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Trains Album of Photographs #2 Far Western Railroads Spiral Bound 1943 21 single
Trains Album of Photographs #2 Far Western Railroads Spiral Bound
Copyright 1943
20 single side pages of photos. Measures approx. 10 X 14 inches.
Pacific Coast ralroading variesfrom narrow gague to stirring actionin Cajon and other places.
THE PACIFIC STATES are an empire, a vast region of mountains, almost-unconquerable passes, broad fertile valleys, and rushing rivers, as large as the original 13 states of the Union. The distances are startling to the man from the crowded East or the agrarian Midwest. San Francisco and Los Angeles, neighbor cities, are 470 miles apart. From San Francisco to Portland, in the next state north, is more of a ride than from New York to Jacksonville, Florida.
Yes, the West is indeed built upon a gigantic scale, a scale as large as its own towering redwoods. And its railroads are built on the same scale. No concentrated traffic, four tracks, a train every five minutes, but thousands of miles of steel flung across impossible mountain stretches, huge articulated locomotives three and four to a train, Pullman cars a couple of dozen to a train running for hours, for half days, without any but water stops. This is the land of single track, but single track used intensively and efficiently, sometimes carrying more traffic than most double track.
Southern Pacific, sprawled across all the Pacific states except Washington, is the country's largest railroad in point of mileage. Its Shasta, Coast and San Joaquin Valley lines are coastwise trade arteries; its Sunset and Overland routes reach east across the mountains and deserts to Ogden and to New Orleans. The way-freights pick up cotton and raisins in the San Joaquin Valley, oranges and airplanes in the Los Angeles area, lumber and apples in the Cascades.
Once the Southern Pacific had this rich and promising land to itself. But into this territory came the Sante Fe, thrusting northwestward to San Francisco, southwestward across Cajon Pass to Los Angeles and San Diego. Behind the groaning Diesels and the box-car-huge tenders of the steam locomotives, Santa Fe fruit blocks roll east and trains of Eastern automobiles, machinery, and other manufactures come west.
Also over Cajon Pass comes the Union Pacific, once one with Southern Pacific but now a separate although friendly railroad entering Southern California on the short leg of the triangle from Salt Lake City. And competitive with the original transcontinental SP's Overland Route, is the new Western
Pacific, built in 1909 as the western leg of the then Gould system, Missouri Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande Western.
To the north in Washington are other of the great transcontinentals [ the word is common railroad terminology even though the roads reach but from the West Coast to Chicago], the Union Pacific again, and the three northern routes, Great Northern, Milwaukee, and Northern Pacific.
Pictures can hardly give an impression of the vastness of the West, but the photos in this album do show something of the glory of railroad operation on such a gigantic scale. The format of the book is especially designed to display the pictures to best advantage, as well as to allow easy removal. Special paper and ink combine to give a glossy finish.
It is the photographers who have really made this work possible, and we extend sincere appreciation to them.
All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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