Kansas Pacific Railway

The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. The railroad was originally titled the "Union Pacific, Eastern Division", although it was completely independent of the Union Pacific Railroad. At a time when the first transcontinental railroad was being constructed by the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, it tried and failed to join the transcontinental ranks. The owners lobbied heavily in Washington, D.C. for public funding, but failed to fund continued construction west of Colorado.

Instead, the Pennsylvania Railroad, working with Missouri financiers, designed the KP as a feeder line to the transcontinental system. It operated many of the first long-distance lines in the state of Kansas in the 1870s, extending the national railway network westward across that state and into Colorado. Its main line furnished a principal transportation route that opened up settlement of the central Great Plains, and its link from Kansas City to Denver provided the last link in the coast-to-coast railway network in 1870.

The railroad was consolidated with the Union Pacific in 1880, and its mainline continues to be an integral part of the Union Pacific network today.