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The Rock and Mr Ingram: An Insider's View.
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[quote user="futuremodal"][quote user="beaulieu"][quote user="Victrola1"] <p>What if the Rock had headed west from Santa Rosa, NM to the Los Angeles basin before WWI? Would it have ended up as the "Milwaukee Road of the Southwest" when hell to pay came due in the 1970's? </p><p>[/quote]</p><p>It would have been interesting if they had bought the two Phelps-Dodge copper roads, the El Paso & Southwestern, and the El Paso & Northeastern. This would have taken them from Santa Rosa, NM all the way west to Tucson, AZ. Within striking distance of Los Angeles.</p><p>[/quote]</p><p>What were the routes of the El Paso & Southwestern and the El Paso & Northeastern (e.g. if I was to trace the routes with a highway atlas)? As Phelps-Dodge owned roads, were they free of silent control of the SP and/or SF?</p><p>[/quote]</p><p>Nevermind. I found a few links regarding the El Paso & Southwestern and the El Paso & Northeastern.</p><p><a href="http://home.swbell.net/lwsumner/history.htm">http://home.swbell.net/lwsumner/history.htm</a> (El Paso & Southwestern)</p><p><a href="http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/EE/eqe6.html">http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/EE/eqe6.html</a> (El Paso & Northeastern)</p><p>I guess the El Paso & Northeastern is what eventually became the SSW from El Paso north-northeast to Santa Rosa and the Rock Island. This sale to the SP took place in the 1920's, so yes the road would have been available for purchase ( or overhead rights) by RI nee WWI.</p><p>The El Paso and Southwestern ran straight west from El Paso along the New Mexico/Mexico border, basically following the current paths of NM Highway 9 and US Highway 80 to Douglas Arizona and on to Tuscon. This railroad eventually became the "southline" of the SP, purchased for around $64 million in 1924, and was later abandoned when SP retrenched during the 1960's. (Hmmmmm, wouldn't UP like that line back for some directional running between Tuscon and El Paso right now!<span class="smiley">[sigh]. The EPSW even had gentler grades over the Continental Divide than did the SP!</span>)</p><p>What strikes me is how relatively cheaply the RI (or anyone else during that period) could have purchased around 600 miles of mainline to get within a stone's throw of LA or San Diego - at least compared to what it cost the Milwaukee to build the PCE!</p><p> </p>
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