The Shafter Subdivision is a

rail line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

owned and operated by the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

s of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. The line begins as a continuation of the

Elko Subdivision The Elko Subdivision is a railway line in Nevada owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad running from Weso (switching point just east of Winnemucca) to the freight yard in Elko. It is part of both the Overland Route and the Central C ...

at the Elko freight yards, and travels east to the junction with the

Lynndyl Subdivision The Lynndyl Subdivision is a rail line owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in the U.S. state of Utah, running from Salt Lake City southwest to Milford, where the Caliente Subdivision continues towards Los Angeles.

of the former

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 ...

, adjacent to the Kennecott Smokestack. The line was formerly part of the

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

. The entire subdivision is part of the Central Corridor; the portion west of

Alazon ''Alazṓn'' ( grc, ἀλαζών) is one of three stock characters in comedy of the theatre of ancient Greece. He is the opponent of the '' eirôn''. The ''alazṓn'' is an impostor that sees himself as greater than he actually is. The ''sene ...

(a switchover near

Wells, Nevada Wells is a small city in Elko County, in northeast Nevada in the western United States. The population was 1,292 at the 2010 census. Wells is located at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 93, approximately east of Elko and is part of ...

) is also part of the Overland Route. Shafter is the name of the rail siding at the junction between this line and the

Nevada Northern Railway The Nevada Northern Railway was a railroad in the U.S. state of Nevada, built primarily to reach a major copper producing area in White Pine County, Nevada. The railway, constructed in 1905–06, extended northward about from Ely to connection ...

Route description

The route proceeds east from Elko, following the

Humboldt River The Humboldt River is an extensive river drainage system located in north-central Nevada. It extends in a general east-to-west direction from its headwaters in the Jarbidge, Independence, and Ruby Mountains in Elko County, to its terminus in th ...

, where the line is part of both the Overland Route and Central Corridor, the two lines use

directional running A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

to share track, until the two routes separate at Alazon. From this point east, the Shafter Subdivision is only part of the Central Corridor, proceeding towards Salt Lake City. The Overland Route branches off as the

Lakeside Subdivision The Lakeside Subdivision is a railway line in eastern Washington running about from Sunset Junction, west of Spokane to Pasco. It is operated by BNSF Railway and is considered part of the Northern Transcon. The line is used by the Portland s ...

towards

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

. East of this separation, the Shafter Subdivision loosely follows the historical route of the

Hastings Cutoff The Hastings Cutoff was an alternative route for westward emigrants to travel to California, as proposed by Lansford Hastings in ''The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California''. The ill-fated Donner Party infamously took the route in 1846. De ...

. The highest elevation attained along the route is at Hogan's Tunnel, under Flower Pass in the

Pequop Mountains The Pequop Mountains are a mountain range located in eastern Elko County, in northeastern Nevada in the western United States. The range runs generally north-south for approximately The high point of the range is an unnamed peak (at an elevat ...

. The line also crosses the

Toano Range The Toano Range is a mountain range located in eastern Elko County, Nevada in the United States. The highest point in the range reaches . The range is separated from the Goshute Mountains to the south by Morgan Pass. Interstate 80 and Union Pa ...

at Silver Zone and has a near 360 degree

horseshoe curve A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed which reverses turn direction (inflection) twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more. Such curves are more commonly found ...

in the descent from Silver Zone Pass into the

Great Salt Lake Desert The Great Salt Lake Desert (colloquially referred to as the West Desert) is a large dry lake in northern Utah, United States, between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border. It is a subregion of the larger Great Basin Desert, and noted for wh ...

. The line crosses from Nevada to

Wendover Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...

, and proceeds due east across the

Bonneville Salt Flats The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bur ...

until reaching the Kennecott Smokestack in Garfield, where today the route ends with a junction with the

. Originally the line continued east of the smelter to downtown

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, crossing and then running parallel to track built by the

. In May 1967, the

Utah Department of Transportation The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is an agency of the state government of Utah, United States; it is usually referred to by its initials UDOT (pronounced "you-dot"). UDOT is charged with maintaining the more than of roadway that co ...

relocated portions of the WP built track in the area to prepare for the construction of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

. As part of the relocation, the Western Pacific and the Union Pacific began sharing track between the smelter and Salt Lake. This resulted in both the western and eastern ends of the Shafter Subdivision using directional running with a formerly competing line. After the 1983 acquisition of the Western Pacific by the Union Pacific, the crossovers between the two lines were eliminated and the two lines were re-configured to make a single dual-track line and this portion of the Shafter Subdivision was completely absorbed by the Lynndyl Subdivision.

References

Union Pacific Railroad lines Rail infrastructure in Nevada Rail infrastructure in Utah Elko, Nevada {{US-rail-transport-stub