Railroad History Quiz Game (Come on in and play)

[Railway Man]

     How about Western Pacific?

Now we're up to five:

SP

CP

WP

SPLA&SL

OWR&N

Still two more at least.

[Murphy Siding]

     Would the other two be Canadian?  Pacific Great Eastern(?)

[Railway Man]

Original question restricted to U.S. roads ...

[Murphy Siding]

Original question restricted to U.S. roads ...

  It even says that in the question....

[nanaimo73]

Murph, your fellow Midwesterners tried to grab B.C.-
From Wikipedia-
In Congress, Democratic expansionists from the Midwest, led by Senators Lewis Cass of Michigan, Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana, and William Allen of Ohio, called for war with the United Kingdom rather than accepting anything short of all of Oregon up to 54°40'N. (54°40' was then the southern boundary of the Russian claim to Alaska.) The slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" appeared by January 1846, driven in part by the Democratic press.

I'll guess the SP&S may have been built with mileposts starting in Portland. Was the 7th line outside of the 3 coastal States ?

[KCSfan]

The San Diego Arizona & Eastern though I wouldn't consider it to be a transcon. How about the Panama Railway, the only true transcon stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific? When it was built both the Canal Zone and the railroad belonged to the US.

Mark

[Railway Man]

The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal Zone from 1903 to 1979; the railway was completed in 1855.  While it is true that the Panama Railway connects one ocean to the other, the term "transcontinental railroad" in North American railroading designates a railroad or route connecting a Mississippi or Missouri River gateway with the Pacific Coast, or across Canada.  It's a very old term.

Dale, you came up with number 6 with the SP&S.  Now for number 7.  As a hint, think about each of the trancontinental railroads, list the major components that created them, and you'll discover another one of them that has two halves, separate ownership, different name, that met more or less in the middle, with one of those halves building west to east.  Another hint, that probably won't be helpful, is that this line lost its west-to-east mileposts a long time ago.

RWM

[Murphy Siding]

     D&RGW?

[al-in-chgo]

The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal Zone from 1903 to 1979; the railway was completed in 1855.  While it is true that the Panama Railway connects one ocean to the other, the term "transcontinental railroad" in North American railroading designates a railroad or route connecting a Mississippi or Missouri River gateway with the Pacific Coast, or across Canada.  It's a very old term.

Dale, you came up with number 6 with the SP&S.  Now for number 7.  As a hint, think about each of the trancontinental railroads, list the major components that created them, and you'll discover another one of them that has two halves, separate ownership, different name, that met more or less in the middle, with one of those halves building west to east.  Another hint, that probably won't be helpful, is that this line lost its west-to-east mileposts a long time ago.

RWM

(Above emphasis mine) 

               Ummm, how about Canadian National???  It was certainly a melange of disparate routes that didn't come together as a "Crown Corporation" (gov't-owned) until WWI. 

 

[Murphy Siding]

The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal Zone from 1903 to 1979; the railway was completed in 1855.  While it is true that the Panama Railway connects one ocean to the other, the term "transcontinental railroad" in North American railroading designates a railroad or route connecting a Mississippi or Missouri River gateway with the Pacific Coast, or across Canada.  It's a very old term.

Dale, you came up with number 6 with the SP&S.  Now for number 7.  As a hint, think about each of the trancontinental railroads, list the major components that created them, and you'll discover another one of them that has two halves, separate ownership, different name, that met more or less in the middle, with one of those halves building west to east.  Another hint, that probably won't be helpful, is that this line lost its west-to-east mileposts a long time ago.

RWM

(Above emphasis mine) 

               Ummm, how about Canadian National???  It was certainly a melange of disparate routes that didn't come together as a "Crown Corporation" (gov't-owned) until WWI. 

 

See note about 6 posts above, at 4:59.

[Zwingle]

The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal Zone from 1903 to 1979; the railway was completed in 1855.  While it is true that the Panama Railway connects one ocean to the other, the term "transcontinental railroad" in North American railroading designates a railroad or route connecting a Mississippi or Missouri River gateway with the Pacific Coast, or across Canada.  It's a very old term.

Dale, you came up with number 6 with the SP&S.  Now for number 7.  As a hint, think about each of the trancontinental railroads, list the major components that created them, and you'll discover another one of them that has two halves, separate ownership, different name, that met more or less in the middle, with one of those halves building west to east.  Another hint, that probably won't be helpful, is that this line lost its west-to-east mileposts a long time ago.

RWM

(Above emphasis mine) 

               Ummm, how about Canadian National???  It was certainly a melange of disparate routes that didn't come together as a "Crown Corporation" (gov't-owned) until WWI. 

 

See note about 6 posts above, at 4:59.

 

Murphy-  al refuses to do any research, so you really can't expect much.    Go easy on him.  

One minor correction above:  The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal Zone until December 31, 1999.  President Carter signed the order in 1979.  I remember this well.  It wasn't exactly a jewel in Carter's crown, since he succumbed to Panamanian extortion.

[Railway Man]

     D&RGW?

You're now in the vicinity.

[Murphy Siding]

     D&RGW?

You're now in the vicinity.

Rio Grande & Western?  I'm thinking of the line that built east from Salt Lake City, and was merged by Rio Grande.

[Railway Man]

Aha! Close enough.

The railroad was actually the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway (1881-1889), reorganized as the Rio Grande Western Railway (1889-1908), and merged with the Denver & Rio Grande Railway to form the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company (Consolidated) in 1908. The last spike was driven on March 30, 1883, at a location called Desert Switch, Utah.

At some later date the Utah lines were remileposted to become consecutive westward from Denver to Ogden, Utah.

RWM

[Murphy Siding]

Murphy-  al refuses to do any research, so you really can't expect much.    Go easy on him.  

  I'll give Al the benefit of the doubt, as he seems to be a nice guy.  And, because I did the exact same thing-see my post above at 5:01.

[Murphy Siding]

     Who's up?  Dale?

[nanaimo73]

I don't have a question. Anyone else ?

[Murphy Siding]

     What railroad came the closest to becoming a true transcontinental railroad?  I'm looking for the railroad that had the most route miles extending between the Atlantic and Pacific ocean,on a trancontinental basis. (Clue: It could be an eastern or western railroad, as long as it was part of a transcontinental route.) To clarify, this is a North American railroad, so the one in Panama doesn't count.

note to Dale:  Hold back a bit.

[nanaimo73]

Just one note, since this is a "Railroad History Quiz Game", I'm guessing your question applies before a certain year. Could you add something like before 1980, or 1990, for example ?

[Murphy Siding]

Just one note, since this is a "Railroad History Quiz Game", I'm guessing your question applies before a certain year. Could you add something like before 1980, or 1990, for example ?

Hmmm....I'm not sure I understand your question, but let's say pre 1995, before the BN/SF merger, although I'm not sure that would neccesarily change the answer.

[al-in-chgo]

     What railroad came the closest to becoming a true transcontinental railroad?  I'm looking for the railroad that had the most route miles extending between the Atlantic and Pacific ocean,on a trancontinental basis. (Clue: It could be an eastern or western railroad, as long as it was part of a transcontinental route.) To clarify, this is a North American railroad, so the one in Panama doesn't count.

note to Dale:  Hold back a bit.

 

Easy:  Taggart Transcontinental.  (Whoops!  Just    kidding.)  Since you excluded Central America but didn't restrict "North America" to just the USA, I'll venture out again and guess Canadian National.  IIRC it wasn't built to be a transcontinental road but was cobbled together by the Canadian gov't from eastern and western segments, and some regionals.  Also consider that Halifax to Vancouver is a lot more distance than NYC to LA or San Francisco.

Today's CP does not have any lines east of Montreal; it still calls itself a transcon. because Montreal is a port.  But it was deliberately created by private enterprise to be a transcon.  I can't recall if it once had routes to Halifax or St. Johns, but I remember CP used to run a passenger train thru the empty northern third of Maine, enroute from some Maritime origin to, I believe, Montreal.  But that's a long time ago.  

  

[Murphy Siding]

     Al-you're too quick for us tonight!  I figured Dale would get the answer in a flash, but hoped I could confound a few others.  I chuckle every time someone writes that BNSF or UP merging with CSX or NS could give us a *true continental* railroad, but they always overlook CN.  Well dine Al.

[al-in-chgo]

     Al-you're too quick for us tonight!  I figured Dale would get the answer in a flash, but hoped I could confound a few others.  I chuckle every time someone writes that BNSF or UP merging with CSX or NS could give us a *true continental* railroad, but they always overlook CN.  Well dine Al.

 

Thanks for the compliment!  I do recall, though, that "someone" told Dale to hold off .  I'm really stuck for a North American question, so I'll ask the following.  It's something people will either know or not. 

In Sweden, what did (perhaps still do) the initials "SJ" stand for? 

Hint:  It has nothing to do with Jesuitry.   

[Murphy Siding]

     Many times, the names of foreign companies usually mean something unremarkable.  I'll guess that SJ translates to something as simple as Swedish Railways.

[al-in-chgo]

     Many times, the names of foreign companies usually mean something unremarkable.  I'll guess that SJ translates to something as simple as Swedish Railways.

 

Ja!  Ja!  Ja! 

SJ = Svenska Jarnvagar  (with an umlaut over the middle "a"). 

(Swedish Railways; the "State" is implied) 

Your turn, now.   - a. s.

[Murphy Siding]

     The first rail line abandoned in Iowa was only a bout 12 miles long.  What was unique about this line, compared to the competition?  ( I'm searching for the name of the road.  I *think* it may have been Farmers Union Railroad(?) )

[J. Daddy]

was it a narrow gauge line, while the rest were standard gauge

[Krazykat112079]

     The first rail line abandoned in Iowa was only a bout 12 miles long.  What was unique about this line, compared to the competition?  ( I'm searching for the name of the road.  I *think* it may have been Farmers Union Railroad(?) )

Farmers Union Railroad was literally dirt poor...wooden rails placed directly on dirt...created and abandoned the same year, iirc

[Murphy Siding]

was it a narrow gauge line, while the rest were standard gauge

That is the answer i was looking for !

     What krazykat says is true as well.  The grand scheme, apparantly, was to build a narrow gauge line from Chicago to Council Bluffs.

[CShaveRR]

was it a narrow gauge line, while the rest were standard gauge

That is the answer i was looking for !

     What krazykat says is true as well.  The grand scheme, apparantly, was to build a narrow gauge line from Chicago to Council Bluffs.

With wooden rails laid on the dirt?  What were they going to do when they got to the Mississippi River?