NEW MEXICO’S RAILROADS A Historical Survey [SOLD]

NEW MEXICO’S RAILROADS A Historical Survey 

by David F. Myrick

University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque

Softcover, first edition published in 1970. This revised edition published in 1990

The steel, steam, and dreams of a century of railroading in New Mexico are captured in over 200 photographs and a crisp text.  From a bygone era of narrow-gauge lines to today’s Amtrak service, this book covers both the short lines and the branches feeding to main lines of major railroad systems.

New Mexico, isolated until 1878 when the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad laid the first span of track in the territory, in just thirty months had over 1,000 miles of rail line.  Soon trains of freight and passenger cars, the marvel of the industrial age, crisscrossed the territory bringing in eastern fashion, settlers, and tourists and carrying away lumber, coal, silver, and cattle.

The great railroad-building era in New Mexico ended with World War I, when eleven common carriers operated 3,000 miles of track. 

The subsequent history of New Mexico railroads is one of persistent struggle, slow eclipse, and corporate consolidation.

Contents

1. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway

2. Southern Pacific Transportation Company

3. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad

4. The Colorado and Southern Railway Company

5. Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad

6. Texas—New Mexico Railway

7. Coal Railroads in New Mexico

8. Rails to the Southwestern Mines

9. Lumber Railroads

10. Streetcars in New Mexico

11. El Paso and Juárez