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Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route By Signor & Kirchner w/ DJ
The Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route By John Signor & John Kirchner
Hard cover with dust jacket Back has a small tear in the dust jacket
Copyright 1987
168 pages
CONTENTS
Introduction 8
1. The Mexican West Coast - Empire of Opportunity 11
2. The Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route 25
3. Southern Pacific South of the Border - Railroading down Mexico Way 51
4. The Ferrocarril del Pacifico - Mexicanization and Progress 101
Roster of Motive Power 141
Bibliography 163
Index 165
The historic Southern Pacific operated or controlled over 16,000 miles of railroad. Its geographical diversity and the distinct character of its equipment and trains helped to make it one of America's most interesting railroads. Its lines radiated throughout the West and Southwest, stretching from Portland, Oregon, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Its subsidiaries brought places like East St. Louis, Illinois, and San Diego, California, into the system. Its many monuments to engineering genius included Donner Pass, the Lucin Cutoff across Great Salt Lake, and the Tehachapi Loop. But the Southern Pacific was also an international railroad. Beyond mere border crossings, it operated at least seven Mexican railroad subsidiaries, including the Cananea, Rio Yaqui & Pacific, Inter-California, Inter-California del Sur, Nacozari, Sonora, Tijuana & Tecate, and the Southern Pacific of Mexico.
The Southern Pacific of Mexico (SPdeM) and its Ruta de la Costa Occidental (West Coast Route) stretched 1,094 miles from Nogales, on the Arizona-Sonora frontier, to Guadalajara, capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Initiated by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in the early 1880's and not completed by the SPdeM until the late 1920's, the line was a testimonial to the perseverance of the American entrepreneurs who backed it.
Join authors Signor and Kirchner as they lift the veil of obscurity that has surrounded the geography and history of the Ferrocarril Sud Pacifico de Mexico and the roads that came before it. Through words, maps and photographs, the story of this fascinating railroad unfolds. A story of powerful American capitalists like Collis Potter Huntington and William Barstow Strong; of other business giants including Edward Henry Harriman and Colonel Epes Randolph; of Mexican heroes and political figures, among them generals Porfirio Diaz, Venustiano Carranza, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Alvaro Obregon, and Plutarco Elias Calles; of railroading through revolution, banditry and Indian attack; of tremendous engineering feats and sharp economic disappointments.
Experience the trauma of the Mexican Revolution; learn of the 1926 Yaqui Indian uprising in which an SPdeM train was held hostage for five days; sit in on the debate over the future of the SP's Mexican subsidiary; ride down the Mexican West Coast aboard El Yaqui during the last troubled years of Southern Pacific control, and then witness the rebuilding of the Ruta de la Costa Occidental under Mexican government control.
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