriman drove the Lucin Cutoff straight over the water, a trestle and fill in place of the old Promontory line around the north shore. It was an early-1900s project, and it shortened and flattened the Ogden main line. The Overland Route, San Francisco to Ogden and on with the Union Pacific, was the railroad’s transcontinental artery for the rest of the century.

An official, 1969 system map of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Author’s collection.

Subsidiaries

The crescent was the famous map. The subsidiaries made the system. On October 31, 1924, the Southern Pacific took control of the El Paso & Southwestern, the Phelps Dodge copper railroad. The system that day was 1,139.90 miles. The Nacozari Railroad, 77 miles from Agua Prieta to Nacozari, was stated separately. The consideration was $28,000,000 of common stock at par and $29,400,000 of twenty-year 5 percent collateral trust bonds. The line that mattered most to the Southern Pacific ran north from El Paso to Tucumcari, New Mexico, and a connection with the Rock Island. That interchange became part of the Golden State Route between Los Angeles and Chicago.

The St. Louis Southwestern, the Cotton Belt, was the road to St. Louis. Escrowed stock was purchased on April 14, 1932, and Southern Pacific shares were issued on April 19, 1932. By May 1933 the Southern Pacific held 87.37 percent. A trusteeship ran from December 12, 1935, to July 24, 1947, and the creditors were paid in full. The Cotton Belt kept its own name, its own mark, SSW, and its own locomotives. In May 1980 it began operating the Rock Island’s Golden State line from Tucumcari to St. Louis by way of Kansas City. The final Blue Streak Merchandise over the old Corsicana routing ran on January 6, 1983. Operational consolidation with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company came in 1992. That was a consolidation, and the Cotton Belt company continued. The Dallas Terminal was merged into it in 1994.

Cotton Belt SD45T-2 9389 in Bicentennial paint at Blue Island in May 1975

Brand new Cotton Belt/St. Louis Southwestern (Southern Pacific) SD45T-2 #9389, wearing its version of a Bicentennial livery, at Blue Island, Illinois in May of 1975. Note the Rock Island units in the background (including C415 #423).

Two California subsidiaries belonged to the same empire and kept their own characters. The Pacific Electric was the great Los Angeles interurban, a Southern Pacific property for much of the twentieth century. North of San Francisco Bay, the Northwestern Pacific was the line into the redwood country. A narrow-gauge remnant of the old Carson & Colorado survived in the Owens Valley long after the rest of the system was standard gauge, and it lasted into the diesel years.

Passenger trains

The Southern Pacific passenger fleet was as famous as the map. The Coast Daylight of 1937 led it. The railroad then spent the next generation falling out of love with the trains. Daylight orange gave way to a simpler scarlet and gray, and by the start of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, only a handful of services were left. A 1952 timetable still shows the fleet at strength.

Argonaut, Los Angeles to New Orleans
Cascade, Oakland to Portland
City of San Francisco, the Union Pacific streamliner, forwarded by the Southern Pacific to Oakland
Daylight fleet, San Francisco to Los Angeles, and the later Daylights
Del Monte, San Francisco to Monterey
Golden State, Los Angeles to Chicago by way of Tucumcari, with the Rock Island
Imperial, Los Angeles to Chicago with the Rock Island
Lark, Oakland and San Francisco to Los Angeles via San Luis Obispo
Owl, San Francisco to Los Angeles
Sacramento Daylight, Sacramento to Los Angeles
San Francisco Overland, the Overland Route train. Into the mid-1950s it ran through with the Union Pacific and the Chicago & North Western. Afterward the eastern partner was the Wabash, as far as St. Louis
San Joaquin Daylight, Oakland to Los Angeles via Bakersfield
Shasta Daylight, Oakland to Portland
Starlight, San Francisco to Los Angeles
Sunbeam and Hustler, Houston to Dallas
Sunset Limited, at first San Francisco to New Orleans, later Los Angeles to New Orleans

Southern Pacific PA-1 6012 with the San Francisco Overland at Sacramento in 1957

Southern Pacific PA-1 #6012 (built as #6008-C) is paused at Sacramento, California with train #27, the westbound San Francisco Overland, in 1957. Harold Elmore photo. Author’s collection.

Southern Pacific PA-2s with the southbound Klamath at the Carquinez Strait lift bridge circa 1953

A pair of handsome Southern Pacific PA-2’s lead train #19, the southbound Klamath (Portland–San Francisco), over the big lift bridge spanning the Carquinez Strait near Martinez, California, circa 1953. Gordon Glattenberg photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Pacific PA-2s led by 6042 running light into Los Angeles in the summer of 1963

A pair of Southern Pacific PA-2’s, led by #6042, are running light as they arrive in Los Angeles during the summer of 1963. Author’s collection.

For most of the twentieth century the Southern Pacific also ran the commute on the San Francisco Peninsula, from the city down to San Jose and the branches beyond. The trains used 3rd and Townsend, and later 4th and Townsend. GP9s handled them for years. Three GP40P-2s, 3197–3199, came in 1974 for the same service, and 3197 wore a Bicentennial scheme. The commute later passed to public operation. Riders know it today as Caltrain.

Southern Pacific GP9s 5603 and 5611 with commute train 130 circa 1955

Southern Pacific GP9’s #5603 and #5611 lead commute train #130 (San Francisco–Los Gatos) out of San Francisco, circa 1955. Gordon Glattenberg photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Pacific GP9 5602 with commute train 114 at 3rd and Townsend in September 1956

Southern Pacific GP9 #5602 awaits departure from San Francisco’s 3rd & Townsend Depot with commute train #114 in September, 1956. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Pacific GP40P-2 3199 with commute train 50 at 4th and Townsend in November 1984

Southern Pacific GP40P-2 #3199 with commuter train 50 at the 4th and Townsend Terminal in San Francisco in November, 1984. Roger Puta photo.

Southern Pacific GP40P-2 3197 in Bicentennial paint on Altamont Pass circa 1978

Southern Pacific GP40P-2 #3197, wearing its Bicentennial livery, is seen here in service on Altamont Pass, California, circa 1978. Gary Perrazo photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Freight and locomotives

After the war the railroad turned harder toward freight. Steam was gone from regular service by the end of the 1950s. The company was an early user of computers, and in 1973 it opened a computer-controlled hump yard at West Colton, California. The traffic was the whole Western mix: lumber, automobiles, steel, chemicals, petroleum, copper, and the crops of the valleys. Trailer-on-flatcar service came after 1953 and grew into container service. The Southern Pacific was an early Western intermodal carrier.

The perishable trade of the San Joaquin Valley was, for decades, the jewel. Pacific Fruit Express was the instrument. It was a Harriman joint venture of the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific, incorporated on December 7, 1906. Operations began on October 1, 1907, with an opening fleet of 6,600 refrigerator cars built by American Car and Foundry. The yellow fleet became one of the great refrigerator-car operations in the country. Mike Schafer, in Classic American Railroads, credits the two owners with some 22,000 reefers in 1962, running in dedicated time freights. Joint ownership ended on April 1, 1978. The Southern Pacific kept the Pacific Fruit Express name. The Union Pacific share became the Union Pacific Fruit Express.

The locomotives were as particular as the geography. On the Sierra and in the long snowsheds, an ordinary cab put the crew in the exhaust. The Southern Pacific’s answer was the cab-forward, an oil-burning articulated with the cab ahead of the boiler, the AC classes of 4-8-8-2s. The desert was a different problem. The class AC-9 2-8-8-4s were conventional articulateds, cab at the rear, assigned to the dry country of the Southwest. Their story is its own page. The GS-4 4-8-4s were the Daylight engines, orange and red and as famous as the train. Cab-forward 4294, an AC-12, is preserved at the California State Railroad Museum. The classes built from 1900 on are the steam roster.

Southern Pacific cab-forward AC-8 4203 at West Oakland on September 22, 1955

Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 Cab Forward #4203 (AC-8) is seen here between assignments in West Oakland, California on September 22, 1955. Harold Stewart photo.

Southern Pacific GS-4 4446 with the Coast Mail at Oxnard in December 1956

A crewman climbs aboard Southern Pacific 4-8-4 #4446 (GS-4) which is powering train #90, the Coast Mail, at Oxnard, California during December of 1956. Retirement nears for these magnificent steamers. William Fahey, Jr. photo.

Diesel freight power began in black and orange, the Black Widow scheme on the F units, and moved in the late 1950s to scarlet and gray. Railfans called that the bloody nose. The railroad liked Electro-Motive hood units and, later, big six-axle power: the SD45, and then the SD45T-2 and SD40T-2 tunnel motors, which took cooling air in low on the frame so the intakes would still breathe in a snowshed or a tunnel. In the early 1960s it also tried diesel-hydraulics, German units from Krauss-Maffei and a few Alcos. The experiment stayed small. Older road units went through the GRIP rebuild program. The rebuilt SD9Es were known on the property as Cadillacs. The last new power, in the 1990s, included SD70Ms in the 9800s and General Electric AC4400CWs and C44-9Ws.

Southern Pacific Bayshore Roundhouse in January 1965 with GP9 5825 nearest the camera

A classic view of Southern Pacific’s Bayshore Roundhouse along San Francisco Bay in January, 1965. Closest to the photographer is GP9 #5825. Drew Jacksich photo.

Southern Pacific F7A 6235 in Black Widow paint westbound out of San Jose in June 1965

Southern Pacific F7A #6235, still wearing the classic Black Widow livery, leads a westbound freight out of San Jose, California during June of 1965. Drew Jacksich photo.

Southern Pacific F7A 6303 in Black Widow paint crossing Stockton Avenue in San Jose in August 1966

A tired and worn Southern Pacific F7A #6303, still clad in the road’s venerable Black Widow livery, leads a perfect A-B-B-A set of covered wagons across Stockton Avenue in San Jose, California during August of 1966. Drew Jacksich photo.

Southern Pacific F7As 6430 and 6440 and GP9 3318 on the Milpitas line at San Jose in June 1970

A pair of Southern Pacific F7As, #6430 and #6440, and GP9 #3318 lead a westbound freight past the old freight office on the Milpitas line at San Jose, California in June, 1970. Drew Jacksich photo.

Rebuilt Southern Pacific SD9Es at Austin, Texas, circa 1982

Southern Pacific rebuilt SD9E Cadillacs at Austin, Texas, circa 1982. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Pacific SD40R 7347 in Olympics paint at Cajon Pass in February 1985

Southern Pacific SD40R #7347, wearing a special livery for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, works freight service over Cajon Pass in February, 1985. Karl Miller photo.

Southern Pacific SD70M 9801 at Portland on June 30, 1994

Southern Pacific SD70M #9801, just two months old, was photographed here by Keith Ardinger in Portland, Oregon on June 30, 1994. American-Rails.com collection.

Sprint

The railroad that came through the Great Depression without a bankruptcy had, by the 1960s, a second business riding the right-of-way. Dispatching, centralized traffic control, and the car record all depended on a private wire. Yenne records that by 1953 the Southern Pacific had built the largest private communications system in the world, some 500,000 channel miles, with a daily reliability he gives as 99.96 percent. The same plant carried facsimile, telemetering, VHF radio, and the identification of cars, along with ordinary messages.

A 1969 reorganization put the railroad into the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. Land and a products pipeline, Southern Pacific Pipe Lines, sat beside it under the Southern Pacific Company, and so would the communications business. In December 1969 B. F. Biaggini approved the next step. The railroad would use the microwave sites it already had, acquire more, and sell specialized common-carrier service through a wholly owned subsidiary. Southern Pacific Communications Company was incorporated on January 23, 1970. Benjamin F. Biaggini succeeded Donald J. Russell as president on May 17, 1972. Russell, who had taken the helm on January 1, 1952, was the last president to run the property as a railroad first. Biaggini was brought in to diversify it.

After a 1977 court victory opened public switched long-distance service to competitors, Southern Pacific Communications offered that service under the name Sprint. The letters have been explained more than one way. A company contest produced more than one reading. One is Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony, later rendered as telecommunications. Another is Switched Private Network Telecommunications. The service the public dialed was Sprint.

The subsidiary was sold to GTE Corporation, General Telephone & Electronics. An agreement in principle was announced on April 22, 1983. On May 4, 1983, the Justice Department and GTE formalized an agreement allowing the purchase of Southern Pacific Communications and Southern Pacific Satellite, Sprint included. The announced price was $750 million. A consent decree was filed the same day. The Southern Pacific Railroad History Center states that the sale closed on June 15, 1983, for $1.2 billion, a sum it describes as roughly equal to the value of everything else the Southern Pacific Company owned. At the closing were B. F. Biaggini, chairman; Alan C. Furth, president; R. J. McLean, treasurer; and R. S. Kopf, general counsel of Sprint. The Sprint name left the railroad with that sale. From the summer of 1986 it continued as US Sprint, the long-distance venture of GTE and United Telecommunications.

Don Hofsommer, in “Not Only A Railroad, But An Empire: How SP Went From Mighty Octopus To Tarnished Suitor,” Trains, March 1998, dates the turn to the years after Russell. Diversification had been the point of the holding company. The railroad was the piece that suffered. Automobile plants and the San Francisco industrial base thinned as factories closed or moved. Perishable traffic left for the highway, from service failures of the railroad’s own making and from the shock of the Penn Central collapse moving through the national car fleet. A late refrigerator car could ruin a cash crop, and the growers moved the business to trucks. By the 1980s much of the old web of valley branches and spurs was gone.

Southern Pacific GP9s led by 3841 with the Santa Cruz Local on Beach Street in September 1987

During the late Southern Pacific era a trio of GP9s, led by #3841, roll along Beach Street in Santa Cruz, California with the Santa Cruz Local headed for the nearby yard during September of 1987. Drew Jacksich photo.

Rio Grande and Union Pacific

The railroad went looking for a partner. Steve Glischinski, in Santa Fe Railway, records that the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific announced on May 15, 1980, that they would become one company, the Southern Pacific & Santa Fe. The talks died within months. They were renewed on September 27, 1983. The holding companies, Santa Fe Industries and the Southern Pacific Company, were joined on December 23, 1983, and the Southern Pacific stock sat in a voting trust while the case went forward. On July 24, 1986, the Interstate Commerce Commission denied the merger. The stillborn railroad had already painted locomotives in a red and yellow scheme the fans called Kodachrome, and then, just as quickly, “Shouldn’t Paint So Fast.” The full account is on the Santa Fe–Southern Pacific page.

The buyer that succeeded was Rio Grande Industries. The agreement was dated December 28, 1987. Philip Anschutz controlled the parent of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, and the company bought the Southern Pacific from Santa Fe Southern Pacific. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the sale on August 9, 1988. The Los Angeles Times, reporting the next day, described a combined system of about 15,000 miles in 15 states, about 26,300 employees, and about $2.5 billion in operating revenue, and called it the fifth-largest railroad in the country. The paper said the closing was expected in December. The price was $1.02 billion in cash plus the assumption of $780 million of Southern Pacific debt. The Chicago Tribune totaled the cash and the debt as $1.8 billion and noted that the Rio Grande would remain a separate operating subsidiary. Anschutz said the company would be “in the railroad business, first and foremost.” The Southern Pacific Railroad History Center dates Rio Grande Industries’ control to October 13, 1988. Headquarters stayed in San Francisco. The Southern Pacific name stayed on the locomotives.

In the third week of December 1988 a special ran from Portland to Medford behind preserved Daylight 4-8-4 4449, with Rio Grande 5514 and Southern Pacific 6826. Anschutz tried to buy 4449 from the City of Portland. The city kept the engine.

In 1995 the Union Pacific moved, answering the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe combination. The Surface Transportation Board’s written decision in Finance Docket 32760, Decision No. 44, was served on August 12, 1996. The Los Angeles Times described a $5.4 billion union of about 31,000 miles in 25 states, with about 4,000 miles of trackage to be shared with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Those miles are the combined system. Decision No. 61 records that common control was consummated on September 11, 1996. The merger of the railroads followed on February 1, 1997.

The Southern Pacific was large enough to jam its new owner. Yards clogged, transit times stretched, and the operating ratio climbed. The Union Pacific worked through the jam, and the Southern Pacific main lines stayed in the map: the Overland, the Valley and Tehachapi, the Coast Line, the Shasta Route, and the Sunset. Amtrak still runs over those routes, the Sunset Limited among them. In 2005 the Union Pacific painted SD70ACe 1996 in a Daylight scheme. The number is the year of the control.

Sources

Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society, Historical Outline, Southern Pacific Company, March 1933. The original Southern Pacific Railroad, chartered December 2, 1865, was a separate corporation from the Big Four company.
Bill Yenne, The History Of The Southern Pacific. Congressional route authority, July 27, 1866. By 1953, the largest private communications system, 500,000 channel miles, 99.96 percent daily reliability.
Brian Solomon, Southern Pacific Railroad. The new Southern Pacific Railroad of October 12, 1870.
Mike Schafer, Classic American Railroads. Some 22,000 refrigerator cars in the Pacific Fruit Express fleet by 1962.
Don Hofsommer, “Not Only A Railroad, But An Empire: How SP Went From Mighty Octopus To Tarnished Suitor,” Trains, March 1998.
Steve Glischinski, Santa Fe Railway. The May 15, 1980, announcement, the renewal on September 27, 1983, the holding-company combination of December 23, 1983, and the Interstate Commerce Commission denial of July 24, 1986.
Pacific Fruit Express. Incorporated December 7, 1906. Service from October 1, 1907, with an opening fleet of 6,600 cars built by American Car and Foundry. The Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific divided the fleet on April 1, 1978. The Southern Pacific kept the Pacific Fruit Express name. The Union Pacific share became the Union Pacific Fruit Express.
Southern Pacific Railroad History Center, “Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPRINT).” Biaggini’s December 1969 approval. Incorporation January 23, 1970. Switched service under the Sprint name after the 1977 opening of public long-distance competition. Sale to GTE closed June 15, 1983, for $1.2 billion. The same account dates the Rio Grande Industries agreement to December 28, 1987, dates control to October 13, 1988, and describes the December 1988 special with 4449.
United Press International, May 4, 1983. The Justice Department and GTE formalized the purchase of Southern Pacific Communications and Southern Pacific Satellite, including Sprint. Announced price $750 million. Agreement in principle announced April 22, 1983. United States v. GTE Corp., in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1988, and Chicago Tribune, August 10, 1988. Interstate Commerce Commission approval on August 9, 1988. About 15,000 miles, 15 states, about 26,300 employees, about $2.5 billion in operating revenue. Price $1.02 billion in cash plus $780 million of debt, totaled by the Tribune as $1.8 billion. Interstate Commerce Commission, Rio Grande Industries control of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, 4 I.C.C.2d 834 (August 25, 1988).
Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1996, for the reported $5.4 billion combination, about 31,000 miles, 25 states, and about 4,000 miles of trackage to be shared with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Surface Transportation Board, Finance Docket 32760, Decision No. 44, served August 12, 1996. Decision No. 61 states that common control was consummated on September 11, 1996. The merger was February 1, 1997.
The Cotton Belt and El Paso & Southwestern articles on this site, for the April 14 and April 19, 1932, stock dates, the May 1980 Golden State operation, and the October 31, 1924, mileage and consideration.

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