posted
There was recently another post about BNSF possibly abandoning the track through Cajon Pass. It sparked my interest and I looked at a railroad map. I started wondering about the Cajon Pass route.
Was it the original route of the Santa Fe, and then later they built the faster route through the pan handle of Texas? On the map, it seems that it would have been easier to first build the faster route, then add the Cajon Pass route later. If they had the faster route first, then I wonder why the Super Chief ever went through the Cajon Pass. In the older days, they were trying to get from Chicago to Los Angeles as fast as possible, so it seems that they would have used the faster route through Texas instead.
Do any of you know about this?
Thank you
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posted
You must mean Raton Pass in New Mexico and Colorado (because I HIGHLY doubt they'd abandon Cajon Pass here in California). Raton was the original line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and it was opened in 1878. The "Belen cutoff," as it is popularly known, bypassed Raton pass and it's unforgiving 3.5% grades in 1907. Most of the freight traffic was rerouted onto this line, and Raton became the "passenger line," with several name passenger trains like the Chief and El Capitan running over it daily. Passenger trains avoided the freight congestion on the Belen cutoff, and because they were much lighter than freights, they the grade was not a major difficulty (plus it was a more scenic route). Today, BNSF runs just one or two freights a day over the line, plus Amtrak's Southwest Chief, with the vast majority of the traffic running over the Belen cutoff. The track over Raton is maintained to 90mph standards because Amtrak still runs on it, but for so little traffic, it's a very expensive line to maintain (but I'd sure hate to see it go).
Posts: 246 | From: Anaheim, CA | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Thank you atsf3751. Yes, I did mean Raton Pass. I am sorry for the confusion.
Thank you for the good explanation. That clears up a lot of questions in my mind. I sure hope that they do not abandon that section. The scenery is some of the best along the entire Southwest Chief route.
Looking at the landscape, it still is puzzling to me that the original designers would not have built the Belen cutoff route to begin with.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
posted
The Santa Fe RR over Raton Pass was put into operation in the mid-70s. Santa Fe built along the route of the old Santa Fe Trail, a principal trade route before RRs were built. At that time the principal sources of revenue both freight and passenger, were along this route to Colorado. There was little prospect for either freight or passenger service along the line thru Amarillo, Clovis and Belen at that time. Santa Fe did contemplate a line from Dodge City southwesterly to near Springer, NM that had been along the "dry route" of the Santa Fe Trail. This would have eliminated Raton Pass but also lacked sources of revenue,also steam locomotives needed water and coal but there was very little to be had along this route. The decisions made in the 1870's made good economic sense at that time and Santa Fe adapted as conditions changed. We all have made personal decisions that were right at the time they were made, but we changed as conditions changed. I we had 20-20 forsight we may have done differently. But maybe not because there was no practical way at that time. Some things must happen in their own time.
Posts: 467 | From: Prescott, AZ USA | Registered: Mar 2002
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To further expand...as I recall the Santa Fe Railway originally wanted to include its namesake town on the mainline but the grades in the area were too steep. Santa Fe ended up being on a light-density branch line. (The original trail did go to Santa Fe).
Posts: 874 | From: South Bay (LA County), Calif, USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Thank you for all of the clarifications. It seems from your comments that at that time it was more important to get business along the route, rather than mainly business at each terminus.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
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