Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Co.

Former railway. Chartered in Kansas in 1860 by Cyrus K. Holliday, the founder of Topeka, as the Atchison and Topeka Railroad Co., it was built along the Santa Fe Trail and became known as the Santa Fe Railway. Its main line, completed in 1872, extended to the Colorado state border. Further expansion west in the 1880s and early 1890s reached about 9,000 mi (14,500 km) of track. It reached its greatest extent in 1941, with more than 13,000 mi (21,000 km) of track, but gradually shrank thereafter. In 1971 its famously luxurious passenger service was sold to Amtrak. In the 1990s it merged with Burlington Northern to become Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.