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California Railroads by Alvin Fickewirth w dust jacket 1851-1992 Short lines Log
California Railroads by Alvin Fickewirth
Hard Cover with dust jacket
Copyright 1992
194 pages
An encyclopedia of cable car, common carrier, horsecar, industrial interurban, logging, monorail, motor road, sort lines, streetcar, switching and terminal railroads in California 1851-1992
Preface 1
Foreword 3
A 9
B 15
C 21
D 35
E 39
F 43
G 47
H 51
I 57
J 59
K 61
L 65
M 77
N 87
O 93
P 99
Q 109
R 111
S 117
T 151
U 155
V 159
W 163
Y 166
Appendix 169
California Railroads by County 170
Index 187
1992 Additions 194
As a railroad historian and an afficianado of the steam locomotive, I felt quite honored when, in 1952, the El Monte Kiwanis Club asked me to speak to their group on the history of California railroads. As a school principal I had often given talks, but never on my favorite subject - railroads. I welcomed the idea of finally utilizing my vast knowledge about railroads, after all, I not only had an immense railroad library, but also a collection of railroad passes and other memorabilia.
The beginning of my speech to the group dealt with the information that California's first railroad was the Sacramento Valley Railroad between Sacramento and Folsom, built in 1855 by the father of California's railroads, Theodore T. Judah. Elaborating on this fact, I went on to tell them that at the time the citizens of California believed that Judah's proposed railroad, over the mighty Sierra in order to connect Sacramento to Omaha, was a crazy idea. However, Crazy Judah's line was built by the Central Pacific-Union Pacific and, in 1869, it became the nation's first transcontinental railroad. I then elucidated on the coming of the second transcontinental line, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and the eventual building of the Los Angeles to Salt Lake line by the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. To give them a more complete picture of the times, I presented the role of the short line railroad, the industrial carrier and the roads built to haul minerals. Explaining to them that Southern California's public transportation system began with the horsecar lines, advanced to the coming of cable cars, and that eventually the electric car took their place. At the conclusion of my program, the meeting was opened up for questions. Most of the inquiries proved to be rather mundane with the exception of one gentlemen who asked, "How many railroads has California had or do they have?" Believing at the time that the figure I was about to give was approximately right, I replied, "At least a hundred!"
Upon arriving home that evening, I decided to sit down and list all the railroads that came to mind. Over a period of several weeks, I kept adding to the list until I had nearly 300 railroads recorded. But as time went on, the question raised at the Kiwanis Club kept haunting me. Just exactly how many railroads did California have? It was then that I made the decision to reread my entire library and look through my files in search of the answer. Needless to say, my research found an additional 50 railroads.
In order to maintain these findings, I decided to catalog the information collected on each railroad by placing them on an index card. This included the full name of the railroad, where it was organized, the county where the organization took place and how many miles the railroad operated. Not only did I record the type of motive power used, but also if it was horse-drawn, run by a steam locomotive or operated by electricity, cable, etc. Along with this I noted if the railroad had merged into some other carrier, had been extended and, if so, to where or whether it was the result of a consolidation of several railroads. As I came across each new railroad, I filled out a new index card. By 1954 I had over 694 railroads on file.
In the meantime, several railroad historians of Southern California organized the Southern California Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. I became a charter member and a director of this august group. It was in April 1954 that the Chapter began the publication of a quarterly journal of California railroad history entitled the Pacific Railway Journal. I offered my California railroad list to the editor as I felt that by publishing it other unknown railroads might turn up. In order to be used, the list had to be transcribed from the index cards. This proved to be no easy task. It took several months to type and it became a spiral-bound book.
The editor of the Pacific Railway Journal, Donald Duke, had in his possession a near complete collection of railroad trade journals called the Railroad Gazette and Railway Age, dating from 1873 to 1954. While looking through these journals, Duke discovered that there was a wealth of information on new railroads in a column entitled "Railroad Construction" and "General Railroad News." Upon hearing this I decided I better take a look, and sure enough in the three years it took to plow through the 107 years of journals, I doubled my list of railroads.
A complete run of Poor's Manual of Railroads, 1860 to 1930, were also in Duke's library. From these volumes I was able to pick up additional information on railroads built and operated within California. He also had Railway Review from 1872 to 1904, and in 1905 it was renamed the Railway & Engineering Review and ran until 1929. While these journals tended to duplicate the Railroad Gazette and Railway Age, I still added to my list. I now had over 1,400 railroads that either ran, were proposed, surveyed or constructed within the state of California.
As the years rolled by I picked up additional new railroads from articles in the Western Railroader, Pacific Rail News, the Pacific Lumberman and the Journal of Electricity, Power & Gas. One summer I spent time at the California State Library researching the files of the California Railroad Commission, and paid a visit to the Secretary of State where I checked the incorporation of the state's railroads. Every stone was turned that might hide a railroad that was not already in my file.
I spent nearly two years typing the list all over again, and I also made a list of all the counties where a given railroad was organized. I had the sheets hardbound, ending up with three volumes. Here was an impressive collection of some 1,600 of the state's railroads. John Fickewirth, my son, decided that he would computerize the list. This in itself was another large undertaking. The end result was two huge loose-leaf binders, encompassing the whole list.
California Railroads has more that 1,672 railroads that were organized, built, operated and merged within the state. This list includes incline railroads, short lines, industrial-mineral carriers, horsecar lines, cable car lines, electric street and interurban railroads, main line carriers, etc. This book does not cover the 1,500 speculative or projected railroads that were the dream of some builder or real estate operator. To be included in this encyclopedia, a railroad had to be incorporated and have issued stock, although it may never have been built.
Every reasonable effort has been made to make this book as complete as possible. Although all information has been checked and double-checked against reliable sources, conflicting information is sure to crop up. The best information possible is presented here. Data for some railroads was found to be more detailed for some than for others, but for those with limited information that, unfortunately, was all that was found. In all probability, a reader may know of some obscure railroad that I have overlooked. It is my wish that if anyone finds some conflicting data, would he please let me know in care of the publisher. This has been a life-long effort on my part and, since I am not getting any younger, your early response would be appreciated. Needless to say, any added information or correction of a date will be incorporated in any future edition, making this history even more complete.
As you will see upon reading this book, it is bascially the culmination of 50 years of collecting and recording by this hobbyist so that he might answer the question initially raised at the Kiwanis Club over 40 years ago. "How many railroads has California had or do they have?"
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