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Central Pacific Railway Records
MS 79  
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Collection Overview
 
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Description
The Central Pacific Railroad Records include documents generated by Central Pacific, a railroad chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastward from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America in 1869. It includes records from its incorporation in 1861 until 1959, when it was formally merged with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Much of the material in these records documents the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. It includes accounting records and vouchers for the purchase of building material and supplies, payrolls of work gangs who built the Transcontinental Railroad, and equipment records for locomotives, passenger and freight cars that ran on the railroad. This is not a complete record of the company, but provides a good overview of the company in the nineteenth century.
Background
Incorporated in 1861 as the Central Pacific Rail Road, Central Pacific was a class 1 railroad operating in Northern California, Nevada and Utah. On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, which provided funding and land grants to Central Pacific for the construction of the Western part of the Transcontinental Railroad. After breaking ground on January 8, 1963 in Sacramento, California, Central Pacific constructed the railroad over the Sierra Nevada mountain range and met the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah in 1869, completing the first Transcontinental Railroad.
Extent
388.5 Linear Feet 377 Boxes + 19 volumes
Restrictions
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 Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Availability
Collection is open to research by appointment. Contact Library Staff for details