The St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad (SJ&GI) had its start as the St Joseph and Denver City Railroad which, after several changes of destination, was completed as the St Joseph and Western (SJ&W) between St Joseph and

Hastings, Nebraska Hastings is a city and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 25,152 at the 2020 census. It is known as the town where Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in 1927, and celebrates that event with the Ko ...

in 1872. Seven years later, the Hastings and Grand Island Railroad was built between its namesake cities and promptly sold to the SJ&W, giving that railroad a connection to the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

at Grand Island. The SJ&W ran into financial difficulties, eventually falling into bankruptcy in 1884. The Union Pacific brought the railroad out of bankruptcy in 1885, reorganizing it as St Joseph and Grand Island Railroad. The SJ&GI became an essential part of UP's system, providing a connection from the transcontinental mainline to the eastern Kansas area, and UP undertook several steps to improve it. In 1914 a connection was made between the UP mainline at Gibbon and Hastings, providing a more direct route than through Grand Island. Also, a connection was made between Marysville and Topeka on the SJ&GI in 1906, from whence the UP's Kansas Pacific mainline gave access to Kansas City. Today, the portion of the SJ&GI between Hastings and Marysville remains a core part of the UP mainline, seeing dozens of trains per day. The SJ&GI exists east of Marysville as far as Hiawatha, KS, and is part of Union Pacific's Hiawatha Subdivision. The line is a directional westbound mainline primarily handling empty coal trains as well as merchandise and intermodal trains. These trains originate in Kansas City, MO and travel on Union Pacific's Falls City Subdivision to Hiawatha where they then proceed west to Marysville, KS, allowing for increased capacity on the Marysville Subdivision. A short stub exists at Grand Island to serve a nearby power plant. The railroad had a practice of naming stations along its route alphabetically. This has resulted in a string of towns in Nebraska being situated in alphabetical order, starting with

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

in the east and ending with

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

in the west.
1925 edition
is available for download a
University of Nebraska—Lincoln Digital Commons.
/ref>

References

*
St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway
Predecessors of the Union Pacific Railroad Defunct Nebraska railroads Former Class I railroads in the United States Railway companies established in 1897 Defunct Missouri railroads Defunct Kansas railroads {{US-ClassI-rail-transport-stub