Atlantic & Pacific

Company History: The A&P was incorporated in 1866 with the goal of building a railroad from Springfield, Missouri to California. There was also to be a long branch to Van Buren Arkansas. A&P built and acquired a route from Springfield to Venita, Oklahoma before running into trouble. The owners founded the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad (later popularly known as the Frisco) and took control of the A&P lines in Missouri and leased other segments of the A&P. Construction of the A&P continued west to Red Ford, just west of Tulsa. In 1880, Frisco and Santa Fe agreed to jointly control the A&P and a new A&P line was begun from a connection with the Santa Fe at Isleta, New Mexico, building west toward California. The A&P met the Southern Pacific who was building east at Needles, California in 1883. The Panic of 1893 sent both Santa Fe and Frisco into receivership with A&P following the next year. In 1897, the western section of the A&P was sold to a new subsidiary of the AT&SF called Santa Fe Pacific Railroad while the eastern section of the A&P was sold and merged into the Frisco.

Successor/Parent History: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (reporting mark ATSF), often abbreviated as Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. Chartered in February 1859, the railroad reached the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farm land from the land grants that it was awarded by Congress. Despite the name, its main line never served Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the terrain was too difficult; the town ultimately was reached by a branch line from Lamy.

The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport, an enterprise that (at one time or another) included a tugboat fleet and an airline (the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway). Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, and ferryboats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys to the Pacific Ocean. The ATSF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren & Johnny Mercer's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written for the film, The Harvey Girls (1946).

The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway.

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