Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company (A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co.) Collection Highlights

Digital Images Contributed by Old Trails Museum / Winslow Historical Society & the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation (ASRMF).

The Santa Fe Logo which appears at the upper left was announced by the Santa Fe Railway 15 June 1901 and remained in general use until circa 1956. This logo, or Trademark, was officially announced by System Circular No. 1012, titled NEW SANTA FE TRADE-MARK, dated 25 July 1901, signed by George T. Nickerson, Passenger Traffic Manager, A.T.&S.F. Ry. System, Chicago.

This A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. collection consists of approximately 40,000 separate documents (engineering drawings, specifications, field survey notes, traffic data, etc.) donated to the Winslow Historical Society (WHS) by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) in 1996 when the old A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. Albuquerque Division Headquarters located at Winslow, Arizona closed.

The WHS donated this collection to the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation (ASRMF), located in Williams, Arizona; the ASRMF is now caretaker of this collection. The complete Collection was moved from Winslow to Williams, Arizona, during July 2008, and has been placed in weather tight temporary storage until the new Archive and Library space within the new Museum is ready to receive this and other collections donated to the Arizona State Railroad Museum (ASRM). The new ASRM is scheduled to be complete and open to the public in time for the year long activities leading to the centennial statehood celebration February 2012. Both the Arizona Memory Project, sponsor of this website, and the Arizona State Railroad Museum are Arizona Centennial 2012 Legacy Projects.

This collection consists primarily of documents from the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Co., Western Division (A&PRRCo.); Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. (SFPRRCo.); California, Arizona & Santa Fe Ry. Co. (CA&SFRyCo.); Santa Fe Prescott & Phoenix RR Co. (SFP&PRRCo.); The Eastern Railway of New Mexico (ERyofNM) - Belen to Rio Puerco, NM; the districts and branch lines of the old Albuquerque Division; and the New Mexico Division, and the old El Paso District (from Albuquerque to Belen, NM).

In addition, this collection contains a few documents from the Santa Fe's Illinois and Los Angeles Divisions, and the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railway, as well as documents from the Southern Pacific Company and Union Pacific Railroad.

The A&PRRCo. Western Division, jointly owned by the A.T.&S.F.RR.Co. and the Saint Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co. (Frisco), constructed the rail line across northern New Mexico and Arizona Territories. Construction started 12.6 track miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory (NMT) during April of 1880, at what was then known as A&P Junction Station, NMT, now known as Isleta Station, NM. When construction started the A&PRRCo. located the headquarters office of the Western Division [geographically from Albuquerque, NMT to the Pacific Coast] in Albuquerque, NMT. As construction progressed westward along the 35th parallel, the headquarters office location moved to Coolidge, NMT (a.k.a. Cranes or Crane Ranch), then Gallup, NMT, and ultimately to Winslow, Arizona Territory (AT) during November of 1897.

Records of the collection, in the form of copies of General Land Office (GLO) Maps, exist from as early as 1872. The collection contains some 250 such GLO maps. These maps show pencil notations of the planned alignment of the rail line to be built across northern New Mexico and Arizona territories by the A&PRRCo., Western Division. No doubt these are copies of maps used for route selection surveys, of which there were at least five. Lewis Kingman, locating engineer and Chief Engineer for the A&PRRCo. selected the final track alignment. It further appears that many of these GLO maps with dates up until 1897, were most likely used by the A&PRRCo. for the selection of alternate lands (exchanges) in the Indemnity Strip when lands in the original land grant area were not available to the Railroad. Many of these GLO maps with dates after 1897, were no doubt used by the Santa Fe Pacific Land Company to select Lieu Rights lands to settle land exchanges within the boundaries of two national forests; two National Park Service land exchanges (Petrified Forest and Chaco Canyon); land exchanges with the Navajo, Moqui (Hopi), Zuni, and Laguna reservations; Taylor Grazing Act land exchanges; Forest Service land exchanges; plus numerous smaller settlements.

In addition to the above mentioned GLO maps, the collection contains numerous other maps and general or ancillary drawings of numerous locations and facilities, full sets of Right of Way and Track Maps (two different dates), Station Plat Maps (two different dates), Ravine Sections, Plan and Profile Drawings, Bridge Drawings, full drawings sets of the 1960 track realignments by-passing Prescott (Abra to Skull Valley) and Ash Fork (Williams Junction to Crookton), Survey Notes, to name just a few of the drawing categories. The Burlington Northern Railroad and the A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. merged in 1996 to create the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF). Preservation and cataloging of the A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. collection began in 2001 by a few dedicated individuals, volunteers all, following the collections donation by the BNSF to the Winslow Historical Society.

As of January 2007, when final compilation of the metadata for this AMP website began, slightly less than seven percent (7%) of the collection has been cataloged; less than three percent (3%) of the collection has been digitized, most of which is posted herein. The catalog database & images one sees on this website are the result of this seven (7) year effort.

From a historic standpoint this collection is priceless because the information it contains exists in no other repository of A.T&S.F.Ry.Co. information. Now that the Collection and its stewardship have been transferred to the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation, this historically significant and unique collection will be preserved and cataloged.

Orders for document reprint(s) of images on this web site may be placed by contacting Lila Atkins at winslowsfcollection@hotmail.com. When ordering please state the Geographic Coverage [e.g. Winslow, Flagstaff, etc. with associated information] as well as the Source Identifier (also known as the Record Number) for each image(s) to be printed. Both the Geographic Coverage & the Source Identifier are shown on the detailed web site information with each image. The WHS will calculate the TOTAL cost of the order (including OH&P, S&H, & taxes) & advise via return e-mail. The order will not be processed until the order has been confirmed & full payment received. Payment may be made by personal check (in which case the order will be held until the check clears) or money order. The WHS is not yet equipped to handle credit card payments.

Copyright to this resource is held by BNSF Railway Company and is provided here for Educational purposes only. These documents may not be downloaded, reproduced or distributed without written permission of the BNSF Ry. Any attempt to circumvent the access controls on these file is a violation of United States & International copyright laws & is subject to criminal prosecution. All drawings and documents displayed in this web page are covered under Copyrights owned by BNSF Railway Company. All rights reserved.

 subscribe