This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from a 1940 Southern Pacific Railroad advertisement promoting their Shasta Route in Northern California and Oregon.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" and 24”x36” formats are excellent image sizes that look great as a stand-alone piece of art, or grouped as a visual statement. The 24”x36” posters have a 1” white border. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF THE SHASTA ROUTE & THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
THE SHASTA ROUTE
Construction of the “Oregon & California Railroad” (O&CRR) between the Columbia and Sacramento Rivers was a decades-long process. Surveys for the O&CRR began in the 1850s, and construction began in 1868 and was completed in 1887.
The O&CRR went bankrupt in the construction process, and the work was completed by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). The line passed by the famous Mount Shasta in Northern California, and the Shasta Route name was adopted.
In the early years of the 20th century, major improvements on the Shasta Route were undertaken by railroad magnate E.H. Harriman to upgrade tracks, replace early bridges, and improve service. The final major reconstruction on the route occurred in 1938-42 when construction of Shasta Dam forced a major realignment between Redding and Lakehead.
The Shasta Daylight replaced heavyweight trains on the same route that had taken nearly a day and night to complete the run. The Shasta Daylight was the first diesel powered Daylight and the only Daylight to run beyond California. The scenic route of the Shasta Daylight passed its namesake Mount Shasta in daylight hours.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
The Southern Pacific (reporting mark SP) (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The original Southern Pacific began in 1865 as a land holding company. The last incarnation of the Southern Pacific, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, was founded in 1969 and assumed control of the Southern Pacific system. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company was acquired in 1996 by the Union Pacific Corporation and merged with their Union Pacific Railroad.
The Southern Pacific legacy founded hospitals in San Francisco, Tucson, and Houston. In the 1970s, it also founded a telecommunications network with a state-of-the-art microwave and fiber optic backbone. This telecommunications network became part of Sprint, a company whose name came from the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.
