Railroad research
The Kansas Historical Society has excellent resources for railroad history research, including the records of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; thousands of railroad history items are available online on Kansas Memory.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company records
Other KSHS collections related to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Other railroad collections
Online articles
Other railroad websites
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company, records 1859-1995, manuscript collection no. 789
This collection contains approximately 3,000 boxes of the railway company's business records, including these selections on Kansas Memory:
- Steam locomotive diagrams and classifications
- Diesel locomotive diagrams and classifications
- Photographs
- Technical drawings
- Incorporation records
Guides to additional materials from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company records:
- Brief box list of company records
- Agricultural demonstration train records
- Kansas land grant records
- Film collection
- Rolling stock engineering drawings
- Facilities at Albuquerque
- Payroll Records
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Prior Service Records - files were created to document prior service for each employee who was working for the railroad on August 29, 1935, for retirement credit. See an example of a prior service file.
The index to the prior service records is available online through Ancestry.com, accessible free of charge to Kansans with a state drivers license or ID. -
Santa Fe Magazine - our holdings include a complete run of the employee magazine from 1906 to 1983 with a consolidated index. The copyright free issues are available online at the Hathi Trust website:
Volumes 1-7 full text
Volumes 8-17 full text (and volumes 18-57 search only)
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AT&SF records available on microfilm:
- Splinters index and magazine, 1859-1940 - MS 757-MS 765.01
- Records, 1879-1906 - MS 372-MS 373, circulars, time tables, train robbery correspondence, Meade's history of the Santa Fe, and advertisements of railroad oriented companies
- Rate schedules, 1870-1879 - MS 405.01
- Records and correspondence, 1869-1880 - MS 653-MS 659, court cases and treasurer's records
- Correspondence, 1873-1893 - MS 706-MS 727, 1884 list of Santa Fe buildings
- List of buildings and leased lines, 18---19-- - MS 1213
- Payroll records, 18---19-- - MS 1500-MS 1517
- Daily construction journal, 1887 - MS 297.02
- Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway company records, 1896-1950 - MS 1253-MS 1254, includes Fred Harvey Company materials
AT&SF related collections:
- Fred Harvey System Business Records, 1937-1946
- Cyrus K. Holliday papers, 1854-1896, MS 146
- C. K. Holliday scrapbook and letters, 1864-1875 [i.e. 1927] (bulk 1864-1883), MS 70.01
- Cyrus K. Holliday papers of his estate, 1900-1908, MS 273.02
- Cyrus K. Holliday papers, 18-- , MS 1320-MS 1321
- Santa Fé train robberies, 1890-1895, MS 373.02
- Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad records, 1878-1944, MS 1131-MS 1132
Other railroad collections
- Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division, by Alexander Gardner
- Kansas Rock Island Railroad - scanned maps of all of the Rock Island Line in Kansas and the accompanying land deeds. Please contact the reference staff for assistance.
- Anderson County, Kan., railroad maps, 1870-1919
- Major Railroad Manuscript Collections at KSHS
- Railroad immigration promotion materials on Kansas Memory
- Barnes Railroad Collection, 1963 – [ca.1971], MS 1312–MS 1313B
Online articles:
- The Building of the First Kansas Railroad South of the Kaw River, by Harold J. Henderson, August 1947
- The Birth of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, (2 pts) by Joseph W. Snell and Don W. Wilson, Summer 1968
- The Impact of the Railroads on Coal Mining in Osage County, 1869-1910, by D. Lane Hartsock, Winter 1971
- Thomas Ewing, Jr., and the Origins of the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, by David G. Taylor, Summer 1976
- Kansas Conflict: Populist Versus Railroader in the 1890's, by Donald E. Press, Autumn, 1977
- Standardized Railroad Stations in Kansas: the Case of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe by Charles W. Bohi and H. Roger Grant, Spring 1981
- Fred Harvey (Kansapedia)
- Railroads and Immigration exhibit online
- California State Railroad Museum
- Fred Harvey Cookbook Project
- Investigations of Railroad Accidents, 1911-1993 (National Transportation Library)
- KATY Railroad Historical Society
- Paired Rail Railroad Publications
- Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society
- Union Pacific Historical Society
- Union Pacific Railroad Museum
- U.S. Railroad Retirement Board records for genealogists