Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Southern Pacific Locomotive Engineer Register Books
MS 870
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives
Title: Southern Pacific Locomotive Engineer Register Books
creator:
Ehernberger, James L., 387-2416
Identifier/Call Number: MS 870
Physical Description:
.333 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): Nov. 10, 1925 - Dec. 21, 1926
Abstract: This collection consists of six (6) Southern Pacific Locomotive Engineer Register Books for Carrizozo, New Mexico from November
10, 1925 - December 21, 1926.
Physical Location: Statewide Museum Collections Center
Arranged chronologically.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of James L. Ehernberger, 2019
Collection is open for research by appointment.
Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the CSRM Library & Archives.
James Douglas and Daniel Willis James were majority co-owners of the trading firm Phelps, Dodge and Co. Douglas formed the
Arizona and South Eastern Railroad in 1888. The railroad ran on a short spur of track from Bisbee to Fairbank, Arizona, where
it met the mainline of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Shortly thereafter the line was extended to Benson, Arizona,
to connect with the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1900 the railroad was extended to Douglass, Arizona to the Copper Queen
Consolidated newly built smelter. The line was renamed the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad on June 25, 1901. Carrizozo
was selected as the site for a station on the El Paso and Northeastern Railway (EP&NE) main line in 1899. The El Paso and
Southwestern Railroad was a short-line American railway company which operated in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with line
extensions across the international border into Mexico. The railroad was known as the Arizona and South Eastern Railroad from
1888 to 1902.
After the deaths of Dodge in 1903 and James in 1907, the various Phelps Dodge railroads, mining companies, real estate firms,
as well as other subsidiaries and divisions were all merged into Phelps Dodge and Company. In 1915, Phelps Dodge and Company
went public as Phelps-Dodge. In 1924, the Southern Pacific leased the entire El Paso and Southwest Railroad from Phelps Dodge.
In 1929, the ICC authorized abandonment of the Deming Branch. In November 1937, Southern Pacific railroad purchased the outstanding
interest in the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad. It acquired the El Paso Southern Railway Company in December 1954,
This line was built by the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad (later the Southern Pacific Railroad) near the turn of the 20th
Century in order to access coal deposits around Capitan, NM. As the EP&NE was building north through New Mexico, they swung
east at Carrizozo and headed to Coalora, and ultimately extended beyond Coalora another 2 miles to nearby Capitan, to the
southwest. Between Carrizozo and Coalora, the line utilized two switchbacks in order to cross Indian Divide, just south of
Vera Cruz Mountain.
The Southern Pacific was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1998 and operated in the Western United
States. The original Southern Pacific began in 1865 as a land holding company. The last incarnation of the Southern Pacific,
the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, was founded in 1969 and assumed control of the Southern Pacific system. By 1900,
the Southern Pacific system was a major railroad system incorporating many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans
Railroad and Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad. It extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, Texas, across New
Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, through most of California, including San Francisco and Sacramento. In 1929, Southern
Pacific/Texas and New Orleans operated 13,848 route-miles not including Cotton Belt, whose purchase of the Golden State Route
circa 1980 nearly doubled its size to 3,085 miles (4,965 km), bringing total SP/SSW mileage to around 13,508 miles (21,739
km).
This collection of donated historical materials consists of six (6) Southern Pacific Locomotive Engineer Register Books for
Carrizozo, New Mexico from November 10, 1925 - December 21, 1926.
These books register the arrival and departure time of the engineer and fireman, the train, direction bound, the engine number
and the mileage to date for the engineer and fireman. Each engineer and fireman was required to fill out and sign their last
name in the register.
Union agreements between the railroad and then engineer's union determined the engineer's time on duty began when he reported
for duty and ended after a run when he signed the register in the roundhouse. The time he signed the register at the end
of the run determined the order in which he would be called for another run, the first in-first out rule. Union agreement,
Article 37, required engineer's to register their cumulative mileage for the month on the roundhouse register after each trip.
This was necessary because another provision of the agreement limited monthly mileage totals to 4800 miles in passenger service
and 3800 miles in freight service.
Article 32 required engineers to accurately register their miles in the roundhouse register. If an engineer failed to do
so or continued to take runs after he exceeded 3800/4800 miles, he would be held off the board for two consecutive runs as
punishment. Upon notification from the union concerning mileage, the railroad would take the engineer off the board each
month when his mileage was exceeded.
Information about union agreements and the railroad, courtesy of Jeff Asay.
[Identification of item], Southern Pacific Locomotive Engineer Register Books, MS 870, California State Railroad Museum Library
& Archives, Sacramento, California.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Corporations--Personnel Management
Labor cost--Accounting
Locomotive Engineers
Payrolls--Accounting
Payrolls--Management
Southern Pacific Company
Southern Pacific Transportation Company