Some railroads, especially the early ones, seemed to enjoy having long names. Before my time, but one of my favorites that I encountered while studying railroad history is The Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Rail Road Company, incorporated in 1858, which became a part of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. Do you have any favorite long-winded railroad names?
There was a picture of the station name board of a Welch RR location which if recollection is correct used the alphabet twice...or almost.
Certainly, seems to me, you've got very high qualifier, that will answer your ?.
Another RR with six descriptive words was the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie RR, which became the basis of the Soo Line.
Looking thru a 1970 Official Guide, I see there was a line called Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal Railroad of New Orleans.
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis (Big Four/NYC)
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis (Panhandle/PRR)
And my favorite was the short lived name for the owner of the bridge from Louisville KY to New Albany IN
Kentucky & Indiana Bridge & Railroad & Terminal Company
Skimming through an early OG the longest name I could find was Morgan's Louisiana & Texas Railroad and Steam Ship Co. Its 250 mile mainline ran from the Sabine River at the LA-TX state line to Algiers just across the Mississippi from New Orleans and later became part of the SP's (T&NO) Sunset Route.
Mark
UP's Oregon and Washington Railway and Navigation Company is close.
"Minneapolis, St.Paul, Rochester and Dubuque Electric Traction Company". It was more commonly known as the "Dan Patch Electric Lines", it's owner, Col.Marion Savage, also owned the famous trotter.
http://www.scripophily.com/webcart/vigs/minneapoliselectictractionvig.jpg
They never actually strung up the overhead wire, but used "oil-electric' engines starting about 1908...sometimes credited as being the first 'diesel' locomotives used in freight service.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=392698
After Savage died, it was reorganized in 1918 as the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Ry.
How about the Paterson and Little Falls Consolidated Railway Company? It was a trolley line in NJ that became part of the extensive Public Service network.
For a line with a name almost as long as it was there's the Claremont Railway Light and Power Company. Its successors, the Claremont Railway and the Claremont and Concord Railway operated electrically until 1955, over the former electric trackage until 1986. Bits of rail can still be found next to NH route 12.
I'll add Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad and it was shown that way on the letterboards of both the Insull and NICTD MU cars.
Where does Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific fit in?
Between Cincinnati and Chattanooga. At least, it got out of Cincinnati.
There was the Charleston Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad, which came no closer to Charleston than 106 miles (at Kingville), and reached Marion, N.C.--and no farther. (I grew up on it, at SC66.) The Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad in Tennessee ran 20 miles south from Johnson City, and ended up in the Carolina Clinchfield and Ohio.
The Carolina Cumberland Gap and Chicago did not quite make it out of South Carolina, running 24 miles from Edgefield to Aiken. I wonder if it is the road that started a tunnel west of Walhalla, and, at least in the fifties and early sixties, the tunnel was used by Clemson University for growing mushrooms.
Johnny
I kind of like "Pemberton & Hightstown Railroad (Union Transportation Company, Lessees.)" as listed on their June 26th 1910 public timetable. Guess that's why they called it the UT. In 1915 they became the "Pennsylvania & Atlantic Railroad, South of Hightstown, N.J. to Pemberton, N.J. inclusive, Union Transportation Co., Lessee." Try putting that on your tender!
Down home:
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company of Texas.
St.Louis-San Francisco & Texas Railway Company.
Until 1960 all railroads operating within the Great State of Texas were required by the Texas constitution to maintain HQ in the State!
Item: M-K-T RR Co. of Texas was not a paper railroad. Rolling stock carried MKTT reporting marks!
In God's Country:
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company.
Re MN&S (Dan Patch Line). John Luecke has released his new book: Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern-From Dan Patch to Dragons. Visit www.comoshops.com for a look.
Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend.
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rfpjohn I kind of like "Pemberton & Hightstown Railroad (Union Transportation Company, Lessees.)" as listed on their June 26th 1910 public timetable. Guess that's why they called it the UT. In 1915 they became the "Pennsylvania & Atlantic Railroad, South of Hightstown, N.J. to Pemberton, N.J. inclusive, Union Transportation Co., Lessee." Try putting that on your tender!
henry6 Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend.
There are no commas in Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad or in Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad.
I almost forgot this Texas short line, how silly of me:
Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine Railway.
The WELSH railway station name can be seen on this wiki link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
Yes, I can pronounce it, I learned how to pronounce the name in 1953.. .
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Qu'Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan Railroad and Steamboat Company
The original route between Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan's 3 largest cities.
Construction started in 1885, complete with a land grant, it was leased to the CPR in 1889, and sold to the Canadian Northern (CN predecessor) in 1906. The steamboats ran for a time on Last Mountain Lake.
You could tell this was a big time operation when its' depot in Regina was a single storey home reoriented on its' lot to parallel the track instead of the street. The front porch was the platform, the living room was the waiting room.. This would have been couple of blocks from where my grandparents lived much later. I see photos of this depot and I can picture exactly what is going on. CN eventually agreed to use the CPR station as a Union Station since the interchange track had been there from the beginning.
The line still exists, although CN sold the southern half of the Regina-Saskatoon portion to a shortline, The Last Mountain Railway.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
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