Southern Pacific Lines

Coast Line Division 

“The Route of the Octopus”

 
 

General Information

Interchanges

  1. The list of SP interchanges is very long, and not always easy to determine which were the "main" ones. But for a list of any particular era, see the SP entry in the ORER.


Interchange Locations

  1. The "friendly" connections included NP at Portland and IC at New Orleans, and to some extent Rock Island at Tucumcari, but to expand such a list might require considerable "inside" knowledge. "Hostile" or "Less Than Friendly" ones would include WP and Santa Fe anywhere, and to a lesser extent GN because of WP and ATSF.

  2. Tony Thompson


  4. Don't overlook the SSW's interchanges in Memphis and East St Louis.


  6. The T&NO Interchanged with the L&N;IC;GM&O and Southern in New Orleans. In El Paso,they not only connected with the T&P;ATSF and SP's Western Lines,they also interchanged with the NdeM in Juarez. The T&NO also interchanged with the NdeM in Brownsville/Matamoros and Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras. The SSW interchanged with the NYC;PRR;B&O;L&N;Southern;IC;GM&O and C&EI in Saint Louis as well as with the SLSF;RI;MKT and CB&Q. Plus in Alpine and Marfa, the T&NO interchanged with the P&SF to Presidio.


  8. The SP, had no other legal compulsions beyond the UP one. for political, legal, competitive, etc. reasons.


Foreign Cars  (Steam Era)

  1. Noted below are the following foreign cars on the SP during the late steam period. Except as noted, all were box cars.


  3. ATSF reefer at approach to Oakland's 16th Street Terminal            Pennsylvania Railroad at Dunsmuir (northern Calif.)

  4. ATSF reefers (four) at Altamont (central Calif.)                               Pennsylvania Railroad at Altamont (central Calif.)

  5. Atlantic Coast Line at San Francisco                                                Pennsylvania Railroad at Stockton (central Calif.)

  6.                                                                                                         Pennsylvania Railroad on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)


  8. Baltimore & Ohio (twice) on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)            SP&S near Redding (northern Calif.)

  9. Burlington on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)                                   SP&S at Sacramento

  10. Burlington at Palisades (central Nevada)                                          Seaboard at Roseville

  11.                                                                                                         Southern Railway at Pixley (central Calif.)

  12. Canadian National at Denis (southern Calif.)                                  Southern Railway at San Francisco

  13. Central of New Jersey at Stockton (central Calif.)                            Southern Railway on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)

  14. Central of New Jersey at Martinez (central Calif.)                            Soo Line on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)

  15. Chicago & Illinois Midland at Moorpark on the Coast Line            St. Louis & San Francisco at Roseville

  16. Chicago and Northwestern at Roseville                                            St. Louis & San Francisco on Modoc Line (no. Calif.)


  18. D&RGW at Tehachapi (southern Calif.)                                        Reading at San Francisco

  19. D&RGW at Honda on Coast Line                                                 Reading at Colfax (central Calif.)

  20. D&RGW at Crockett (central California)

  21.                                                                                                         Union Pacific bulkhead flat at Fresno (central Calif.)

  22. Grand Trunk Western on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)                 Union Pacific stock cars (two) at Roseville

  23. Grand Trunk Western at Truckee (central Calif.)                            Union Pacific stock car at Martinez (central Calif.)

  24. Grand Trunk at Sacramento                                                            Union Pacific at Troy (central Calif.)

  25. Great Northern at Sacramento                                                         Union Pacific covered hopper at Troy

  26. Great Northern at Modesto (central Calif.)                                      Union Pacific at Rose Creek (central Nevada)

  27. Great Northern at Crockett (central Calif.)                                      Union Pacific at Sutcliffe (central Nevada)


  29. Milwaukee Road refrigerator car at Oakland's 16th Street Terminal

  30. Milwaukee Road (two) on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)                Wabash at Tiburon (central Calif.)


  32. New York Central on the Modoc Line (northern Calif.)

  33. New York Central at Niles (central California)

  34. New York Central at Martinez (central Calif.)

  35. New York Central in western Nevada

  36. New York Central at Ogden

  37. Nickel Plate at Coalco (southern Oregon)

  38. Norfolk & Western at Eugene

  39. Norfolk & Western at Fresno

  40. Norfolk & Western at Troy (southern Calif.)

  41. Northern Pacific near Redding (northern Calif.)

  42. Northern Pacific at Tehachapi (southern Calif.)

  43. Northern Pacific at Roseville

  44. Northern Pacific on Modoc Line (northern Calif.)

  45. Northern Pacific on Mina Branch (central Nevada)


  47. The above info has a lot of shortcomings. It is based on a small number of photo "vignettes" rather than comprehensive train consist listings or other more definitive sources. It seems 90% of the foreign railroad cars were boxcars, but one would have expected to see some gondolas and flat cars. Also, a supermajority of the cars (seemed to be over 80%) were SP's. I had expected something significantly lower (50 to 60%). The roster (intended for a central California location) appears to have too many foreign and non-box cars!

  48. Mark Pierce


  50. What is interesting about your list is that roughly half of the cars (GN, NP, etc.) interchanged directly between the SP and adjacent foreign road and the other half (roughly) were interchanged via an intermediate carrier, ie the NYC, Pennsy, etc. cars.

Modeling Proportions

  1. From a modeling perspective, I have always used a long ago recommended proportion of 1/3 home road, 1/3 adjacent railroad and 1/3 "remote" railroad for my car distributions for those cars, such as box cars, that were widely distributed. 


  3. It is not meaningless in terms of trying to create a look and feel in the absence of data which is very hard to acquire. The 1/3 proportion idea is just a rule of thumb, not a hard requirement.

  4. Lou Adler


“Free Running”

  1. It's been pretty well established for box cars that they were "free runners" unless in assigned service, so the probability of any particular road name showing up anywhere off its own rails is in proportion to its proportion of the national box car fleet. The cars could have come from, and be destined to, almost anywhere in the U.S.

  2. Tony Thompson


  4. Southern California was very consumer-oriented in the 1950s, but in those days it seemed that most manufacturing was done in the east. Most manufactured goods were delivered west in boxcars, in huge variety of road names. Really no big deal; everyone sent their local boxcars west.

  5. Joe Strapac


  7. You didn't always have a load going exactly the right direction. You might like to look up the Trains magazine article in the late 1940s about the new Monon box car with the number "one", which was tracked for 14 months or something like that. It went absolutely everywhere, criss-crossing the country, and was only home once.


  9. For on-line shipments, home-road cars were fine (think Portland to Houston), and the home cars also were your insurance for vital cargoes like lumber. You might not always have the right type and size of car in the right loading area otherwise.

  10. Tony Thompson


  12. Some car types tended to stay mostly on their home railroad, such as tank cars.




 
Southern Pacific Lines S.P. Interchanges & Foreign Cars
General Information Interchanges Interchange Locations Foreign Cars (Steam Era) “Free Running”
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