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Waltham Santa Fe Route Pocket Watch
The Waltham Santa Fe Route Here is another one of our most favorite rail road pocket watches. This great watch was manufactured by Waltham for the Santa Fe Route rail road. This watch is rather rare for several reasons. Very few of these were actually produced, and this one was made in 1896, two years after the Santa Fe Route discontinued using their famous Soap Bar Herald that was used from 1888 to 1894.
Here Are The Photos Of Our Santa Fe Route
This beautiful watch was made in 1896. Both the dial and movement are marked with the Santa Fe Route emblem. The movement has one of Waltham's most beautiful tulip damaskeened patterns that is found on their high grade movements. This Model 1883 has solid gold jewel settings and solid gold balance screws and is fully adjusted. The case was made by the Keystone Watch Case Company and is Silveroid. Very durable construction for rail road use. This watch is a wonderful piece of railway history. Here are some nice pictures of the Santa Fe Chief emblem and a very nice painting of a Santa Fe engine with the War Bonnet markings made famous by the Santa Fe.
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The Santa Fe
was chartered in 1863 as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. It was opened
to traffic in 1864. Construction continued until the rail road reached
Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1880. In the early 1890's the Santa Fe had over
9000 miles of track with connections to Chicago and Los Angeles. The run
from Chicago to Los Angeles took only two days and was probably their most
famous route. The depression of 1893 forced the Santa Fe to reorganize in
1895. The new name became Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company.
By 1929 the rail road had 13,000 miles of track. This was one of the
largest railway systems in the country. In 1988 the company changed names
to become the Santa Fe Pacific Corporation. In 1995 the Santa Fe Pacific
merged with the Burlington Northern Rail Road. It is now called the
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
