Train Question

[ffutures]

For the adventure I'm writing I want to give the name of a (preferably non-existent) American railway company of the late 19th century, to be owned by a Tom Swift style engineer. Basically I want somewhere where there would be long straight stretches of track, running E-W, which could be used for running high speed trains bearing catapults used to launch primitive spacecraft.

I did a quick web search and can't find the one I came up with, which was the Great Arkansas Railway Company. Can someone who knows something about trains check this for me and make sure I'm okay? Or suggest a more suitable area if Arkansas seems silly for some reason?

Comments

[ckd]

Most of them had more "region" or "endpoint & endpoint" type names, so you'd get California Pacific or Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe.

Perhaps the New Orleans & El Paso? Texas should give you lots of E-W track opportunities there.

[captboulanger.livejournal.com]

The Arkansas area is rather hilly. What you'd need for flats would be Nebraska or Kansas or the Dakotas.

The major railway in the area (it went west from Omaha, Nebraska) was the Union Pacific, so something like the "Kansas Pacific" or "Nebraska Pacific" would be close enough to be recognizable, but not right on, if that's what you're liooking for.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Arkansas isn't flat -- the Ozark and Ouachita mountains cover the western half of the state (and in the eastern you have numerous tributaries of the Mississipi River). Here's a map, if you'd like a look.

I'd suggest eastern South Dakota. Big, and flat as a board. Western Kansas is also very similar, and Eastern New Mexico lapping onto western Texas is not only flat but dry -- no rivers to cross. Though admittedly the tivers in South Dakota and Kansas run almost exclusively east-west and you can find long stretches of dry land between them.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

The Missouri crosses South Dakota more-or-less from northnorthwest to southeast, and that's a big dip when you cross.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Arkansas is an Ozark state, which means that lots of it has big ups and downs. I would say Kansas or Nebraska would be better bets. The Interstate from Omaha to Denver (and presumably, the railroad that came before) is almost entirely straight, both left-right and up-down.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I suspect it was Kansas I was thinking of originally - that long straight train track in the first Superman movie.

Maybe I should start with the physical parameters - this needs to be as far South as possible, to get the maximum boost from the rotation of the Earth, and have a long straight flat East to West section of track. It'd be nice if this was a gentle gradient which nevertheless ends up with the Eastern end as high above sea level as possible.

Any suggestions?

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

You can find a generalized terrain map here. Your best bet will be northern Texas and Oklahoma, but the biggest issue you'll face is whether or not your engineer can build a stable bridge over the Mississippi — one that can tolerate the high speeds. On the eastern end of the line, you'll hit mountains, which will definitely be above sea level.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should settle for a long section of track in Texas. I was thinking more in terms of fifty or a hundred miles, not thousands.

[captboulanger.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you need flat track and the east end high, the best place for that I can think of is southwestern Arizona, near Fort Yuma. It would have the advantage, in that time frame, of being very remote. Tuson, Phoenix, Flagstaff are all in rough terrain, but the southwestern corner of the state is desert and rather flat, there's only one river and it runs E-W (so you could parallel it) and the eastern end would be higher, as the Colorado River valley would be on the west end....

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Okay - that sounds like a good option. Just need a name for it now. Or given that the guy doing this is supposed to be VERY rich, have him build the tracks specially.

Was there already a railway there circa 1895? Anyone got any idea if there was, or who owned it?

[captboulanger.livejournal.com]

If there was, it would have been the Southern Pacific (which was owned by the Central Pacific, based in Sacramento), the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, or the San Diego and Arizona Eastern. ;) I think the SP followed a more northerly line though (L.A. to Phoenix to Tucson, probably)...

I'm not sure about 1895 though. The Southern Pacific (which started southward from Sacramento) only got to Los Angeles in 1886.

[captboulanger.livejournal.com]

As for a name... as far as I'm aware there was never a California Pacific, or you could go with a city-based name like the San Diego and Tucson...