Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company (Albuquerque Division) Collection

This A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. Collection contains in excess of 50,000 separate documents (engineering drawings, specifications, field survey notes, correspondence, various records & manuals, traffic data, etc.). This Collection was donated to the Winslow Historical Society (WHS) by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) in 1996 with the merger of the Burlington Northern Railway & the A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co.; as a result of this merger, the former Albuquerque Division Headquarters located at Winslow, Arizona, was closed.

In 2008 WHS donated this Collection to the ASRMF, located in Williams. The complete Collection was moved from Winslow to Williams, Arizona, during July 2008, and has been placed in weather tight temporary storage until the new Archive and Library space within the new Museum is ready to receive this and other collections donated to the Arizona State Railroad Museum (ASRM). Both the Arizona Memory Project, sponsor of this website, and the Arizona State Railroad Museum are Arizona Centennial 2012 Legacy Projects.

This A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. Collection consists primarily of documents from the railroad, its partially or wholly owned subsidiaries including, but not limited to, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Co., Western Division (A&PRRCo.); Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. (SFPRRCo.); California, Arizona & Santa Fe Ry. Co. (CA&SFRyCo.); Santa Fe Prescott & Phoenix RR Co. (SFP&PRRCo.); The Eastern Railway of New Mexico (ERyofNM) (Belen to Rio Puerco, NM); the districts and branch lines of the former Albuquerque Division; the New Mexico Division, and the former El Paso District (Albuquerque to Belen, NM).

In addition, this Collection contains a few documents from the Santa Fe's Illinois and Los Angeles Divisions, and the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railway, as well as documents from the Southern Pacific Company and Union Pacific Railroad.

The A&PRRCo. Western Division, jointly owned by the A.T.&S.F.RR.Co. and the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co. (Frisco), constructed the rail line across northern New Mexico and Arizona Territories. Construction started 12.6 track miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory (NMT) during April of 1880, at what was then known as A&P Junction Station, NMT, now known as Isleta Station, NM. When construction started, the A&PRRCo. located the headquarters offices of the Western Division in Albuquerque, NMT. As construction progressed westward along the 35th parallel, the headquarters office location moved to Coolidge, NMT (a.k.a. Cranes or Crane Ranch), then Gallup, NMT, and ultimately to Winslow, Arizona Territory (AT) during November of 1897.

The earliest Collection records include:

• Full-size color replica copy of the U. S. Congressional Act to provide ". . . a temporary government for the Territory of Arizona and for other purposes . . . .", signed by President Abraham Lincoln 24 February 1863, thus creating the Arizona Territory.
• A copy of the Congressional Act of 1866 authorizing construction of a railroad from SW Missouri to the Pacific Coast; thus creating the railroad from Albuquerque to Needles & beyond.
• Copies of 250 General Land Office (GLO) Maps, from as early as 1872 showing pencil notations of the planned alignment of the rail line most likely used for route selection surveys. It further appears that many of these GLO maps with dates up until 1897, were most likely used by the A&P for the selection of alternate lands (exchanges) in the Indemnity Strip when lands in the original land grant area were not available to the Railroad. Many of these GLO maps with dates after 1897, were no doubt used by the Santa Fe Pacific Land Company to select Lieu Rights lands to settle land exchanges within the boundaries of two national forests; two National Park Service land exchanges (Petrified Forest and Chaco Canyon); land exchanges with the Navajo, Moqui (Hopi), Zuni, and Laguna reservations; Taylor Grazing Act land exchanges; Forest Service land exchanges; plus numerous smaller settlements.

Additionally the Collection includes:

• Twenty-two (22) full size & color Land Grant Application Maps, dated between 1881 thru 1883, filed with the U. S. Government to obtain the railroad's Land Grants.
• Right of Way and Track Maps;
• Station Plat Maps;
• Plan & Profiles;
• Track Charts & Standards;
• Ravine Sections;
• Plan and Profile Drawings;
• Bridge Drawings;
• Complete drawing sets of the 1960 track realignments by passing Prescott (Abra to Skull Valley) and Ash Fork (Williams Junction to Crookton);
• General drawings of facilities across the Division;
• Survey Notes;
• Air Photos of various locations;
• Photos of Harvey Houses, Bridges, Depots, various other structures & facilities, steam & diesel locomotives; rolling stock & equipment, etc.;
• Division & System Standard Drawings;
• Maps: general, System & District;
• Ruling Grade Charts;
• Standard Forms;
• Time Tables;
• 1913 Engineer's Office Manual [2013 ASRM reprint].

Preservation and cataloging of the A.T.&S.F.Ry.Co. Collection began in 2001 by a few dedicated individuals, volunteers all, following the collections donation by the BNSF to the Winslow Historical Society.

From a historic standpoint, this Collection is priceless as the information contained exists in no other known repository of A.T&S.F.Ry.Co. information. Now that the Collection and its stewardship have been transferred to the ASRMF, this historically significant and unique collection is being preserved and cataloged. As of December 2013, approximately 10% of the Collection's 50,000 documents have been cataloged with approximately 3% of the Collection documents digitized (a continuing effort as funding becomes available).