The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (reporting mark ATSF), often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States, chartered in February 1859. Despite the name its main line never served Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the terrain was too difficult (Santa Fe was ultimately reached by a branch line from Lamy). The Santa Fe's tracks reached the Kansas/Colorado state line in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado in 1876. Santa Fe set up real estate offices and sold farm land from the land grants that the railroad was awarded by Congress; these farms would create a demand for transportation (both freight and passenger) by Santa Fe.
Ever the innovator, Santa Fe was one of the pioneers in intermodal freight service, an enterprise that (at one time or another) included a tugboat fleet and an airline (the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway). A bus line allowed the company to extend passenger transportation service to areas not accessible by rail, and ferry boats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ceased operations on December 31, 1996 when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway or BNSF Railway.
At the end of 1970 AT&SF operated 12,881 miles of road on 21,472 miles of track.
Read more about Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe Railway: Company Officers, Passenger Train Service, Ferry Service, Inspiration For Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
Famous quotes containing the words santa and/or railway:
“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
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“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
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