I recieved an email from Cladia Rivers of the UTEP Special Collections Department. She asked me to advertize their new online inventory of the Southern Pacific Collection. What follows is her notification of this milestone. Congratulations to Claudia and her staff.

Robby



At long last, we have put Marsha’s inventory up on our Digital Commons website:
http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/finding_aid/1/

We added about fifty keywords that do not show on the main page, but are included for those doing web searches. Please spread the word!

Users can view the finding aid with historical sketch, series description, and so forth by clicking on “download the document.” The various inventories are in searchable PDF files as “Related files.” Content in the separate inventories can only be found once you open the file. However, with such a large finding aid, I think that this is a workable solution.

Marsha left a new column in the DE files for new box numbers if we get around to re-boxing and re-locating all these boxes.

Robby,

Do you know what is in the collections there at El Paso specifically?

For instance, do you know if they have any Locomtive drawing sets, or any kind of blueprints from the old SP three foot gauge line out from Laws to Keeler in California?

My quick view of the information posted by UTEP seems to indicate it is material that came from the local division office. This includes not only SP items, but also El Paso & SW information.

The GMOs and other work orders may provide information of system wide interest as apposed to regional interest. An example is a record GMO for the change (updating) of lighting of a business car.

The California State RR Museum Library has a host of material that relates to the SP (ex-Carson & Colorado) operation in the Owens Valley. The Nevada State Historical Society has an alignment and profile from about 1906 as well as a number of station plots.

The archive of over 500 boxes was stored in the SP Headquarters building in El Paso. The Territory covered is Tucson to Tucumcari and the branch lines. With the work of many people including David Myrick this collection was donated to UTEP. The collection has files from the El Paso & Northeastern and the El Paso & Southwestern from many of the departments you would expect on a railroad including Bridge & Building, Roadway, and Superintendent of Motive Power. Bonito Lake and the 160 mile pipeline are covered by the collection which was built prior to the SP lease of the EP&SW system in 1924 from phelps dodge. There is new and undiscovered material in this collection that should bring new light to the EP&NE, EP&SW, and associated lines.


On a personal note working on SP 3420 brought me to this collection. I was looking for information on the locomotive and discovered just how vas this collection is. It really began my awakening of how large and important RR were in a view beyond the train and equipment but the impact it had on westward development. When matched with EP&SW parent company phelps dodges history, it covers a lot about the development of the west

I am glad to see the collection has reached this pointing its evolution. Congratulations to Claudia and her Staff.

Robby