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Encyclopedia Of Western Railroad History Volume 2 Mountain States Dust Jacket
Encyclopedia Of Western Railroad History The Mountain States By Donald Robertson Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
COpyright 1991
418 pages Indexed
Contents
Preface xii
Part 1: The Development of the West
Western North America 1832 1845 (map)2
Formation of the western United States 1845 1854 (map) 3
The pre-Civil War era 1854 1861 (map) 4
The Civil War era 1861 1865 (map) 5
Pre-railroad western history 6-8
Military forts of Territory/State of Wyoming and Colorado (map) 9
Military forts of Territory/State of Idaho and Montana (map) 10
Establishment of counties and post offices in the mountain states 11-17
Post offices in the eleven western states 1860 1900 18
Compendium of the eighth to fourteenth censuses 19-21
Railroad construction by year and company 1864 1880 21-22
Operations in the mountain states 1880 1890 23
Mileage in the eleven western states 1855 1919 24
Maps of the eight Rocky Mountain states showing railroads 1870 1895 25-30
Western railroads in 1909 31-34
Construction and abandonments authorized 1921 1963 35-36
Part II The Railway Age
Mileage constructed 1830 1920 37
Introduction of the world-wide railroad era 38
Chronology of the development of railroad equipment 39
Notes on track, gauges and equipment40
The major locomotive builders 41
Locomotive production by major builders 1833 1890 42
The Whyte wheel classification system 43-44
Chronology of major events in the world, United States and the West 1840 1940 45
Part III:COLORADO
Introduction49
Index50-52
Railroad maps of the Territory/State of Colorado53-61
Road map of Colorado, 188062
Graph Miles of railroad track and population in the Territory/State of Colorado 63
1869 - 1920
The railroads64-168
Railroad changes from Official Guide Extensions, new openings, name changes of171-175
roads, stations, etc.
Colorado Railroad Commissioner's report, 1885176
Map detail: Cripple Creek mining district177
Chronology of major eVents, 1541 - 1958178
Articles of Association filed with the Secretary of State179
Major abandonments authorized by Interstate Commerce Commission181
Part IV:IDAHO
Introduction183
Index184-185
Railroad maps of the Territory/State of Idaho187-196
Road map of Idaho, 1880197
Graph Miles of railroad track and population in the Territory/State of Idaho 199
1878 - 1920
The railroads200-244
The major Idaho loggers246-247
Railroad changes from Official Guide Extensions, new openings, name changes of248-250
roads, stations, etc.
Chronology of major events, 1803 - 1909251
Major abandonments authorized by Interstate Commerce Commission253
Part V:MONTANA
Introduction255
Index256-257
Railroad maps of the Territory/State of Montana258-273
Road map of Montana, 1880274-275
Graph Miles of railroad track and population in the Territory/State of Montana 276
1880 - 1920
The railroads277-346
The major Montana loggers347
Railroad changes from Official Guide Extensions, new openings, name changes of348-350
roads, stations, etc.
Map detail: All-time map of west-central Montana351
Chronology of major events, 1743 - 1980352
Major abandonments authorized by Interstate Commerce Commission353
Part VI WYOMING
Introduction
355
Index356
Railroad maps of the Territory/State of Wyoming357-364
Road map of Wyoming, 1880365
Graph Miles of railroad track and population in the Territory/State of Wyoming
1867 - 1920366
The railroads367-408
Railroad changes from Official Guide Extensions, new openings, name changes of409-410
roads, stations, etc.
Chronology of major events,411
Major abandonments authorized by Interstate Commerce Commission411
This book catalogs virtually every steam railroad that owned or operated ten miles or more of track as a common carrier in Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Many minor operations, including diesel and electric railroads, have been included, such as logging and mining companies, but in much less detail.
The emphasis of this work is on the beginnings of railroads. It rarely contains later changes and betterments. It can serve as a "place of beginnings" for students of western railroad history, now and in the future.
This is not a locomotive picture book and will not reveal that in 1903 road number seven received new flues, increased boiler pressure and larger drivers. That information gets into the range of operations and economies and was not part of the original history of construction.
What you will find is a distillation of tens of thousands of printed pages from such sources as Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States and Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports. Additional major sources of information and data are found at the beginning of each state section and each company page.
Every attempt has been made to verify names, spellings, dates and places from several sources. Poor's Manual was my final court of law for much early data. It was like today's newspaper, cut, indexed and bound into a book each year and hence not subject to someone's memory or recall. A few (very few) errors were found in Valuation Reports; some of them were printed 75 or 100 years after the event, hence not current news as in the case of Poor's reports. Numerous old newspapers have been read to determine construction details and opening dates not found to have been recorded in standard reference works.
Beginning in 1888, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) published Statistics of Railways in the United States, and this series was checked each year by each company to record mileage alterations, change of name, new owners, leases, mergers and abandonments. The phrase, "First listed in ICC for," is found in most of my company entries and refers to this publication.
Maps of each territory or state begin with the year in which a few miles of track had been built. They advance by five year periods except when unusual activity was evident, and skip ahead during a lull. The last year is 1915; from that date forward there was little construction or short line railroad activity except for consolidations into the present majors.
Extensive use was made of United States Geological Survey maps from the 1880's to about 1960.
The author especially wishes to acknowledge the importance to him of the extensive collections of railroad information available in the Hopkins Transportation Library at Leland Stanford Junior University of which he has made active use since 1970.
Why the railroad was ever developed in the first place is partially explained by conditions that surrounded the founding of The San Francisco & San Jose Railroad Company in Civil War days.
Roads between the two cities were not improved and there were no funds found available for the purpose. A stage coach service was started in 1850, but the trail was so poor that it gave up with the coming of the winter rains. When it did complete the journey, It took nine hours and the fare was 830 - a great deal of money then. Boating on San Francisco Bay could be overly exciting. Travelers with their own rigs often wandered in the fog and darkness and had to await for daylight to determine directions. By rail in 1864, the trip was a reasonably comfortable three and one half hours for the fifty miles and the fare was less than three dollars.
In the fairly flat and populated eastern states (and even to the Mississippi River area), the coming of the railroad meant yet another method of transportation. This was but a faster addition to their roads, canals, rivers and the ocean. In the deserts and mountains of the western territories none of these existed in a satisfactory manner. The rails did truly change a western wilderness into the populated areas of today. When there was no rail, there were very few people. The railroads were built and the population followed.
To make construction possible in the wild, high and unpopulated West, the Federal Government granted over 130 million acres for the railroad's building fund. About 90% of that land was west of the Mississippi. Nearly 12% of California and 15% of Montana Territory was owned by railroads. Southern Pacific Company is the largest private land holder in California. On the average this previously worthless granted land was sold for a bit over three dollars per acre, higher in the central states, very low in the desert. And in return, until 1946, the Government received rail services at 50% of the current rate for the movement of freight, mail and troops.
Before examining the locomotive roster lists, it should be noted that this data was taken almost exclusively from builder lists complied by The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc. The construction date may vary from other books; in most cases, driver diameter will be different. There was much rebuilding.
Builder lists today are in most cases nearly complete. There are, unfortunately, large gaps in Danforth-Cooke, Grant, Hinkley and Norris construction numbers, the originals having been lost with the passage of time.
In some cases town spellings do not agree with today's version. The information in this book was generally taken from reference sources of that era and what may appear to be vetting errors, hopefully, are not. Examples are Lovelocks, Nevada, and Las Cruzces (1854) and Las Cruces (1860), New Mexico Territory. McDermit, Nevada, is yet another.
Following this introduction will be found several sections which have no direct relationship to the history of a particular railroad company or even railroads in general. They are included as a matter of general interest and information, and will give a background and data on the development of the West and the beginning of the railroad era. This ancillary information includes development of railroad equipment, locomotive builders, census figures by town and territory, post office openings for selected early periods in the West.
Notes and comments about "Travelers' Official Guide" and "Official Guide of the Railways."
The construction details, changes of name, etc., found in the back of each state section resulted from the use of 619 volumes of this publication from June, 1868, to December, 1919. Bound editions were found from January, 1874, to December, 1900, and 142 more between 1901 and 1919 for a total of 466. That left 153 which were on film in the New York (City) Public Library.
It should be understood that this excellent reference was not intended to be a permanent record, but to be used until next month when there would be a new copy. As a result, the bindings and paper were not the finest. When filmed, as many as ninety years had passed, and many showed the results of time and usage.
Between 1868 and 1870, virtually every timetable was dated; between 1871 and 1873 virtually none was. A great many of the covers (with the date) were missing, as were pages, indexes and page numbers. With this background in mind it will be understood that some of the "first published timetable" notations between 1868 and 1873 may not, in fact, be true. The compiler can not be sure that all editions were photographed and/or in proper date sequence.
It should be noted, further, that the term "first published timetable" refers to "Official Guide" only unless otherwise credited. Thus a railroad that was opened in 1862 would have a "first published timetable", by this definition, in the June, 1868, edition. In all cases, regardless of date, longer lines timetables will be truncated.
A list of towns with railroad stations first appeared in the December, 1871, edition; in December, 1872, construction news was added as a continuing feature.
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