Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad
| Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad | |
|---|---|
 Abandoned bed of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, crossing Soda Lake at Zzyzx, California. |
|
| Reporting mark | TT |
| Locale | Ludlow, California and Beatty, Nevada |
| Dates of operation | 1906–1940 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | Ludlow, California |
The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the T&T, was a class II railroad extending through remote reaches of the Mojave Desert from the Santa Fe Railway railhead at Ludlow, California, through Death Valley and Amargosa Valley, terminating at the Mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield in the Great Basin Desert in Nye County, Nevada. The railroad was listed as a common carrier, however it was built by Francis Marion Smith the "Borax King" and his Pacific Coast Borax Company primarily to transport borax to processing and market. The line is now completely abandoned.
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[edit] Construction and territory
Grading began on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad - T&T line on July 30, 1905. 50- and 65-pound rails were laid starting on November 19, 1905. The line was completed on October 30, 1907, with the T&T tracks ending at Gold Center, Nevada. From Gold Center the T&T reached into Beatty, Nevada with joint trackage rights with the Brock Road Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad. The T&T also reached Rhyolite, Nevada over the Bullfrog Goldfield trackage via the connecting wye at Gold Center. From 1908 to 1914 the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad, which also serving the mines around Beatty, was combined into the T&T, and then combined again in 1918 after the demise of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad. The T&T owned and ran both lines under a "new railroad identity" from 1920 until January, 1928.
The T&T also had a 7-mile (11 km) branch that ran from its mainline at Death Valley Junction, California to the Lila C Mine with the station named "Ryan". At Horton, California the T&T separated from the narrow gauge Death Valley Railroad - DVRR. The DVRR ran for 21 miles from Death Valley Junction west to Devar, later renamed Ryan, and different than the Lila C. Mine's Ryan, via Colmanite and was abandoned in 1931. The T&T branch had 3 rail tracks (both narrow and standard gauge) from Horton to Death Valley Junction. The T&T branch was built in 1907 and the DVRR was built in 1914. The branch to the Lila C. was removed not long after all operations were transferred to Devar - Ryan.
[edit] Changes
Originally the railroad intended to build from Las Vegas to Death Valley but grading was terminated in 1905 due to rate problems with the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. The "San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad" was later shortened to "Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad," and is the present day Union Pacific mainline between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
Once the mining boom ended, the railroad struggled to survive, as borax shipping came to comprise the majority of its business. After the borax mining and operations were moved from the Death Valley region to the Boron, California mine and facilities in 1927, the line relied upon whatever traffic could be found. Over most of its existence, U.S. Borax (USB) had made up the losses from the railroad's operations. Discussions for cessation/abandonment were started as early as 1930. After the major flood of 1933, Ludlow was abandoned and operations ran north from Crucero, a Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad railhead. The 26 miles (42 km) of track between Crucero and the T&T's connection with the Santa Fe Railway at Ludlow was placed out of service on October 8, 1933. After the flood of 1938, applications for abandonment were pursued.
By 1940 the entire line was out of service and on July 18, 1942, scrapping began at Beatty and terminated a year later at Ludlow. Final abandonment with the I.C.C. was approved on December 3, 1946.
[edit] Former stops
Many stops along the railroad were named for associates of Francis Marion Smith [1][2]
- Ludlow, California
- Broadwell
- Mesquite
- Crucero
- Rasor - named for Clarence Rasor, Smith's employee
- Soda Lake, later renamed Zzyzx, California
- Baker, California - named for Richard C. Baker, Smith's business associate
- Silver Lake, San Bernardino County, California
- Talc
- Riggs
- Lore
- Valjean
- Dumont - named after Harry Dumont who ran the company's San Francisco office
- Sperry - named after Smith's niece Charlotte Grace Sperry
- Acme
- Tecopa, California
- Zabriske - named for Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, superitendent at Columbus Marsh later in charge of New York operations.
- Shoshone, California
- Gerstley, California - named for James Gerstley, Smith's business partner (and later U.S. Borax President from 1950-1961[3])
- Evelyn, California - named for Evelyn Ellis, Smith's wife
- Horton, California - named for the T&T's trainmaster, Ben Horton
- Death Valley Junction, California
- Ryan, California - named for John Ryan, Smith's trusted supervisor
- Lila C, California
- Bradford Siding, California
- Scranton, California
- Leeland
- Ashton
- Carrara
- Gold Center
- Bullfrog, Nevada
- Rhyolite, Nevada
- Beatty, Nevada
[edit] External links
- http://www.ttrr.org/ Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad
- ca. 1907 Tonopah and Tidewater RR map (~6.5MB)
- Article on the abandoned Tonopha and Tidewater; includes pictures and map.
[edit] References
- ^ Hildebrand, GH. (1982) Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith. San Diego: Howell-North Books. p. 79. ISBN 0-8310-7148-6
- ^ ca. 1907 Tonopah and Tidewater RR map (~6.5MB)
- ^ "The Great Desert Railroad Race" Documentary written and produced by Ted Faye
- McCulloch, John A., Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad historical information
- Nelson, Genne, A Brief History of the Furnace Creek Area (1849–1954), Chapter Q in Michael N. Machette, Margo L. Johnson, and Janet L. Slate (eds.), Quaternary and Late Pliocene Gology of the Death Valley Region: Recent Observations on Tectonics, Stratigraphy, and Lake Cycles (Guidebook for the 2001 Pacific Cell--Friends of the Pleistocene Fieldtrip) (USGS, 2001)
- Rinehart, Robert E. (April 1908). "Seizing The Desert's Last Stronghold: The Completion Of The Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad". The World's Work: A History of Our Time XV: 10144–10150. http://books.google.com/books?id=hKPvxXgBN1oC&pg=PA10144. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- Robertson, Donald B. (1998). Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History - Volume IV - California. Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers. ISBN 0-87004-385-4.
- Walker, Mike, SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California/Nevada Post Merger Edition, (Steam Powered Publishing & SPV, 1997) Ownership and detail of rail lines.
- Route map circa 1907, from UNLV Libraries
