Santa Fe. (ATSF)

[J. Edgar]

here is a quicky from a book titled the Story of American Railroads published in 1948

 

 Cyrus Kurtz Holliday formed the town of Topeka and thru lobbying got it proclaimed territorial capitol....he went on to plan and charter a RR along the Santa Fe trail in 1859 and named it the Atchison and Topeka RR...he received a 3,000,000 acre land grant and started building toward the Colorado boarder a drought in 1879\80 almost wrecked the RR Thomas Nickerson a banker from Boston stepped in and took over.....he hired one of the great RR men of the 1800's....a man named William Barstow Strong ( yes Barstow ca is named after him)...the RR was reorganized in 1881 as the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe with Barstow as general Manager...it was he who drove the rails thru DRGW territory and "generaled" the troops thru the Raton Pass war....he also formed the New Mexio & Southern Pacific RR to build ATSF lines into New Mexico and into California as a law in that State (by the instagation of the SP) forbade outside lines from building there...side note...in 1881 the ATSF bought controlling interest in the then new St.Louis and San Fransico RR hoping to use that lines charter to get to CA....but Jay Gould and C.P. Huntington stopped them by secretly buying up most of the preferred stock....the Cotton Belt has been in the Espee family ever since

in 10 years the ATSF under Strong went from just over 2000 miles to 7000

 next came 4 to 5 years of mismanagement and corruption that agian almost wrecked the company.....along came Edward R. Ripley who for 24 years ran the ATSF like one inspired and under his direction the road became a 11,000 mile powerhouse .....his biggest contribrution was in his policy of promotion thru the ranks....a lifelong railroader tended to be a better manager to that road....he also introduced a pension and insurance system for all employees.....the ATSF owes its success to a employee morale that was unmatched by most lines of the time.....

  and lets not forget Fred Harvey....more later if ya want

[Awesome!]

How did the ATSF "Santa Fe" get it's name? And how did it come about to become a Great Railroad? Allan.

Check this website link and it may give you some true answers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchison,_Topeka_and_Santa_Fe_Railway

 

 

[arkansasrailfan]

A little odd thing for me was I had seen BNSF engines, I took pictures of them when I was 5, but did not know ATSF and BN became BNSF.

[SFbrkmn]

When the rr was building in KS in the 1800's, Atchinson was to have been made a heavy rail center for the midwest. The city fathers were behind in their game plan and that major rail hub became Kansas City. What could have been.                                                                  --Actually the BN-SF merger announcement in 1994 was not that big a surprise. At the time I worked for Cargill, we shipped flour on both BN & ATSF. As early as 1991, the BN agent @ Wichita stated that to us that by the end of the decade, both rrs would be combined into one. The ATSF freight reps  were stating the samething only it was gonna be a SF takeover of the BN. In a way that is correct, BN did buy SF out but, in the start of the new company, it was SF folks in charge.

[yippinyahoo]

Did you do a Google before posting this? I am sure out there on the wb is your answer why the ATSF chose those 3 cities for there corporate name.

 

Dude, all the replies above become someone else's Google results, and therefore contribute to the base of knowledge available to other inquiring minds.  There's nothing wrong with asking a bunch of railfans a railroad question.  Google might yield some great facts, but a forum adds the conversational, anecdotal touch

Nothing personal, spbed.  It may just be me, but I don't like being referred to Google for my questions

I love to read some of the yarns & rabbit trails other posters take us down.  For example, I would never guess Santa Fe's mgt did a 360 on their Ctr policy until you mentioned it

 

[gatrhumpy]

Were the plows on the Santa Fe GP-60's plainted black or the ATSF Blue?

[spbed]

I was not talking about TOFC I was talking of steamship line container only. In the 70s the ATSF did not look to favorably on that type traffic whereas today they the BNSF is a huge container carrier of steamship line container traffic. [:o)]

Originally posted by MP173
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Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR  Austin TX Sub

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