Despite being chartered to serve the city, the railroad chose to bypass Santa Fe, due to the engineering challenges of the mountainous terrain. Eventually a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico, brought the Santa Fe railroad to its namesake city.
The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport, an enterprise that (at one time or another) included a tugboat fleet and an airline, the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, and ferryboats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys to the Pacific Ocean. The AT&SF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written for the film, The Harvey Girls (1946).
The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.
Rather than turn its survey southward at Dodge City, AT&SF headed southwest over Raton Pass because of coal deposits near Trinidad, Colorado, and Raton, New Mexico. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) was also aiming at Raton Pass, but AT&SF crews arose early one morning in 1878 and were hard at work with picks and shovels when the D&RG crews showed up for breakfast. At the same time the two railroads had a series of skirmishes over occupancy of the Royal Gorge west of Canon City, Colorado; physical confrontations led to two years of armed conflict that became known as the Royal Gorge Railroad War. Federal intervention prompted an out-of-court settlement on February 2, 1880, in the form of the so-called "Treaty of Boston", wherein the D&RG was allowed to complete its line and lease it for use by the Santa Fe. D&RG paid an estimated $1.4 million to Santa Fe for its work within the Gorge and agreed not to extend its line to Santa Fe, while the Santa Fe agreed to forego its planned routes to Denver and Leadville.
Building across Kansas and eastern Colorado was simple, with few natural obstacles (certainly fewer than the railroad was to encounter further west), but the railroad found it almost economically impossible because of the sparse population. It set up real estate offices in the area and promoted settlement across Kansas on the land that was granted to it by Congress in 1863. It offered discounted fares to anyone who traveled west to inspect land; if the land was purchased, the railroad applied the passenger's fare toward the price of the land.
AT&SF reached Albuquerque in 1880; Santa Fe, the original destination of the railroad, found itself on a short branch from Lamy, New Mexico. In March 1881 AT&SF connected with the Southern Pacific (SP) at Deming, New Mexico, forming the second transcontinental rail route. The railroad then built southwest from Benson, Arizona, to Nogales on the Mexican border where it connected with the Sonora Railway, which the AT&SF had built north from the Mexican port of Guaymas.
In 1879, the A&P struck a deal with the Santa Fe and the Frisco. Those railroads would jointly build and own the A&P railroad west of Albuquerque. In 1883 A&P reached Needles, California, where it connected with the SP, but the Tulsa-Albuquerque portion of the A&P was still unbuilt.
The Panic of 1893 had the same effect on the AT&SF that it had on many other railroads; financial problems and subsequent reorganization. In 1895 AT&SF sold the Frisco and the Colorado Midland and wrote off the losses, but it still retained control of the A&P.
The Santa Fe Railway still wanted to reach California on its own rails (it leased the SP line from Needles to Barstow), and the state of California eagerly courted the railroad to break SP's monopoly. In 1897 the railroad traded the Sonora Railway of Mexico to SP for their line between Needles and Barstow, giving AT&SF its own line from Chicago to the Pacific coast. It was unique in that regard until the Milwaukee Road completed its extension to Puget Sound in 1909. AT&SF purchased the Southern California Railway on Jan. 17, 1906; with this purchase they also acquired the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad and the California Central Railway.
Subsequent expansion of the Santa Fe Railway encompassed lines from Amarillo to Pecos (1899); from Ash Fork, Arizona, to Phoenix (1901); from Williams, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon (1901); the Belen Cutoff from the Pecos line at Texico to Dalies (northwest of Belen), bypassing the grades of Raton Pass (1907); and the Coleman Cutoff, from Texico to Coleman, Texas, near Brownwood (1912).
In 1907, AT&SF and SP jointly formed the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP), which took over several short railroads and built new lines connecting them to form a route from San Francisco north to Eureka, California. In 1928, Santa Fe sold its half of the NWP to SP. Also in 1928, Santa Fe purchased the U.S. portion of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway (the Mexican portion of the line became the Chihuahua-Pacific Railway, now part of National Railways of Mexico).
Because long stretches of its main line traverse areas without water, Santa Fe was one of the first buyers of diesel locomotives for freight service. The railroad was known for its passenger trains, notably the Chicago-Los Angeles El Capitan and Super Chief (currently operated as Amtrak's Southwest Chief), and for the on-line eating houses and dining cars that were operated by Fred Harvey. Several of these Harvey Houses survive - most notably the El Tovar, which is positioned right alongside the Grand Canyon, and La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Ariz.
On March 29, 1955, the railway was one of many companies that sponsored attractions in Disneyland with its 5-year sponsorship of all Disneyland trains and stations until 1974.
Post-World War II construction projects included an entrance to Dallas from the north, and relocation of the main line across northern Arizona, between Seligman and Williams. In 1960, AT&SF bought the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad (TP&W), then sold a half interest to the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). The TP&W cut straight east across Illinois from near Fort Madison, Iowa (Lomax, IL), to a connection with the PRR at Effner, Indiana (Illinois-Indiana border), forming a bypass around Chicago for traffic moving between the two lines. The TP&W route did not mesh with the traffic patterns Conrail developed after 1976, so AT&SF bought back the other half, merged the TP&W in 1983, then sold it back into independence in 1989.
The companies were so confident the merger would be approved that they began repainting locomotives and non-revenue rolling stock in a new unified paint scheme. While Southern Pacific (railroad) was sold off to Rio Grande Industries, all of the SP's real estate holdings were consolidated into a new company, Catellus Development Corporation, making it California state's largest private landowner, of which Santa Fe remained the owner (effectively 'stealing' the land from SP shareholders). (In the early 1980s gold was discovered on several properties west of Battle Mountain Nevada along I-80, on ground owned by the Santa Fe Railroad (formerly SP). The property company created Santa Fe Pacific Corporation (a name correlation of Santa Fe and Southern Pacific) to develop the properties. It was sold to Newmont during 1997 in preparation of the merger with Burlington Northern). Sometime later, Catellus would purchase the Union Pacific Railroad's interest in the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT). After the sale of Southern Pacific to Rio Grande Industries, the SPSF name reverted to Santa Fe Industries, the holding company of AT&SF.
In general, the same train name was used for both directions of a particular train. The exceptions to this rule included the Chicagoan and Kansas Cityan trains (both names referred to the same service, but the Chicagoan was the eastbound version, while the Kansas Cityan was the westbound version), and the Eastern Express and West Texas Express. All AT&SF trains that terminated in Chicago did so at Dearborn Station. Trains terminating in Los Angeles arrived at AT&SF's La Grande Station until May 1939, when Los Angeles Union Station was opened.
The railway's extensive network was also home to a number of regional services. These generally couldn't boast of the size or panache of the transcontinental trains, but built up enviable reputations of their own nonetheless. Of these, the Chicago-Texas trains were the most famous and impressive. The San Diegans, which ran from Los Angeles to San Diego, were the most popular and durable, becoming to the Santa Fe what New York City-Philadelphia trains were to the Pennsylvania Railroad. But Santa Fe flyers also served Tulsa, Oklahoma, El Paso, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona (the Hassayampa Flyer), and Denver, Colorado, among other cities not on their main line.
To reach smaller communities, the railroad operated mixed (passenger and freight) trains or gas-electric doodlebug rail cars. The latter were later converted to diesel power, and one pair of Budd Rail Diesel Cars were eventually added. After World War II, Santa Fe Trailways buses replaced most of these lesser trains. These smaller trains generally were not named; only the train numbers were used to differentiate services.
The ubiquitous passenger service inspired the title of the 1946 Academy-Award-winning Harry Warren tune "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." The song was written in 1945 for the film The Harvey Girls, a story about the waitresses of the Fred Harvey Company's restaurants. It was sung in the film by Judy Garland and recorded by many other singers, including Bing Crosby. In the 1970s, the railroad used Crosby's version in a commercial.
AT&SF ceased operating passenger trains on May 1, 1971, when it conveyed its remaining trains to Amtrak. These included the Super Chief/El Capitan, the Texas Chief and the San Diegan (though Amtrak reduced the San Diegan from three round trips to two). Discontinued were the San Francisco Chief, the ex-Grand Canyon, the Tulsan, and a Denver-La Junta local. ATSF had been more than willing to retain the San Diegan and its famed Chiefs. However, any railroad that opted out of Amtrak would have been required to operate all of its passenger routes until at least 1976. The prospect of having to keep operating its less successful routes, especially the money-bleeding 23/24 (the former Grand Canyon) led ATSF to get out of passenger service altogether.
Amtrak still runs the Super Chief and San Diegan today as the Southwest Chief and Pacific Surfliner, respectively, although the original routes and equipment have been modified by Amtrak.
The Angelo: San Angelo, Texas - Fort Worth, Texas (on the GC&SF)
The Antelope: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Kansas City, Missouri
Atlantic Express: Los Angeles, California - Kansas City, Missouri (this was the eastbound version of the Los Angeles Express).
California Express: Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri - Los Angeles, California
California Fast Mail: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California - San Francisco, California
California Limited: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California
California Special: Clovis, New Mexico - Houston, Texas (with through connections to California via the San Francisco Chief at Clovis)
Cavern: Clovis, New Mexico - Carlsbad, New Mexico (connected with the Scout).
Centennial State: Denver, Colorado - Chicago, Illinois
Central Texas Express: Sweetwater, Texas - Lubbock, Texas
Chicagoan: Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois (this was the eastbound version of the Kansas Cityan passenger train).
Chicago Express: Newton, Kansas - Chicago, Illinois
Chicago Fast Mail: San Francisco, California - Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois
Chicago-Kansas City Flyer: Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri
The Chief: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California
Eastern Express: Lubbock, Texas - Amarillo, Texas (this was the eastbound version of the West Texas Express).
El Capitan: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California
El Pasoan: El Paso, Texas - Albuquerque, New Mexico
El Tovar: Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois (via Belen)
Fargo Fast Mail/Express: Belen, New Mexico - Amarillo, Texas - Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois
Fast Fifteen: Newton, Kansas - Galveston, Texas
Fast Mail Express: San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles) - Chicago, Illinois
Golden Gate: Oakland, California - Bakersfield, California, with coordinated connecting bus service to Los Angeles and San Francisco
Grand Canyon Limited: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California
The Hopi: Los Angeles, California - Chicago, Illinois
Kansas Cityan: Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri (this was the westbound version of the Chicagoan passenger train).
Kansas City Chief: Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois
Los Angeles Express: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California (this was the westbound version of the Atlantic Express).
The Missionary: San Francisco, California - Belen, New Mexico - Amarillo, Texas - Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois
Navajo: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles)
Oil Flyer: Kansas City, Missouri - Tulsa, Oklahoma, with through sleepers to Chicago via other trains
Overland Limited: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California
Phoenix Express: Los Angeles, California - Phoenix, Arizona
The Ranger: Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois
The Saint: San Diego, California - Los Angeles, California - San Francisco, California (this was the northbound version of the "Angel")
San Diegan: Los Angeles, California - San Diego, California
San Francisco Chief: San Francisco, California - Chicago, Illinois
San Francisco Express: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles)
Santa Fe de Luxe: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California - San Francisco, California
Santa Fe Eight: Belen, New Mexico - Amarillo, Texas - Kansas City, Missouri - Chicago, Illinois
The Scout: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles)
South Plains Express: Sweetwater, Texas - Lubbock, Texas
Super Chief: Chicago, Illinois - Los Angeles, California
The Texan: Houston, Texas - New Orleans, Louisiana (on the GC&SF between Galveston and Houston, then via the Missouri Pacific Railroad between Houston and New Orleans).
Texas Chief: Galveston, Texas (on the GC&SF) - Chicago, Illinois
Tourist Flyer: Chicago, Illinois - San Francisco, California (via Los Angeles)
The Tulsan: Tulsa, Oklahoma - Kansas City, Mo. with through coaches to Chicago, Illinois, via other trains (initially the Chicagoan/Kansas Cityan)
Valley Flyer: Oakland, California - Bakersfield, California
West Texas Express: Amarillo, Texas - Lubbock, Texas (this was the westbound version of the Eastern Express).