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The mission of the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society is to preserve and disseminate the historical record of the Southern Pacific Railroad and its affiliates by promoting preservation, industrial archeology and accurate scale modeling of this great pioneer company which built the Western United States.
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El Paso and Southwestern Railroad System
by Vernon J. Glover
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, copper was a growth industry in the nation. The rapid growth of copper production and the surrounding towns in southeastern Arizona made clear that wagon freight from main line railheads was no longer sufficient — there was a need for more direct rail connections to the east.Discussions with the Southern Pacific led to building the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, an independent railroad, to El Paso, Texas, financed entirely from cash reserves of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. In the meantime, the El Paso & Northeastern was building northward from El Paso, up through the Territory of New Mexico, creating new towns as it went along. In 1905, the two railroads were joined and their operations merged as rapidly as possible.
The EP&SW story is told in three parts: first, the origins of the western part of the system; second, connecting El Paso with the coal mines of Dawson, New Mexico; and third, the merger of the eastern and western lines in 1905 into a unified system. Throughout its story, strong personalities influenced the activities of the system: James Douglas of the Copper Queen at Bisbee, Arizona; Charles Bishop Eddy and John Arthur Eddy, guiding the EP≠ Attorney William Ashton Hawkins who, along with Douglas, influenced the merged EP&SW system until its sale to the Southern Pacific in 1924.
216 pages, 11" x 8 1⁄2" library bound with dust jacket, with over 330 photographs, maps and diagrams.
Published by the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society.
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New at the Company Store
Southern Pacific’s San Antonio Division 1960-1996
by David M. Bernstein
The San Antonio Division stretches 1,289 miles from Glidden to El Paso, Texas, and southward to the Rio Grande Valley. This territory encompasses the vast expanse of western Texas, the ports of Corpus Christi and Brownsville, the rich agricultural lands of southern Texas and the urban centers of San Antonio and El Paso. While focusing on the final four decades prior to Southern Pacific’s merger with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1996, Southern Pacific’s San Antonio Division: 1960-1996 also contains detailed history of the companies and lines constituting the San Antonio Division. For continuity, the small portions which constituted the Austin and the Houston Division in 1960 have been included.The author worked in SP’s Operating Department from 1979 until 1994 and was granted access to company files, records and internal memoranda. This book is a very detailed and well researched insight into the operation of the San Antonio Division. Included are 480 photographs, many depicted in full page size, 25 maps and 24 detailed yard and terminal diagrams.
This is the first comprehensive book published on the San Antonio Division and will appeal to anyone interested in the history and operations of the Southern Pacific. Two future companion volumes are planned, the first covering the Dallas and Austin Divisions, the second covering the Houston and Lafayette Divisions.
600 pages, 11" x 8 ½" library bound with dust jacket, 480 photographs, 25 maps, 24 yard and terminal diagrams.
Published by the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society.
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