Click on an open link below or go to the
RAILROAD INDEX to locate another Railroad
Some other interesting links to 30's and 40's railroad memories are:
The list of Western Regional Railroads of the 30's and 40's is very short. Many of the western roads were built after the great in number but smaller in size Eastern roads had consolidated into larger systems or had remained independent into the 30's and 40's. The Western roads were more often built as larger roads and made connections to the Chicago hub so the regional railroad count is low.
Many regionals in the west concentrated on mining industries. The Nevada Northern was built to haul copper from Nevada mines near Ely to a connection with the Southern Pacific. The Laramie North Park and Western to link gold mines and then coal from Colorado to the UP main in Wyoming. The Rio Grande Southern started out to serve gold, coppe, silver, lead and zinc mining near Telluride but later moved vanadium and uranium when they became valuable commodities
The Denver and Salt Lake was built to find a shorter route from Denver through the Rockies to reach the Salt Lake area. The result wa the great Moffat Tunnel Route that was absorbed into the Denver and Rio Grande Western
and finally the UP.
The west was also home of many relatively large
electric interurban lines. Of particular interest are the Oregon Electric, the Sacramento Northern and the group of Utah electric lines that were linked together.
A study of western regional roads would not be complete without a mention of the Spokane International that represented the Canadian Pacific's attempt to gain access to the northwestern US ports of Seattle and Portland through connections with US roads at Spokane. The SI was also absorbed into the UP.
Western Regional Railroad Special Sources
The private timetable collection of Richard R.Parks
Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia- (web)
The Official Guide of the Railways-Various dates
Your source for 1930's-1940's Public Timetable and Railroad History
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Web Page Written and Maintained by Richard
Parks
Copyright © Richard Parks, July 15, 2009