click here to return to the Fictionrail index
The Chicago Denver & San Francisco is a railroad operating from Niagara Falls, NY to Oakland, CA.
CDSF technically dates all the way back to 1890, with the formation of Craig Electric Lines, however CDSF itself is from 1980. The Right of Way is built up from various predecessor railroads, such as the aforementioned CEL, Trinidad Santa Fe & Western, St. Louis & Kansas City, Des Moines Central Electric Railroad, Joliet Western & Central Illinois Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, and a handful of other smaller railroads.

Predecessor Info

Craig Electric Lines was originally formed by Craig P. Hunsworth in 1890 as Craig & Co, with the express goal of building from the town his parents named after him to Pittsburg, CA. Over time this railroad would expand (and merge) further and further, eventually connecting San Francisco to Kansas City, although noteworthily the connection to San Francisco would become moreso a tramway connection in Oakland, so technically you can ride from Chicago to San Francisco under one company, but you will have to transfer to streetcar near the end of the journey.

Trinidad Santa Fe & Western started in 1887 as a railroad built primarily out of spite towards the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe, and would run from Denver to Santa Fe via Trinidad. At some point, following "convincing" from the CEL, they built a mainline from Trinidad to Oklahoma City.

The St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad was a railroad that began operations in 1929, following the merger of the Quincy Belt and the Hutchinson Central and spanned from Oklahoma City to Springfield, IL. Eventually merged with the Des Moines Central Electric Railroad and the Joliet Western & Central Illinois Railroad to form the St. Louis Central.

Post-CDSF expansions

The only noteworthy expansion post-CDSF is the "purchase" of the Michigan Central from Conrail, leading to CDSF now having a mainline from Chicago to Niagara Falls, NY. At this time, the Niagara Junction Railway was also already a part of the MCRR, so technically CDSF has NJRy as a predecessor, too.

Passenger Operations

CDSF offers both commuter and intercity travel opportunities, notably their long distance intercity trains run all the way from Detroit to Oakland, stopping at every major city along the mainline. See the above route map, and plot the most direct route between Oakland and Detroit for a rough idea of the stops of this service. Alongside that, there's an intercity train from Denver to Kansas City via Santa Fe and Oklahoma City, which requires the train to wye itself twice.

In terms of commuter operations, there's the Cali Service, Denver Service, Missouri Service, Michigan Service, and Port Stanley Corridor.

Amtrak is allowed to operate trains over CDSF's trackage, and even duplicates segments of CDSF's own intercity services.

Examples of some Freight Operations

Coal from Cheyenne to NIPSCO in Michigan City. Union Pacific trains send coal drags to Cheyenne so CDSF can haul it the rest of the way to NIPSCO.

Nearly Cross-country Hotshot Intermodal. Having a mainline all the way from New York (state, not city) to Oakland allows for some rather long distance intermodal service.

Photos


click here to return to the Fictionrail index