Sign In

The present map is one of a set of six maps showing the line on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Barstow, California.

This map was prepared under the supervision of W. A. Drake, Acting Chief Engineer, and drawn by various draftsman, including C.Y. Sanders. Lewis Kingman was the primary Chief Engineer on the project.

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad owned and operated two distinct railroad lines, one connecting St. Louis, Missouri with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico with Southern California. The Atlantic and Pacific Rairload was incorporated by the U.S. Congress in 1866 as a transcontinental railroad connecting Springfield, Missouri and Van Buren, Arkansas with California. The central portion was never constructed, and the two halves were later absorbed by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway systems.

After the failure of its predecessory, the Pacific Railroad, a portion of the line's assets were puchased by John C. Fremont and his partners. In July 1866, Congress passed a law incorporating the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad under control of Frémont and associates. The company was given the power to build near the 35th parallel from Springfield, Missouri west to the Pacific, with a branch from Van Buren, Arkansas. In exchange for its completion by 1878, the railroad would receive land grants along its route. The same conditions were applied to the Southern Pacific Railroad of California, which could build a branch to connect to the A&P near the eastern border of that state.[ The A&P purchased the Southwest Pacific in January 1867, and that year rails were laid on the grade to Arlington.

Fremont's company defaulted on its payments, with the assets resold to a new South Pacific Railroad in July 1868. Ownership of the A&P was also transferred to the new owners, which included Clinton B. Fisk of St. Louis. Another 164 miles to Pierce City and 39 miles of grading to Seneca on the state line were completed in 1870, when, in October, the South Pacific sold its property to the A&P. That company laid rails to Neosho that year and to Seneca, and beyond to Vinita, Oklahoma, in 1871, and in June 1872 it leased the Pacific (later Missouri Pacific) Railroad, which operated a line to Kansas City and branches, including several into Kansas. The A&P's only branch, 1.5 miles to a mine near Granby, Missouri, was built in 1875.

But this incarnation had similar financial problems; its Missouri division (Franklin to Seneca) was placed under receivership in November 1875, and the Pacific Railroad lease was canceled. The owners of the A&P incorporated the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway in September 1876, and immediately acquired the property of the Missouri division, and a lease on the Central division (Seneca to Vinita). Extensions beyond Vinita for 64 miles to Tulsa (1882), 4 miles to Red Fork (1885), and 10 miles to Sapulpa (1886) were included in the lease. The SL&SF also constructed a direct line into St. Louis in 1883, ending its dependence on the Missouri Pacific for access to that city.

In January 1880, the SL&SF came to an agreement with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which had recently entered New Mexico from the north, whereby the two companies would jointly control the A&P. The SL&SF would continue to operate the Central division, and a new Western division would begin on the AT&SF at Isleta, New Mexico and head west to meet the Southern Pacific at Needles, California.

Construction began that year, and reached Kingman, Arizona in 1882. The SP began building a branch from Mojave, California that same year, east to Needles, where the two met on August 9, 1883. The A&P, then essentially an operating subsidiary of the AT&SF, leased the line from the SP in August 1884, and in November 1885 the AT&SF-owned California Southern Railroad completed its line over Cajon Pass to the SP's Needles branch at Barstow, giving the AT&SF access to the coast. In addition to its lease of the SP to Mojave, the A&P operated via trackage rights over the AT&SF from Isleta to Albuquerque.

The present map was deaccessioned from the Santa Fe Railroad collection in the 1980s.