The Barnwell and Searchlight Railway is a defunct

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

that operated from 1906 to 1911. The railroad ran from

Barnwell, California Barnwell, originally a rail camp named Summit, then Manvel, was a former railhead serving local mining camps, now a ghost town, in San Bernardino County, California. It lies at an elevation 4806 feet in the New York Mountains. History Manvel A m ...

Searchlight, Nevada Searchlight is an Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, at the topographic saddle between two mountain ranges. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census i ...

. It was always operated by the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

Construction of line

The discovery of gold in

in 1897 led to a

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

in the area. In 1900 the Quartette Mining Company was formed and two years later the area was booming with activity and peaking in 1907 at a population of 5,000. It was at the peak of this boom that the Barnwell & Searchlight Railway was formed. The railway was constructed between May 1, 1906 and March 31, 1907 and was built to serve the Searchlight gold mining district at Searchlight, Nevada. On April 7, 1907, only 7 days after construction was completed the railway was leased to and became a

non-operating subsidiary In the United States, a paper railroad is a company in the railroad business that exists "on paper only": as a legal entity which does not own any track, locomotives, or rolling stock. In the early days of railroad construction, paper railroads h ...

of ATSF.

Consolidated into California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway

On December 28, 1911 the Barnwell & Searchlight was consolidated into ATSF's

, the

California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway The California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway was a non-operating subsidiary (paper railroad) of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). It was incorporated in 1911, and was merged into the ATSF in 1963. California, Arizona and Santa Fe w ...

Abandonment of line

On September 23, 1923 the line's track was washed out and was abandoned on February 18, 1924. The town during this time was dying and by 1927 the population was only 50 people.

Timeline

*April 1906 Railroad formed *May 1906 Grading begins *September 1906 Laying rails begins *March 1907 Construction completed *April 1907 Leased to ATSF as a non-operating subsidiary *December 1911 Railroad is consolidated into ATSF's non-operating subsidiary California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway *September 1923 Line washed out *February 1924 Line abandoned

Interchange at Barnwell

At Barnwell, the Barnwell and Searchlight branched from ATSF's non-operating subsidiary, the

California Eastern Railway California Eastern Railway, is a defunct short-line railroad that operated from 1902 - 1911. The railroad ran from Goffs, California, to Ivanpah. It was first a private line operated by a mining company, that was acquired by the Atchison, Top ...

. The California Eastern ran south from North Ivanpah, California - Leastalk (Ivanpah on the

San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities (Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California), via Las Ve ...

interchange) - Barnwell (Barnwell & Searchlight interchange) - Blackburn - Blake (Goffs on the ATSF mainline from Los Angeles - Needles).

Route

* Barnwell (Interchange with

) *

Hart Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores * Hart's Reptile W ...

*Juan (Nevada) *

Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnwell Searchlight Railway Defunct Nevada railroads Defunct California railroads Predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Railway companies established in 1906 Railway companies disestablished in 1911 History of the Mojave Desert region American companies established in 1906