Santa Fe Railroad

Former major railway company in the midwestern and southwestern USA, linking Chicago with the coasts of the southern Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. The Santa Fe was famous for carrying millions of head of cattle to Chicago for slaughter. It was also instrumental in opening up the Midwest to cereal farming and in promoting the development of the city of Los Angeles and southern California.

The Santa Fe was first chartered in Kansas in 1859 as the Atchison & Topeka Railroad. When the main westbound line it was constructing arrived at Santa Fe (Lamy), New Mexico, in 1880 it heralded the end of the famous pioneer wagon route, the Santa Fe Trail. Joining with the Southern Pacific in the following year and continuing to Los Angeles, it became the second transcontinental railway line in North America (see Central Pacific Railroad; Union Pacific Ralroad). In the 20th century, it was well-known for its Chicago–Los Angeles expresses, especially the Super Chief (1935) and El Capitan (1938). Its freight operations were taken over by the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1995, while its passenger routes now form an important part of the Amtrak network.

In the 1870s the Santa Fe reached Kansas, so connecting the major cattle trails that crossed the state (among which were the Shawnee, the Chisholm, and the Western) with the Chicago stockyards. Newton and Dodge City became famous as ‘cow towns’ on the railway's route. In Europe the Santa Fe's agents attracted Mennonite farmers from Russia, who introduced winter wheat as a major crop to the Great Plains. The line was then extended westwards, tunnelling through the Raton Pass summit to reach Santa Fe. The Santa Fe converged with the eastward-bound Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico, just west of El Paso, Texas, in 1881. It later built or bought a number of lines throughout the Southwest. Its construction of ‘Fred Harvey’ restaurants along its lines introduced a new high standard of passenger service to railway cuisine in the USA.