Mojave Desert Historic Railroad Chronology
"We witnessed here the fabulous speed with which the Railroad was built. Through the two or three hundred miles beyond were scattered ten to fifteen thousand men in great gangs preparing the road bed; plows, scrapers, shovels, picks and carts; and, among the rocks, drills and powder were doing the grading as rapidly as men could stand and move with their tools. Long trains brought up to the end of the completed track loads of ties and rails; the former were transferred to teams, sent one or two miles ahead, and put in place upon the grade. Then rails and spikes were reloaded on platform cars, these pushed up to the last previously laid rail, and with an automatic movement and a celerity that were wonderful, practiced hands dropped the fresh rails one after another on the ties exactly in line, huge sledges sent the spikes home, the car rolled on, and the operation was repeated; while every few minutes the long heavy train behind sent out a puff from its locomotive, and caught up with its load of material the advancing work. The only limit, inside of eight miles in twenty-four hours, to the rapidity with which the track could thus be laid, was the power of the road behind to bring forward the materials."~ The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920
1876 - 1915
1874-1876 Southern Pacific - San Francisco - LA.
Tehachapi Loop
1881 Southern Pacific - Mojave - Calico Station (Daggett)
1882-83 Southern Pacific builds to Needles
1883 Atlantic & Pacific builds to Kingman
1883 Carson & Colorado - Keeler
1884 Atlantic & Pacific crosses Colorado River
1884 Atlantic & Pacific leases then buys line from Waterman Junction (Barstow) to Needles from Southern Pacific and connects it to A & P line (1885?) (A&P becomes Santa Fe.)
1885 California Southern (I) Cajon Pass: Barstow - San Bernardino
1893 Nevada Southern Railroad: Goffs - Manvel/Barnwell
1895 California Eastern
1898 Randsburg Railway
1902 Ludlow & Southern Railway III
1902 Barnwell & Searchlight III
1904 Tonopah & Tidewater
1905 San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake
1905 Tonopah & Goldfield
1905 Tonopah & Tidewater
1906 Las Vegas & Tonopah
1907 Bullfrog Goldfield
1908(1910?) Arizona & California - Cadiz - Rice - Parker
1912 SP Jawbone
1913 Trona
1915-1916 California Southern (II) Rice - Ripley
Trans-Mojave Railroad
35th Parallel Survey - 1854
First trans-Mojave railroad 1876-84
Class I Railroads
Class II Railroads- Regional railroads
Carson & Colorado - 1883, Narrow Gauge
Class III Railroads
- Short line railroads
Historic Mojave Desert Railroad Class I Infrastructure
Historic Class II Railroads
SP San Francisco to Los Angeles - 1876
SP Mojave to Daggett - 1882-83
SP Daggett to Colorado River - 1882-83
Atlantic & Pacific - 1883
