SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD

This is a BEAUTIFUL piece of RailroadHistory made by THE ADAMS & WESTLAKE COMPANY for the SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. This lantern is marked THE ADAMS & WESTLAKE COMPANY CHICAGO THE \"ADAMS\" S.P. First Patented Date is SEPT.21, 1897 last date JAN.26, 1909. Lantern is numbered 12103. The brass burner is marked ADLAKE PATD.APRIL 27,1909. and is in good working order. The clear Corning glass globe is embossed S.P.Co. MADE IN U.S.A. Cnx B, no cracks some small flea chips around rims. Please view photos and email with questions. Thanks for looking.

Southern Pacific Transportation CompanyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia     Jump to:     navigation,      search     \"Southern Pacific\" redirects here. For the former most recent parent company of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, the Southern Pacific Rail Corporation, see Rio Grande Industries.For the country-rock band, see Southern Pacific (band).Southern Pacific Transportation Company SP system map (before the 1988 DRGW merger)Reporting markSPLocaleArizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, UtahDates of operation

1865?1998 (legacy)

• Original incarnation was established in 1865 and the Southern Pacific legacy ended with the last incarnation in 1998; the last incarnation was established in 1969 and it is now the current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad

PredecessorCentral Pacific RailroadSuccessorUnion Pacific Railroad (in name only)
Some former SP tracks are now operated by BNSF RailwayTrack gauge4ft81?2in (1,435mm) standard gauge with some 3ft (914mm) gauge branchesHeadquartersSan Francisco, California

The Southern Pacific (reporting mark SP) (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was a name of multiple American Class I railroads that existed from 1865 to 1998 and all operated in the Western United States. The names that represented the Southern Pacific were Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.

The original Southern Pacific was founded as a land holding company in 1865, later acquiring the Central Pacific Railroad through leasing. By 1900, the Southern Pacific system was a major railroad system incorporating many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan\'s Louisiana and Texas Railroad. It extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, through most of California, including San Francisco and Sacramento. Central Pacific lines extended east across Nevada to Ogden, Utah, and reached north through Oregon to Portland. Other subsidiaries eventually included the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt), the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at 328 miles (528km), the 1,331-mile (2,142km) Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico, and a variety of 3ft (914mm) narrow gauge routes. The SP was the defendant in the landmark 1886 United States Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad which is often interpreted as having established certain corporate rights under the Constitution of the United States. In 1929 SP/T&NO operated 13848 route-miles not including Cotton Belt, whose purchase of the Golden State Route circa 1980 nearly doubled its size to 3,085 miles (4,965km), bringing total SP/SSW mileage to around 13,508 miles (21,739km).

In 1969, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company was established and took over the Southern Pacific system; this Southern Pacific railroad is the last incarnation and was at times called \"Southern Pacific Industries\", though \"Southern Pacific Industries\" is not the official name of the company. By the 1980s, route mileage had dropped to 10,423 miles (16,774km), mainly due to the pruning of branch lines. In 1988, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (including its subsidiary, St. Louis Southwestern Railway) was taken over by Rio Grande Industries, the parent company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Rio Grande Industries did not merge the Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad together, but transferred direct ownership of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, allowing the combined Rio Grande Industries railroad system to use the Southern Pacific name due to its brand recognition in the railroad industry and with customers of both the Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. A long time Southern Pacific subsidiary, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway was also marketed under the Southern Pacific name. Along with the addition of the SPCSL Corporation route from Chicago to St. Louis, the total length of the D&RGW/SP/SSW system was 15,959 miles (25,684km). Rio Grande Industries was later renamed Southern Pacific Rail Corporation.

By 1996, years of financial problems had dropped Southern Pacific\'s mileage to 13,715 miles (22,072km). The financial problems caused the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to be taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation; the parent Southern Pacific Rail Corporation (formerly Rio Grande Industries), the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and the SPCSL Corporation was also taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation. The Union Pacific Corporation merged the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and the SPCSL Corporation into their Union Pacific Railroad, but did not merge the Southern Pacific Transportation Company into the Union Pacific Railroad. Instead, the Union Pacific Corporation merged the Union Pacific Railroad into the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1998; the Southern Pacific Transportation Company becomes the surviving railroad and at the same time the Union Pacific Corporation renamed the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to Union Pacific Railroad. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company becomes the current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad; the former Southern Pacific Transportation Company is still operating as the current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad. The Southern Pacific Rail Corporation remained a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Corporation until 2015 when it was merged into the former Southern Pacific Transportation Company, the current Union Pacific Railroad.

Southern Pacific legacy founded important hospitals in San Francisco, Tucson, and elsewhere. In the 1970s, it also founded a telecommunications network with a state-of-the-art microwave and fiber optic backbone. This telecommunications network became part of Sprint, a company whose name came from the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.[1]

Contents [hide]

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Origins
  • 1.2 Intro
  • 1.3 Timeline
    • 1.3.1 Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company
    • 1.3.2 Southern Pacific Transportation Company
• 2 Locomotive paint and appearance
• 3 Passenger train service
• 4 Notable accidents
• 5 Preserved locomotives
• 6 Morgan Line and the Sunset?Gulf Route
• 7 Company officers
  • 7.1 Presidents in Southern Pacific history
  • 7.2 Chairmen of each Executive Committee in Southern Pacific history
  • 7.3 Chairmen of each Board of Directors in Southern Pacific history
• 8 Predecessor and subsidiary railroads
  • 8.1 Arizona
  • 8.2 California
  • 8.3 New Mexico
  • 8.4 Oregon
  • 8.5 Texas
  • 8.6 Mexico
• 9 Successor railroads
  • 9.1 Arizona
  • 9.2 Louisiana
  • 9.3 California
  • 9.4 Oregon
• 10 Ferry service
• 11 Notable employees
• 12 See also
• 13 References
• 14 External section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (December 2011)This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Southern Pacific routes on the Pacific Coast, 1885 A Southern Pacific train at Los Angeles\' Arcade Depot, 1891 The Southern Pacific depot located in Burlingame, California, ca 1900; completed in 1894 and still in use, it was the first permanent Southern Pacific structure to be constructed in the Mission Revival Style. SP tunnel into San Francisco, ca.1900 Southern Pacific Company Pacific System in the West, 1901 Belmont, California station, about 1907

  One of the original ancestor-railroads of SP, the Galveston and Red River Railway (GRR), was chartered on 11 March 1848 by Ebenezer Allen,[2][3][4][5] although the company did not become active until 1852 after a series of meetings at Chappell Hill, Texas, and Houston, Texas. The original aim was to construct a railroad from Galveston Bay to a point on the Red River near a trading post known as Coffee\'s Station.[4] Ground was broken in 1853.[5] The GRR built 2 miles (3.2km) of track in Houston in 1855.[4] Track laying began in earnest in 1856 and on 1 September 1856 GRR was renamed the Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC).[5] SP acquired H&TC in 1883 but it continued to operate as a subsidiary under its own management until 1927,[5] when it was leased to another SP-owned railroad, the Texas and New Orleans Railroad.

  The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway (BBB&C), was chartered in Texas on 11 February 1850 by a group that included General Sidney Sherman.[2][6] BBB&C was the first railroad to commence operation in Texas and the first component of SP to commence operation. Surveying of the route alignment commenced at Harrisburg, Texas, in 1851 and construction between Houston and Alleyton, Texas, commenced later that year. The first 20 miles (32km) of track opened in August 1853.[6]

  Intro[edit]

  The original SP was founded in San Francisco in 1865 by a group of businessmen led by Timothy Phelps with the aim of building a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego, California. The company was purchased in September 1868 by a group of businessmen known as the Big Four: Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Jr. and C. P. Huntington. The Big Four had, in 1861, created the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR). CPRR was merged into SP in 1870.[citation needed]

  Timeline[edit]Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company[edit]
  • June 1873: The Southern Pacific builds its first locomotive at the railroad\'s Sacramento shops as CP\'s 2nd number 55, a 4-4-0.[citation needed]
  • November 8, 1874: Southern Pacific tracks reach Bakersfield, California and work begins on the Tehachapi Loop.
  • September 5, 1876: The first through train from San Francisco arrives in Los Angeles, California after traveling over the newly completed Tehachapi Loop.
  • 1877: Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles cross the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona. Southern Pacific purchases the Houston and Texas Central Railway.
  • 1879: Southern Pacific engineers experiment with the first oil-fired locomotives.[citation needed]
  • March 20, 1880: The first Southern Pacific train reaches Tucson, Arizona.[citation needed]
  • May 11, 1880: The Mussel Slough Tragedy (a dispute over property rights with SP) takes place in Hanford, California.
  • 1881: Southern Pacific gains control of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and the Louisiana Western Railroad.[7]
    • May 19, 1881: Southern Pacific tracks reach El Paso, Texas, beating the rival Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to El Paso.
    • December 15, 1881: Southern Pacific (under the GH&SA RR) meets the Texas and Pacific at Sierra Blanca, Texas in Hudspeth County, Texas getting close to completing the nation\'s second transcontinental railroad.[citation needed]
  • January 12, 1883: The Southern section of the second transcontinental railroad line is completed as the Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles meet the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway at a location three miles West of the Pecos River near to Langtry, Texas. The sterling silver spikes were alternatively driven by James Campbell and James Converse with the other driven by Col. Tom Pierce, the GH&SA president. These spikes were thereafter quickly removed. This became the first year round all weather transcontinental railroad. Almost ten years later, March 31, 1892, the Pecos River High Bridge was opened. This moved the lineup and out of the Rio Grande Canyon and simplified the alignment. The line now extends to San Antonio and Houston along the Sunset Route.
  • March 17, 1884: The Southern Pacific is incorporated in Kentucky.
  • February 17, 1885: The Southern Pacific and Central Pacific are combined under a holding company named the Southern Pacific Company.
  • April 1, 1885: The Southern Pacific takes over all operation of the Central Pacific. Effectively, the CP no longer exists as a separate company.
  • 1886: The first refrigerator cars on the Southern Pacific enter operation; the loading of refrigerator cars with oranges, first performed at Los Angeles, California on February 14, contributed to an economic boom in the famous citrus industry of Southern California, by making deliveries of perishable fruits and vegetables to the eastern United States possible.
  • 1886: Southern Pacific wins the landmark Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad which establishes equal rights under the law to corporations.
  • 1887: Southern Pacific gains full control of the Oregon and California Railroad giving it a route through northern California all the way across Oregon to Oregon main port city of Portland. However, outright ownership of the railroad wouldn\'t occur until 1927.
  • 1893: Southern Pacific train bandits John Sontag and Chris Evans are apprehended in the Battle of Stone Corral near Visalia, California.[8]
  • 1898: Sunset magazine is founded as a promotional tool of the Southern Pacific.
  • October 1899: Southern Pacific gains control of the Houston East and West Texas Railway.[9]
  • 1901: Frank Norris\' novel, The Octopus: A California Story, a fictional retelling of the Mussel Slough Tragedy and the events leading up to it, is published.
  • July 6, 1901: The Southern Pacific Terminal Company is chartered as an independent operating entity to provide rail service to the Southern Pacific\'s steamer docks in Galveston, Texas.[10]
  • 1901: Union Pacific Railroad acquires control of Southern Pacific. In the following years, many SP operating procedures and equipment purchases follow patterns established by Union Pacific.
  • 1903: Southern Pacific gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles.
  • March 8, 1904: SP opens the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake, bypassing Promontory, UT for the railroad\'s mainline.
  • March 20, 1904: SP\'s Coast Line is completed between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA.
  • April 18, 1906: The great 1906 San Francisco earthquake strikes, damaging the railroad\'s headquarters building and destroying the mansions of the now-deceased Big Four.
  • 1906: SP and UP jointly form the Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) refrigerator car line.
  • May 22, 1907: The Coast Line Limited of the Southern Pacific Railroad is derailed west of Glendale, California. The accident causes several deaths and injuries, and its cause linked to anarchists.
  • 1907: With Santa Fe, Southern Pacific forms Northwestern Pacific, unifying several SP- and Santa Fe-owned subsidiaries into one jointly owned railroad serving northwestern California.
  • 1909: The Southern Pacific of Mexico, the railroad\'s subsidiary south of the U.S. border, is incorporated.
  • 1913: The Supreme Court of the United States orders the Union Pacific to sell all of its stock in the Southern Pacific.
  The Southern Pacific Railroad Locomotive No. 1673 is a standard gauge 2-6-0, Mogul type M-4 class, steam locomotive built in 1900 by Schenectady Locomotive Works. It had a brief starring role in the 1954 film Oklahoma, for which it was fitted with a diamond stack and other turn-of-the-century equipment and colors. It was also the star of Southern Pacific\'s 75th anniversary in Tucson, Arizona. The locomotive is on display in the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, 414 N. Toole Ave.. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on January 9, 1992, ref.: #91001918. Southern Pacific equipment used to rebuild Galveston after 1915 Hurricane Exterior view of the Southern Pacific\'s Central Station in Los Angeles ca.1918
  • 1917: Southern Pacific moves into its new headquarters in San Francisco at One Market Street
  • December 28, 1917: The federal government takes control of American railroads in preparation for World War I
  • 1923: The Interstate Commerce Commission allows the SP\'s control of the Central Pacific to continue, ruling that the control is in the public\'s interest.
  • March 1, 1927: Various Texas and Louisiana SP subsidiaries are leased to the SP-controlled Texas and New Orleans Railroad, including the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, the Houston and Texas Central Railway, the Houston East and West Texas Railway, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, and the Southern Pacific Terminal Company.[7][9][10]
  • 1928: The SP purchases the Texas Midland Railroad and leases the line to the SP-controlled Texas and New Orleans Railroad.[7][11]
  • 1929: Santa Fe sells its interest in Northwestern Pacific to SP. NWP becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SP.
  • 1932: The SP gains 87% control of the Cotton Belt Railroad.
  • June 30, 1934: All Texas and Louisiana SP subsidiaries previously leased to the SP-controlled Texas and New Orleans Railroad?with the exception of the Southern Pacific Terminal Company?are formally merged with the T&NO, thus creating the largest railroad in Texas, with 3,713mi (5,975km) of track.[7][9]
  • May 1939: UP, SP and Santa Fe passenger trains in Los Angeles are united into a single terminal as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal opens.
  • 1947: The first road diesel locomotives owned solely by SP (i.e., aside from yard switchers) enter operation on the SP.
  • 1947: Southern Pacific is reincorporated in Delaware (formerly Kentucky).
  • 1951: Southern Pacific subsidiary Southern Pacific of Mexico is sold to the Mexican government.
  • 1952: A difficult year for the SP in California opens with the City of San Francisco train marooned for three days in heavy snow on Donner Pass; in July the Kern County earthquake hits Tehachapi pass, closing the line over Tehachapi Loop from 21 July to 15 August.
  • 1953: The first Trailer-On-Flat-Car (TOFC, or \"piggyback\") equipment enters service on the SP.
  • January 1957: the last standard gauge steam locomotives in regular operation on the SP are retired; the railroad is now dieselized except for fan excursions.
  • 1959: The last revenue steam powered freight is operated on the system by narrow gauge #9.
  • 1959: Southern Pacific moved more ton-miles of freight than any other US railroad (the Pennsylvania Railroad had been number one for decades).
  • November 1, 1961: The Texas and New Orleans Railroad?which by this time encompassed all of the SP\'s Texas and Louisiana holdings except for the lines of the Southern Pacific Terminal Company and Cotton Belt?is merged with the Southern Pacific.[7] The SPTC, having been previously leased to the T&NO, is leased to the SP the same day. The SPTC would formally merge with the SP on August 31, 1962.[10]
  • 1965: ICC rejects Southern Pacific\'s offer for control of the Western Pacific.
  • 1967: SP opens the longest stretch of new railroad in a quarter century as trains roll over the Palmdale Cutoff through Cajon Pass.
  The San Joaquin Daylight, March 1971Southern Pacific Transportation Company[edit]
  • 1969: The Southern Pacific Transportation Company (initials: SPTC, SPTCo and SPT) was established and purchased and absorbed the Southern Pacific Company, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company becomes the last incarnation of the Southern Pacific railroad. The \"Southern Pacific Company\" name became available and a new Southern Pacific Company was formed, this time a holding company for the Southern Pacific Transportation Company which replaced the original Southern Pacific Company.
  • May 1, 1971: Amtrak takes over long-distance passenger trains in the United States; the only SP revenue passenger trains thereafter were the commutes between San Francisco and San Jose.
  • 1972: Southern Pacific Communications began selling surplus capacity on its microwave and fiber optic telecom system (laid along their railroad rights of way) to corporations for use as private lines. This service became part of Sprint (the name coming from the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.[1])
  • 1976: SP is awarded Dow Chemical\'s first annual Rail Safety Achievement Award in recognition of the railroad\'s handling of Dow products in 1975.[12]
  • 1980: Now owning a 98.34% control of the Cotton Belt, the Southern Pacific extends the Cotton Belt from St. Louis to Santa Rosa, New Mexico through acquisition of part of the former Rock Island Railroad.
  SP 8033, a GE Dash 8-39B, leads a westbound train through Eola, Illinois (just east of Aurora), October 6, 1992.
  • 1984: Northern portion of subsidiary Northwestern Pacific sold to independent shortline Eureka Southern Railroad which begins operation on November 1.
  • 1984: The second Southern Pacific Company merges into Santa Fe Industries, parent of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, to form Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation. When the Interstate Commerce Commission refuses permission for the planned merger of the railroad subsidiaries as the Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad SPSF shortens its name to Santa Fe Pacific Corporation and puts the Southern Pacific Transportation Company up for sale while retaining the non-rail assets of the second Southern Pacific Company.
  • 1985: New Caltrain locomotives and rolling stock replace SP equipment on the Peninsula Commute, marking the end of Southern Pacific passenger service with SP equipment.
  • August 9, 1988: the Interstate Commerce Commission approves the purchase of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company by Rio Grande Industries, the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.
  • October 13, 1988: Rio Grande Industries takes control of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad did not come together, but the Denver and Rio Grande Western became a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company; this allowed the combined Rio Grande Industries railroad system to operate under the name \"Southern Pacific\" for all railroad operations while still having the system being represented by two railroads instead of one.
  • 1989: Southern Pacific acquires 223 miles of former Alton trackage between St. Louis and Joliet from the Chicago, Missouri & Western. For the first time the Southern Pacific served the Chicago area on its own rails.
  • March 17, 1991: The Southern Pacific changes its corporate image, replacing the century-old Roman Lettering with the Rio Grande-inspired Speed Lettering.
  • 1992: Northwestern Pacific is merged into SP, ending NWP\'s existence as a corporate subsidiary of SP[13] and leaving the Cotton Belt as SP\'s only remaining major railroad subsidiary. The Northwestern Pacific\'s south end would eventually be sold off by UP and turned into a \"new\" Northwestern Pacific.
  • 1996-1998: The Union Pacific Corporation finishes the acquisition that was effectively begun almost a century before with the purchase of the original Southern Pacific railroad by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1901, until divestiture was ordered in 1913. Ironically, although the Union Pacific Corporation was the dominant parent company, taking complete control of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, the Union Pacific Railroad was not the dominant railroad and instead the Union Pacific Railroad was merged into the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company becomes the \"surviving railroad\"; the Southern Pacific Transportation Company changed its name to Union Pacific Railroad. The former Southern Pacific Transportation Company retains the name \"Union Pacific\" for all railroad operations. The former Southern Pacific Transportation Company becomes the current Union Pacific Railroad.
  Revenue Freight Ton-Miles (Millions)SPT&NOSSWTexas MidlandDayton-Goose CreekLake Tahoe Ry and T&NO)(into T&NO)(into SP)8,650Revenue Passenger-Miles (Millions)SPT&NOSSWTexas MidlandDayton-Goose CreekLake Tahoe Ry and T&NO)(into T&NO)(into SP)0

  In the tables \"SP\" does not include NWP, P&SR, SD&AE, PE, Holton Inter-Urban, Visalia Electric (except 1970 includes PE, which merged into SP in 1965; it reported 104 million ton-miles in 1960). \"T&NO\" total for 1925 includes GH&SA, H&TC, SA&AP and the other roads that folded into T&NO a couple years later. \"SSW\" includes SSW of Texas.

  1971 Moody\'s shows route-mileage operated as of 31 December 1970: 11615 SP, 1565 SSW, 324 NWP, 136 SD&AE, 44 T&T, 34 VE, 30 P&SR and 10 HI-U. SP operated 18337 miles of track.

  Locomotive paint and appearance[edit] Restored SP #9 showing the traditional silver paint on the front of the smokebox.

  Like most railroads, the SP painted most of its steam locomotives black during the 20th century, but after 1945 SP painted the front of the locomotive\'s smokebox silver (almost white in appearance), with graphite colored sides, for visibility.

  As locomotives are being restored, some pacific type 4-6-2 locomotive boilers show signs of having been painted dark green. The soft cover book \"Steam Glory 2\" by Kalmbach Publications (2007) has an article \"Southern Pacific\'s Painted Ladies\" which shows color photos from the 1940s and 1950s revealing that a number of SP 0-6-0 yard engines, usually assigned to passenger terminals were painted in various combinations with red cab roof and cab doors, pale silver smokeboxes and smokebox fronts, dark green boilers, multi colored SP heralds on black cab, green cylinder covers and other details pointed out in color. Some other SP steam passenger locomotives may have been so painted, or at least had dark green boilers. The article indicates that these paint jobs lasted years and were not special paint for a single event.

  • SP 4449 underway wearing the Daylight scheme (April 1981).

  • SP 4294 \"cab-forward\" locomotive.

  Some passenger steam locomotives bore the Daylight scheme, named after the trains they hauled, most of which had the word Daylight in the train name. This scheme, carried on the tender, was a bright red on the top and bottom thirds, with the center third being a bright orange. The parts were separated with narrow silver-gray bands. Some of the color continued along the locomotive. The most famous \"Daylight\" locomotives were the GS-4 steam locomotives. The most famous Daylight-hauled trains were the Coast Daylight and the Sunset Limited.

  Well known were the Southern Pacific\'s unique \"cab-forward\" steam locomotives. These were 2-8-8-4 locomotives set up to run in reverse, with the tender attached to the smokebox end of the locomotive. Southern Pacific had a number of snow sheds in mountain terrain, and locomotive crews nearly asphyxiated from smoke in the cab. After a number of engineers began running their engines in reverse (pushing the tender), Southern Pacific asked Baldwin Locomotive Works to produce cab-forward designs. No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives.

  • SP 6051 in the Daylight scheme (2012).

  • SP 3491 in the Black Widow scheme leads SP 6506 in the Bloody Nose scheme (April 1966).

  • SP 7561 in the Kodachrome scheme (June 1986).

  Early diesel locomotives were also painted black. Yard switchers had diagonal orange stripes on the ends for visibility, earning this scheme the nickname of Tiger Stripe. Road freight units were black with a red band at the bottom of the car body and a silver and orange \"winged\" nose. \"SOUTHERN PACIFIC\" was in a large serif font in Lettering Gray (a very light gray). Railfans call this paint scheme Black Widow. An experimental scheme, all-over black with a variety of orange end and side sill treatments was called the Halloween scheme. Over 200 locomotives were so painted between March 1957 and mid-1958.

  An EMD FP7 leads a Pacific Rail Society Special through Floriston, California in February, 1971.

  Most passenger units were painted originally in the Daylight scheme as described above, though some were painted red on top, silver below for the Golden State (operated with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad) between Chicago and Los Angeles. Silver cars with a narrow red band at the top were used for the Sunset Limited and other trains into Texas. In 1958 SP standardized on a paint scheme of dark grey (\"Lark Dark Gray\") with a red \"winged\" nose; railfans dubbed this scheme Bloody Nose. Lettering was again in Lettering Gray.

  Anticipating the failed Southern Pacific Santa Fe merger in the mid 1980s, the \"Kodachrome\" paint scheme (named for the colors of the Kodak boxes that the film came in) was applied to many Southern Pacific locomotives. When the Southern Pacific Santa Fe merger was denied by the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Kodachrome units were not immediately repainted, some even lasting up to the Southern Pacific\'s end as an independent company. The Interstate Commerce Commission\'s decision left Southern Pacific in a decrepit state, the locomotives were not repainted immediately, although some were repainted into the Bloody Nose scheme as they were overhauled after months to years of deferred maintenance.

  • SP 8578 wearing the Bloody Nose scheme with \"speed lettering\" in 2008.

  • UP 1512 (ex-SP 7134, ex-BO 3706) in Bloody Nose with \"speed lettering\" and added Union Pacific patches after SP acquisition.

  • UP 1996 in a Heritage scheme based on Daylight and Black Widow.

  After the 1988 purchase of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company by Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad\'s parent company, Rio Grande Industries whose owner was Philip Anschutz, the side lettering on repainted locomotives was changed from SP\'s serif font to the Rio Grande\'s \"speed lettering\" style. The Rio Grande did not retain its identity, as Anschutz felt the Southern Pacific name was the more recognizable. A variation of the Daylight scheme, also known as Popsicles, designed by Chester Mack, was applied to SP\'s 4 TE-70s, U25Bs repowered with Sulzer diesel engines.[14] Some former SP locomotives largely retained their original Bloody Nose livery, amended with yellow patches and new numbers, following the takeover by Union Pacific.

  Southern Pacific road switcher diesels often had elaborate lighting clusters front and rear, with a large red Mars Light for emergency signaling, and often two pairs of sealed-beam headlamps, one on top of the cab and the other below the Mars Light on the nose. Starting in the 1970s SP had cab air conditioning on all new locomotives and the unit is visible on the cab roof. Southern Pacific placed large snowplows on the pilots of their road switchers for the heavy snowfall on Donner Pass. Many Southern Pacific road switchers had a Nathan-AirChime model P3 or P5 air horn with chords distinct to Southern Pacific locomotives in the western states.

  \"A\" indicates one driving axle, \"B\" two, \"C\" three, \"1\" idler; \"DS\" for Diesel Switcher, \"DF\" Freight, \"DP\" Passenger;

  The Southern Pacific and Cotton Belt were the only buyers of the EMD SD45T-2 \"Tunnel Motor\" locomotive. This locomotive was necessary because the standard configuration EMD SD45 could not get a sufficient amount of cool air into the diesel locomotive\'s radiator while working Southern Pacific\'s through snow sheds and tunnels in the Cascades and Donner Pass. These \"Tunnel Motors\" were EMD SD45-2\'s with radiator air intakes at the locomotive car body\'s walkway level, rather than EMD\'s typical setup with fans on the locomotive\'s long hood roof pulling air through radiators at the top/side of the locomotive\'s body. Inside tunnels and snow sheds hot exhaust from lead units would accumulate near the top of the tunnel or snow shed and be drawn into the radiators of trailing EMD (non-tunnel motor) locomotives, leading these locomotives to shut down as their diesel prime mover overheated. The Southern Pacific also operated EMD SD40T-2s, as did the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.

  A former Southern Pacific GP38-2 locomotive with an intact L-shaped engineer\'s windshield.

  Southern Pacific was known for L-shaped engineer\'s windshields. Introduced by EMD on SD45 demonstrator 4353, this design improves visibility by omitting the pillar which in conventional designs splits the engineer\'s windshield into two panes. Southern Pacific selected this option on new EMD locomotive orders starting in 1967 through the early 1980s, one of the few railroads to do so (Illinois Central was another buyer of this option), and ordered a similar windshield design from General Electric. After the \"wide nose\" design became popular, most of Southern Pacific\'s locomotives kept their L-shaped windshields before being rebuilt or sold to different private railroads after its merger.

  Unlike other railroads whose locomotive number boards bore the locomotive number, SP used them for the train number until 1967. (SP\'s San Francisco-San Jose commute trains continued displaying train numbers for the convenience of passengers.) The other railroad that used locomotive number boards for train numbers into the 1960s was SP\'s transcontinental partner, Union Pacific.

  On either side of the boiler near the smoke stack or further back, indicators are displayed. These are train numbers (figure 1). All trains going toward San Francisco are called \'westward\' and are odd-numbered such as 1, 3, and so on. A train going away from SF are called \'eastward\' and are even-numbered. The example in figure 1 shows 99 as the train number which is the number of the streamlined Daylight, northbound.

  In order to carry all the people wishing to ride on the same train, sometimes it was necessary to operate the train in two or more separate parts, which are called \'sections.\' When a train is operated in sections, the first section carries a \'1\' preceding the train number (figure 2). The second section carries a \'2\', etc., and the last section carries the train number only. Special trains or \'extras\' carry the locomotive number preceded by an \'X\' (figure 3).[15]

  In 2006, the current Union Pacific Railroad which is actually the former Southern Pacific Transportation Company, unveiled UP 1996, the sixth and final of its Heritage Series EMD SD70ACe locomotives. Its paint scheme appears to be based on the Daylight and Black Widow schemes. Today there are still locomotives in SP paint, including ten AC4400CWs with original SP numbers as of January 2013.

  
  

  
  

  
  

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