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Show grew, additional spur lines were added to the rail system. Additionally, the corporate name was changed, as noted above, on August 16, 1916, to be known as the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railway, since the city of San Pedro had been annexed into Los Angeles in 1909 (Signor 1988). This corporate title continued remained, and "continued to be used in various ways with the railroad. But for all practical purposes, after April 27, 1921, was a fIrmly established in Los Angeles as it was in Omaha.... Judge Robert S. Lovett, Chairman of the Union PacifIc System, announced that the logical and natural destiny of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake ultimately as a railroad property is as a part of the Union PacifIc system" (Signor 1988:89). The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad continues to operate today as a subsidiary of the Union PacifIc Railroad system (consolidated in 1931) running between Salt Lake City, Utah and Long Beach, California. In total, 1,078 miles of track fall under the auspices of the company, with 553 of those miles running within the state of Utah. The railroad, registered as a common carrier, primarily hauls freight (5075 freight cars), but also carries signifIcant passenger traffic (116 passenger cars) along the route (Robertson 1986). Union Pacific Railroad The PacifIc Railroad Act, passed on July 1, 1862, encouraged the development of a Transcontinental railway, which would provide a signifIcantly improved transportation system across the United States. "Though the railroad was almost certain to diminish church influence in the territory, Brigham Young was one of its outspoken advocates, supporting petitions to Congress as early as 1852 and 1854 ... he subscribed to $5,000 worth of stock in the newly organized Union PacifIc Railroad Company" (Poll et al. 1989:218) shortly after the Act was passed. E.H. Harriman, Chairman of Union PacifIc, became involved with the rail industry in 1880, and "by 1900 the name Harriman was perhaps the most formidable in the railroad industry in the United States" (Signor 1988:26). During the early 1900's, Harriman reorganized a bankrupt Union PacifIc, and began reuniting all the pieces of the former system. Part of the strategy for rebuilding the railroad consisted of the compromise with W.A. Clark which made the Salt Lake City to Los Angeles rail line possible. Consolidation of the line into the Union PacifIc corporation strengthened the overall performance of the company, particularly as beginning in 1 922, the Salt Lake route experienced tremendous growth. Between 1922 and 1925, any substandard sections of the track lines were brought up to United PacifIc standards. Growth was particularly strong near Redlands, in California, but several branch lines were also under construction in Utah. These lines were constructed to service the Delta to Fillmore areas in Millard County, as well as Zions Canyon, built specifIcally to allow more people to visit the newly designated national monuments of Zion, Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon. Rail travel continued to increase in Utah particularly along the Salt Lake route throughout the following decades, and the railroad entered into a modernization program following World War II. "The Union PacifIc ... succeeded in conquering time and distance in the postwar modernization of the old Salt Lake and Los Angeles ... it was now (the) Union PacifIc's California Division - road of the streamliner. By 1949 trains were being handled more expeditiously over the California Division than perhaps any other segment of the Union PacifIc System" (Signor 1998:179). Later that year, on September 11, the rail divisions were divided into the California and Utah divisions. Early in the 1950s, Union PacifIc "considered the benefIts of piggyback (truck-trailer-on-flatcar) service as a way to meet competition from motor carriers" (Signor 1998:179-180). This mode of transport quickly became profItable and was extended throughout the Salt Lake system. Passenger travel continued to increase as well. Diesel locomotives quickly replaced all of Union PacifIc's steam-powered locomotives, although a few engines were retained for special excursions. The period of the mid-1950s 16 |
