Northern section of California Eastern RR

California Eastern 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 oper ...

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, 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 ...

History

A mining magnate from Denver, Isaac G. Blake, in April 1892, with an interest in the silver mines in Sagamore Canyon in the

New York Mountains The New York Mountains are a small mountain range found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA. The range's northeastern area lies in southeastern Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north ...

, built the Needles Reduction Company mill, in the town of Needles and then in December 1892 began building the Nevada Southern Railway, toward those silver mines and the gold mining town of Vanderbilt from the

(ATSF) station at Goffs, completing to a rail camp with a post office, named Manvel, then later built it on up nearer the mines and a pass through the mountains, to a rail camp named Summit which was renamed Manvel when the post office relocated there, in July 1893. Manvel renamed Barnwell was the nearest railhead for nearby mining camps, including Vanderbilt, Goodsprings and the mines at

Searchlight, Nevada Searchlight is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, at the topographic saddle between two mountain ranges. At the 2020 census it had a population of 445. History According to U.S. Sen ...

. In early 1902, the Nevada Southern Railway completed a extension over the New York Mountains, past Vanderbilt, into the

Ivanpah Valley The Ivanpah Valley is in southeastern California and southern Nevada in the United States. The valley is between the New York Mountains and the Ivanpah Mountains in San Bernardino County on the California side, and in Clark County on the Nevada ...

, to a railhead named Ivanpah, to serve as the shipping point for the Copper World Mine. Several months later, the ATSF bought the Nevada Southern Railway and renamed it the California Eastern Railway.

Abandonment of the line

In November 1918, the Copper World Mine was shut down for the last time and in 1921 the California Eastern Railway tore up its tracks between Ivanpah and Goffs.

Consolidated into California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway

On December 28, 1911, the California Eastern Railway was consolidated into ATSF's

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 ...

, the California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway.

References

{{California railroads Defunct California railroads Predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Railway companies established in 1902 Railway companies disestablished in 1911 History of the Mojave Desert region 1902 establishments in California 1911 disestablishments in California