Pacifique

réf. FRE81 — 51 p. 295x23 cm. 11 ½x 9 in. With a folded map ca. 136 x 60 cm. 53 ½x 23 ½ in. By the late 1910s the Union Pacific Railroad UP was one of the largest and most strategically important rail systems in the United States: Operated a core network of roughly 9000–10000 miles of track including subsidiaries and controlled lines the broader system was significantly larger it formed a central component of the transcontinental rail system linking: Omaha / Council Bluffs Midwest hub across Nebraska Wyoming Utah to connections reaching the Pacific Coast via Southern Pacific and other lines controlled or was closely associated with major lines such as: Oregon Short Line Oregon–Washington Railroad & Navigation Company as outlined on the map included in the report. In practical terms UP was a backbone carrier of western U.S. transportation moving both freight and passengers across vast distances. 1918 was important year in UP history as for the first time it became component of a single national logistics machine not a fully autonomous company - after half a century of operation as a for-profit private corporation it became a part of a nationalized system run by the USRA begun Dec. 1917 fully implemented in 1918. These changes are reflected in the report in the ‘Federal Control of Railroads’ section as well as ‘Physical Changes’ and ‘Water Companies - Federal Control’. Other sections of the report included the equipment asset accounts status as well as the all kinds of passenger and car statistics for the board of directors to review. The map shows UP lines in its pre-WWI glory: once the U.S. entered World War I the federal government through the United States Railroad Administration imposed strict limits on new construction prioritization of maintenance and war traffic/ As a result large-scale new line construction was effectively frozen capital projects were deferred unless militarily necessary. Present report is not found on Worldcat copies in trade seen often lack the map. unknown