
How the ‘Sunset Route’ Railroad Helped Diversify California - samclemens
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sunset-route-railroad-los-angeles
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WalterBright
The impact of the transcontinental railroads far exceeded the dreams of even
its most ardent supporters.

~~~
082349872349872
One of my ancestors worked for Southern Pacific (not a software, but a choo-
choo, engineer). His family was able to live in affordable nowhere[1] because
taking the train _was_ going to work.

Before becoming a telecom provider, SPRINT was "Southern Pacific Railroad
INTernal" and allowed railroaders to chat long distance with cow-orkers
without dealing with Ma Bell.

    
    
        And the sons of Pullman porters
        And the sons of engineers
        Ride their father's magic carpets made of steam
    

[1] Fun fact: Coalinga was originally "Coaling [station] A", retconned to
sound more spanish. The spaniards themselves usually just named places after
whichever saint's day it was when they first passed through. (Thomas Guides
used to show rancho property lines in southern california; many of their
borders go back to the original 18th century land grants)

~~~
WalterBright
I'd give up writing software to drive a steam locomotive.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
If I didn't need the money. Software pays better. Other than that... _oh,
yeah_.

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kccqzy
Amtrak has a route guide for the present-day Sunset Limited, which also
touches a bit on its history:
[http://testsite.itworksdc.com/amtrakconnect_6_30/static/rout...](http://testsite.itworksdc.com/amtrakconnect_6_30/static/route-
guides/Amtrak-Sunset-Train-Route-Guide.pdf) (not on Amtrak's official website
because Amtrak inexplicably removed all their route guides)

~~~
082349872349872
"inexplicably removed" — if I have this correct, a big difference between here
and the US is that here, freight traffic pays the passenger company to use
their network. In the US, I believe Amtrak has to pay the freight companies to
use their networks.

(a bigger difference is that one of the things we use our supercomputers for
is to calculate a nationwide multimodal schedule that not only integrates
trains, buses, boats, etc., but also differs minimally from the previous
year's combined schedule. That'd probably run afoul of antitrust in the US)

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otterley
True story: Sunset Magazine (which is still being published today) was
originally published by Southern Pacific Railroad to attract newcomers to
California - and to take the Sunset Route to get there.

~~~
giobox
If in bay area, the magazine has a long association with a ranch in Ben Lomond
(Santa Cruz County) which is now a really nice state park, the ranch house
itself open to public. The original publisher lived here while making the
magazine etc.

[https://hilltromper.com/article/quail-hollow-
ranch](https://hilltromper.com/article/quail-hollow-ranch)

