Although my ancestors in northeastern England thought it
darling, and although it became the stock model to follow in
England and America for railroad builders, the Darlington
&
amp; Stockton Railroad (the first railroad as we know them) was
never called the
”
Darling
&
amp; Stock Railroad.
”
Editor,
Although my ancestors in northeastern England thought it darling, and although it became the stock model to follow in England and America for railroad builders, the Darlington & Stockton Railroad (the first railroad as we know them) was never called the “Darling & Stock Railroad.” Nor was the Union Railroad ever called the Confederate Railroad, according to my late uncle Brownie who, when he retired from the Union Railroad – which was a beltline serving steel mills in and around Pittsburgh – gave me a locomotive horn. I still have it and will award it to the reporter who reports the truth about our transport boondoggles.
UP has always been, and hopefully always will be, Union Pacific Railroad. Although many, including Ken Burns, said that the transcontinental railroad built by UP and Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific) united the nation, it has never been the “United Pacific.”
We in San Benito County have one operating railroad, UP (which is a class I in the nomenclature of Surface Transportation Board – “Surf Board” to those who practice law) before it successor to the terminated Interstate Commerce Commission, which was killed-off – euthanized, some said, after 109 years by our Congress in 1995. And we have one non-operating railroad, San Benito Railroad, LLC, which owns an option to operating passenger-only railroad service on the Hollister Branch Line.
It would be interesting history to read about SBC’s railroads from the past, e.g., the one that owned the tracks on the southside of Highway 156 in San Juan Bautista (you can still see some of the tracks poking-through the highway surface south of the intersection of Highway 156 and The Alameda).
Caveat Viator!
Joe Thompson, Tres Pinos
