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
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
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 ?
Railway Man wrote:Original question restricted to U.S. roads ...
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding wrote: How about Western Pacific?
Now we're up to five:
SP
CP
WP
SPLA&SL
OWR&N
Still two more at least.
My bad.
Could the Cotton Belt be considered part of a transcon? The SP did, so yes, I guess it could count. Which way was it mileposted historically?
nanaimo73 wrote: Now this is an interesting question.SP's Sunset Route, and the Central Pacific should be two of them. Would the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad be two more ?St. Louis Southwestern ?
Now this is an interesting question.
SP's Sunset Route, and the Central Pacific should be two of them.
Would the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad be two more ?
St. Louis Southwestern ?
The first four are part of this group (technically it would be San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake when it built, but that's not important here). Frisco? I don't think so - I've not heard of it being considered a transcontinental or part of a transcontinental route though it might have been had it held onto the Atlantic & Pacific, and in any case I can't think of any significant part of its route that built west to east other than maybe Springfield-Memphis, which seems a stretch to consider as a transcontinental, historically.
Here's a new one:
Name the U.S. transcontinental railroads or major components of ultimate transcontinental routes whose mileposts "ran backward," i.e., west to east, at least when constructed. I know of seven but since the definition is somewhat blurry there might be one or two more.
First spike, Thomsons Junction, Minnesota, February 15, 1870.
Last spike, Gold Creek, Montana, Setember 8, 1883 (construction crews actually met on August 23).
Same spike used for both ceremonies. Some sources say steel, some say iron, but definitely not gold.
pdf of NY Times article for that day about the ceremony:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C04E1D8133BE033A25750C2A96F9C94629FD7CF&oref=slogin
nanaimo73 wrote: Murphy Siding wrote: J. Daddy wrote: Cool! I have an easy one: "Name the location of the last spike driven on the 3rd transcontinental Railroad, and where was the golden spike actually driven for this Railroad?" ? Wasn't UP first, NP second, and GN third?I believe SP is usually called 2nd, referring to the Sunset Route.
Murphy Siding wrote: J. Daddy wrote: Cool! I have an easy one: "Name the location of the last spike driven on the 3rd transcontinental Railroad, and where was the golden spike actually driven for this Railroad?" ? Wasn't UP first, NP second, and GN third?
J. Daddy wrote: Cool! I have an easy one: "Name the location of the last spike driven on the 3rd transcontinental Railroad, and where was the golden spike actually driven for this Railroad?"
Cool! I have an easy one: "Name the location of the last spike driven on the 3rd transcontinental Railroad, and where was the golden spike actually driven for this Railroad?"
I believe SP is usually called 2nd, referring to the Sunset Route.
J. Daddy wrote:now your getting warm!
Did the NP start with a Gold Spike ?
I think they started somewhere between the Twin Ports and the Twin Cities.
Hinckley ?
J. Daddy wrote: LOL... no the location.... was in ........ ?
LOL... no the location.... was in ........ ?
I posted that, Gold Creek MT.
rrnut282 wrote:Well 1829 is earlier than the historical marker I was using that said, "The first railroad operated west of the Alleghenies, the Erie and Kalamazoo, was chartered on April 22, 1833 to connect Port Lawrence (later named Toledo) with the Kalamazoo River via Adrian. A horse-drawn car made the first trip from Toledo to Adrian on November 2, 1836, running on strap iron strips spiked to oak rails. "So, if there was a train in 'bama in 1829, I'll have to give it to you.
Well 1829 is earlier than the historical marker I was using that said, "The first railroad operated west of the Alleghenies, the Erie and Kalamazoo, was chartered on April 22, 1833 to connect Port Lawrence (later named Toledo) with the Kalamazoo River via Adrian. A horse-drawn car made the first trip from Toledo to Adrian on November 2, 1836, running on strap iron strips spiked to oak rails. "
So, if there was a train in 'bama in 1829, I'll have to give it to you.
rrnut282 wrote: Well 1829 is earlier than the historical marker I was using that said, "The first railroad operated west of the Alleghenies, the Erie and Kalamazoo, was chartered on April 22, 1833 to connect Port Lawrence (later named Toledo) with the Kalamazoo River via Adrian. A horse-drawn car made the first trip from Toledo to Adrian on November 2, 1836, running on strap iron strips spiked to oak rails. "So, if there was a train in 'bama in 1829, I'll have to give it to you.
By 1836, they were running Metroliners in NJ, weren't they?
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
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