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HISTORY
OVERVIEW
The Atchison,
Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company (AT&SF) was first chartered
by the State of Kansas as the Atchison and Topeka Railroad
Company in 1859. It’s scope was greatly expanded starting in
1863, and was due to the efforts of a Topeka lawyer and
businessman named Cyrus Holliday. He dreamt of a railroad that
ran along the old 19th century trading route called the Santa Fe
trail that ran from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and on to the west coast of California. In accordance
with his vision, the name of the railroad was changed to the
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. By 1868, Holliday had
the financial backing to start construction, and in the spring
of 1871 the original 75 miles of railway was extended to Newton,
Kansas and on south to Wichita, thus ensuring that the railroad
would benefit from ranchers needing to get their cattle to
market. By 1872 the railroad stretched to the Colorado state
line, sometimes directly on top of the ruts carved by the wagons
on the trail.
In the early
1880s and 1890s the railroad was expanded to over 9,000 miles of
track, some of which was lost in a reorganization stemming from
a financial crisis that hit the company in 1893. By 1895, the
railroad had both a new president, Edward Ripley, and a new
name, the AT&SF. During Ripley’s tenure as president
(1895-1920), the AT&SF grew to over 11,000 miles of track. By
the beginning of World War II, it had over 13,000 miles of track
– the most that it would ever have pre-merger.
In 1968, the
AT&SF became a subsidiary company of Santa Fe Industries, a
holding company. Having reached the height of its success in
1970, declining revenues from its passenger service led Santa Fe
Industries to make a strategic decision to focus on freight
transport; as a result, the AT&SF sold its passenger line in
1971 to Amtrak. The railroad continued to operate into the
1980s, when in 1983 the Santa Fe holding company attempted a
merger with Southern Pacific which was tied up in the courts
until 1987, when the ICC rejected the merger. In 1989, the
holding company changed its name to the Santa Fe Pacific
Corportation.
By 1995,
financial problems with the Santa Fe led to a merger with the
Burlington Northern Railroad, creating the Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Corporation (BNSF). By this time, the AT&SF covered 12
states, mostly in the midwest and southwest, and had one of the
most recognizable coloring schemes (the red, yellow, and silver
warbonnet) in the railroad industry. |
