The development of the railway line that became the LA&SL began in 1871 when the
Utah Southern Railroad began laying track southward from Salt Lake City. The Utah Southern, controlled by the larger
Union Pacific Railroad (UP), built a line to a station known as
Juab, Utah, in 1879. From there a second UP subsidiary known as the
Utah Southern Railroad Extension took up the work, completing trackage as far as
Milford, Utah, in 1880. By the end of the century, these and other lines had been absorbed into the
Oregon Short Line Railroad, a far larger UP subsidiary. Work on extending the Milford line southward began by 1889, but no tracks were actually laid due to financial issues. Construction resumed in 1899 when the route was completed as far as the Utah–Nevada border. Grading work extended into Nevada, and the UP's stated intent was to continue the line all the way to southern California. Another player entered the scene in 1900, when
William Andrews Clark acquired the struggling
Los Angeles Terminal Railway with an eye to extending the line northeast to Salt Lake. The railroad was reincorporated in 1901 as the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, and Clark announced plans to construct a line between Salt Lake and southern California. Clark assembled political and financial supporters to assist in the project, both in California and Utah. The competing Union Pacific Railroad and its formidable leader
E. H. Harriman stood in opposition to Clark's plan. Clark's forces began construction work in Nevada, along the existing UP grade, and a brief "railroad war" ensued before Clark and the UP called a truce in 1903. Their agreement called for Clark's railroad to acquire the existing UP trackage south of Salt Lake City. In turn, the UP received a 50% interest in Clark's railroad. Construction of the remaining line proceeded rapidly to
Daggett, California, where it connected to the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF), and the complete Salt Lake–Los Angeles line was opened on May 1, 1905. In California, Clark negotiated a
trackage rights agreement from Daggett to
Riverside, California, allowing his new line to use the existing ATSF route over
Cajon Pass, in lieu of constructing its own tracks across the pass. of the Los Angeles and Salt, photo postcard published by On April 16, 1916, the railroad’s stockholders voted to remove "San Pedro" from the corporation's name. The former town of
San Pedro had been consolidated within Los Angeles in 1909. The LA&SL operated independently until April 27, 1921, when the UP agreed to acquire Clark's half-interest in the railroad. After 1921 the LA&SL lines were operated as part of the UP system, although the LA&SL corporation continued to exist on paper until January 1, 1988. The former LA&SL main line remains part of the UP network today as the Caliente and Lynndyl subdivisions. In 1925, LA&SL reported 1,158 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 192 million passenger-miles. At the end of that year it operated of road and of track. Originally, the LA&SL tracks through Utah were the approximate boundary between the
Pacific Time Zone and the
Mountain Time Zone. However, in April 1969, the time zone boundary was moved such that all of Utah was in the Mountain Time Zone. ==Route and stations==