From the little woodburner of 1864 to the Daylight.

The Southern Pacific Railroad is California's railroad. As the Central Pacific, it bored and blasted its way east from Sacramento, across the towering High Sierra, meeting with the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, completing the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and profoundly changing the growing United States. By the early 20th century, the Southern Pacific was a rail colossus, stretching from San Francisco Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Yet the Southern Pacific remained essentially Californian. Its rail lines gave muscle to the lovely California coast, the fertile San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys, and the timber industry of the north coast. Yet for all its might and majesty, for many Californians the Southern Pacific was a smaller, more intimate part of the fabric of their daily lives.

Get the fascinating story of how steel rails transformed an isolated ranching and agricultural center into the West's greatest city. An unforgettable walk through time recaptures the West's most powerful railroad.

A collection of photos of operations in the 1940s and 50s from the files of Trains magazine. A few short intro essays and long captions provide mechanical & historical detail. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.