History
The line was originally built between 1871–1872 by the Utah Southern Railroad. By March 30, 1872 the Utah Southern reached Point of the Mountain which is the southern end of the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad at Mount. In the 1870s, the Utah Southern was constructing a 105-mile line from Salt Lake City to Chicken Creek (Juab, Utah). Brigham Young was listed as the railroad's president. In June 1875 financial control of the railroad was turned over to the Union Pacific Railroad.
On July 1, 1881 the Utah Southern was consolidated into the Utah Central Railway. The Utah Central was building a rail network from Ogden–Milford, Utah. By 1888 the Utah Central was an operating subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad.
On August 1, 1889 the Utah Central was consolidated into the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway, an operating subsidiary of the Union Pacific. On March 1, 1897 the railway was renamed the Oregon Short Line Railroad. The OSL, a UP subsidiary, was leased to the UP on January 1, 1936.
From 1936–1993 the Union Pacific operated the tracks as part of their "Provo Subdivision." In the 1990s the UP shifted shifted its trains on the Provo Subdivision to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks between Salt Lake City and American Fork, Utah. The UP no longer needed the line between Salt Lake City and Mount (also known as Mound or Point of the Mountain).
RailTex acquired the line between Salt Lake City and Mount and began operations in 1993 as the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad. Today the Utah Transit Authority (UTA light rail) owns much of the track as part of their light rail right-of-way acquisitions. The SL operates over the UTA tracks via trackage rights.
On September 30, 1999 the SL became a subsidiary of the Utah Railway.
Read more about this topic: Salt Lake City Southern Railroad
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)