Unless corporate names include words similar to "railroad", I exclude all real estate companies from the database, including those owned by railroads.

Practically every large-sized railroad company had real estate operations. Obviously every railroad company owned property for their tracks to cross, but ownership by itself would not have demanded separate corporations. Seemingly, only those railroad companies which owned property in multiple states, or had plans to develop land beyond railroading, would have needed separate real estate companies.

Corporate shields. It was not uncommon for land grant railroads to sell land for development of towns along their rights-of-way. It seems reasonable that separate real estate companies may have served as corporate shields against accusations of less than stellar business practices.

Disposing of large acreages. Large western land grant railroads like the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific need to dispose of huge acreages. For such companies, separate real estate operations were absolutely necessary.

Land development. In the 1970s, special, wholly-owned subsidiaries (Upland Industries in the case of the Union Pacific Corporation, for instance) were set up to develop business parks near their branches and main lines.

Research required. It is not uncommon for large, diversified corporations to have separate real estate arms. Such companies include railroad companes, logging companies, communications companies, defense contractors, agri-businesses, and so forth. It is often impossible to tell the types of parent companies behind "real estate company" names without extensive research.

To make matters more difficult, real estate operations often work behind generic types of names that include non-specific keywords words such as:

• industries
• development companies
• immigration companies
• investment companies
• "properties" companies
• or just plain "company".

Researching those kinds of real estate companies is far beyond the scope of this catalog .