Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railway - (en)
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AAR reporting marks ATSF),
often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the largest railroads in the
United States. The company was first chartered in February, 1859. Although
the railway was named in part for the capital of New Mexico, its main line
never reached there as the terrain made it too difficult to lay the
necessary tracks (Santa Fe was ultimately served by a branch line from
Lamy, New Mexico). 
The Santa Fe's first tracks reached the Kansas/Colorado
state line in 1873, and connected to Pueblo, Colorado in 1876. In order to
help fuel the railroad's profitability, the Santa Fe set up real estate
offices and sold farm land from the land grants that the railroad was
awarded by Congress; these new farms would create a demand for
transportation (both freight and passenger service) that was, quite
conveniently, offered by the 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
travellers to complete their westward journeys all the way to the Pacific
Ocean. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway officially ceased
operations on December 31, 1996 when it merged with the Burlington
Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.
History
Cyrus K. Holliday, the first president of the railroad.
Startup and initial growth
The railroad's charter, written single-handedly by Cyrus K. Holliday in
January 1859, was approved by the state's governor on February 11 of that
year as the Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company for the purpose of
building a rail line from Topeka, Kansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
then on to the Gulf of Mexico. 
On May 3, 1863, two years after Kansas
gained statehood, the railroad changed names to more closely match the
aspirations of its founder to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.
The railroad broke ground in Topeka on October 30, 1868 and started
building westward where one of the first construction tasks was to cross
the Kaw River. The first section of track opened on April 26, 1869 (less
than a month prior to completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad)
with special trains between Topeka and Pauline. The distance was only 6
miles (10 km), but the Wakarusa Creek Picnic Special train took passengers
over the route for celebration in Pauline.
The Santa Fe trademark in the late 1800s incorporated the British lion out
of respect for the country's financial assistance in building the railroad
to California.Crews continued working westward, reaching Dodge City on
September 5, 1872. With this connection, the Santa Fe was able to compete
for cattle transportation with the Kansas Pacific Railway. Construction
continued, and the Santa Fe opened the last section of track between
Topeka and the Colorado/Kansas border on December 23, 1873. The Santa Fe's
tracks reached Pueblo, Colorado on March 1, 1876. Serving Pueblo opened a
number of new freight opportunities for the railroad as it now could haul
coal from Colorado eastward.(Early history)
Building across Kansas and eastern Colorado may have been technologically
simple as there weren't many large natural obstacles in the way (certainly
not as many as the railroad was about to encounter further west), but the
Santa Fe found it almost economically impossible because of the sparse
population in the area. 
To combat this problem, the Santa Fe set up real
estate offices in the area and vigorously promoted settlement across
Kansas on the land that was granted to the railroad by Congress in 1863.
The Santa Fe offered discounted passenger fares to anyone who travelled
west on the railroad to inspect the land; if the land was subsequently
purchased by the traveller, the railroad applied the passenger's ticket
price toward the sale of the land. Now that the railroad had built across
the plains and had a customer base providing income for the firm, it was
time to turn its attention toward the difficult terrain of the Rocky
Mountains.
Crossing the Rockies
The D&RG mainline through the Royal Gorge in 1881.Leadville was the
most productive of all of the Colorado mining regions. Mining in the area
began in 1859, first for gold and then two decades later for silver.
Several of the Santa Fe's board of directors (along with President Strong)
sought to capitalize on the need to supply the mining towns of Colorado
and northern New Mexico with food, equipment, and other supplies. To that
end, Santa Fe sought to extend its route westward from Pueblo along the
Arkansas River, and through the Royal Gorge in 1877. Royal Gorge was a
bottleneck along the Arkansas too narrow for both the Santa Fe and the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to pass through, and there was no
other reasonable access to the South Park area; thus, a race ensued to
build rail access through the Gorge. Physical confrontations led to two
years of armed conflict, essentially low-level guerrilla warfare between
the two companies that came to be known as the Royal Gorge Railroad War.
Federal intervention prompted an out-of-court settlement on February 2,
1880 in the form of the so-called "Treaty of Boston" wherein the
D&RG was allowed to complete its line and lease it for use by the
Santa Fe. The D&RG paid an estimated $1.4 million to Santa Fe for its
work within the Gorge and agreed not to extend its line to Santa Fe, while
the AT&SF agreed to forgo its planned routes to Denver and Leadville.
Also looking to the south, an initial outlay of $20,000 was authorized on
February 26, 1878 for the construction of a rail line south from Trinidad
in order to "..seize and hold Raton Pass." The location of the
route was nearly as crucial to the venture's success as was the actual
track construction. W. R. "Ray" Morley, a former civil engineer
for the (D&RG) hired by the AT&SF in 1877, was given his first
assignment to secretly plot a route through the pass (it was feared that
any activity in the area would lead the D&RG to construct a narrow
gauge line over the Pass). Additionally, Strong learned that the Southern
Pacific Railroad (SP) had introduced legislation to block the Santa Fe's
entry into New Mexico. Undaunted, Strong obtained a charter for the New
Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad Company and immediately sent A. A.
Robinson to Raton Pass. From February to December of 1878 work crews
struggled to build the line between La Junta and Raton, and the first
Santa Fe train entered New Mexico on December 7.
An AT&SF passenger train in operation, circa 1895.While construction
over the Rockies was slow and difficult due to the logistics involved, in
some instances armed conflicts with competitors arose (such as with the
D&RG in Colorado and New Mexico, and — after capturing the Raton
Pass — the SP in Arizona and California, as exemplified in the "frog
war" between SP and Santa Fe subsidiary the California Southern
Railroad at Colton, California in September of 1883). The troubles for the
railroad went far beyond skirmishes with rival railroads, however. In the
late 1880s, George C. Magoun, who had worked his way to become Chairman of
the Board of Directors for the railroad, was progressively losing his own
health. In 1889 the railroad's stock price, which was closely linked in
the public's eye with the successes of the railroad's chairman, fell from
nearly $140 per share to around $20 per share. Magoun's health continued
to deteriorate along with the stock price and Magoun died on December 20,
1893. The Santa Fe entered receivership three days later on December 23,
1893, with J. W. Reinhart, John J. McCook and Joseph C. Wilson appointed
as receivers.
