A.T. & S.F.( Atchison,Topeka & Santa Fe Railway) Hampden 17J Railway Standard Private Label Very Rare Circa 1897 Gold Filled Pocket Watch

A.T. & S.F.( Atchison,Topeka & Santa Fe Railway) Hampden 17J Railway Standard Private Label Very Rare Circa 1897 Gold Filled Pocket Watch - Manual winding. Gold Filled ( 52 mm). White dial with Roman numerals. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka in Kansas and Santa Fe in New Mexico. The railroad reached the Kansas–Colorado border in 1873 and extended to Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To encourage business along the line, the company opened real estate offices and sold farmland from land grants it received from Congress for building the railroad. During the early construction of the line, many sections of track followed the same path as the wagon ruts of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1869, the company built its first general office building in Topeka. This structure also functioned as both a passenger station and a freight depot. When the line was extended to Newton, Kansas, in 1871, the railroad became a major shipper of cattle, helping ensure steady revenue from the end points of Texas cattle drive trails. Although the railroad was intended to serve Santa Fe, the company initially chose to bypass the city because the surrounding mountainous terrain made construction difficult. In 1880, a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico, was built to connect the railroad to Santa Fe, about 20 miles away. The railroad also continued westward, eventually linking with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Deming. Over time, the system expanded with branch lines reaching California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Illinois. The railroad entered Arizona and California after acquiring control of the western portion of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1880. It reached Chicago by acquiring the Chicago and St. Louis Railway in 1887. By that same year, the main line between Chicago and Los Angeles had been completed, making the Santa Fe Railway one of the most important railroads in the United States and one of the few to directly connect the Midwest with both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean under a single corporation.