Southern Pacific Railroad

The Southern Pacific is my favorite railroad. It was an American railroad company founded in 1865 as a land holding company called the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1885, the company changed its name to Southern Pacific Company which they kept through 1969. In 1970 the name changed again, to Southern Pacific Transportation Company. This name survived the SP's acquisition in 1988 by Rio Grande Industries until 1996, when the SP was acquired by the Union Pacific. At its peak, the Southern Pacific Railroad operated over 13,000 miles of track. It owned other well known railroads as subsidiaries, notably the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt) and Northwestern Pacific. The Southern Pacific also operated the last US common carrier narrow gauge railroad, the Slim Princess which ran in California's Owens Valley. I grew up in Bishop, CA, about six miles south of the Laws station (now a museum) on the SP narrow gauge. My grandparents lived in Point Pleasant, CA, about 1 mile away from a line shared by the Southern Pacific and it's rival, the AT&SF (Santa Fe). The Southern Pacific also operated a standard gauge branch line (the Jawbone Branch) that ran to Lone Pine, CA until 1988. Besides all that, my dad worked for Caltrans, so during the summer our family would often go with him on business trips to Mojave and Tehachapi, both of which are (were) Southern Pacific towns. It's no wonder I grew up loving the Southern Pacific Railroad.