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Logo of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroadjpg
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D&RGW
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DRGW
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Western United States
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1870 end_year= 1988
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, and 3 Ft (914 Mm )
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Denver, Colorado
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map of the D&RGW and
Western Pacific Railroad ]]
The ('''DRG''' or '''D&RG''') generally referred to as the ''Rio Grande'', became the '''Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad''' ('''DRGW''' or '''D&RGW''') in
1920 , and is today a
Fallen Flag (a railroad that has been absorbed into a larger system --
Union Pacific -- as the result of a merger). The D&RGW served mainly as transcontinental bridge line between
Denver, Colorado , and
Salt Lake City, Utah , and a major origin of
Coal and mineral traffic with a motto of ''Through the Rockies, not around them''. The Rio Grande was the epitome of mountain railroading, operating the highest mainline rail line in the
United States over 10,240
Ft (3121
M )
Tennessee Pass in
Colorado and the famed routes through the
Moffat Tunnel and the
Royal Gorge . At its height around
1890 , the D&RG had the largest operating
Narrow Gauge railroad network in
North America . Known for its independence, the D&RGW operated the last private long haul
Passenger Train in the United States, the ''
Rio Grande Zephyr ''.
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) was founded in
1870 by General
William Jackson Palmer as a
Narrow Gauge Railway system with the intention of connecting
Denver with
Mexico City .
Narrow Gauge was chosen because construction costs -- and equally important, construction time -- are lower than
Standard Gauge . The route was to pass over
Raton Pass in what is now northern
New Mexico . Feverish, competitive construction provoked the
1877 -
1880 war over right of way with the
Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe Railway . Both rivals hired gunslingers and bought politicians. In June
1879 , the Santa Fe defended its roundhouse in
Pueblo with
Dodge City toughs led by
Bat Masterson ; on that occasion, D&RG treasurer R. F. Weitbrec paid the defenders to leave. In the end, the Santa Fe won the right to Raton Pass, while the D&RG paid
$ 1.4 million for tracks through
Arkansas River 's
Royal Gorge to the mining district of
Leadville, Colorado . Subsequently, the D&RG focused on exploiting the lucrative mining service opportunities to the west.
The D&RG built west from Pueblo reaching
Canon City in
1874 . The line through the Royal Gorge reached
Salida on
20 May 1880 and was pushed to Leadville later that same year. From Salida, the D&RG pushed west over the
Continental Divide at 10,845 ft (3305m)
Marshall Pass and reached
Gunnison on
6 August 1881 . From Gunnison the line entered the
Black Canyon of the
Gunnison River passing the famous
Curecanti Needle seen in their famous ''Scenic Line of the World'' Herald. The tracks left the ever increasingly difficult canyon at
Cimmaron and passed over
Cerro Summit reaching
Montrose on
8 September 1882 . From Montrose a line was laid north through
Delta reaching
Grand Junction in March
1883 and a rail connection with the
Rio Grande Western Railroad for a narrow gauge transcontinental link to
Salt Lake City, Utah .
The line from Pueblo to Leadville was upgraded in 1887 to three rails to accommodate both
Narrow Gauge and
Standard Gauge operation.
Narrow Gauge branch lines were constructed to
Crested Butte ,
Lake City ,
Ouray and
Somerset .
The D&RG also pushed west from
Walsenburg, Colorado over
Veta Pass reaching
Alamosa in
1878 . From Alamosa a line was pushed south through
Antonito eventually reaching
Santa Fe, New Mexico and west as far as
Creede, Colorado . A line containing one of the longest tangent tracks in U.S railroading (52.82 miles)also linked Alamosa with Salida to the North. From Antonito a line was built over 10,015 ft (3052m)
Cumbres Pass along the
Colorado -
New Mexico boarder reaching
Durango, Colorado in August
1881 and continuing north to the rich mining areas around
Silverton in July
1882 . A line was also constructed south from Durango to
Farmington, New Mexico .
The D&RG built west from Leadville over 10,240 ft (3121m)
Tennessee Pass in attempt to reach the mining areas around
Aspen, Colorado before its rival railroad in the area, the
Colorado Midland , could build a line reaching there. The D&RG built a line through
Glenwood Canyon to
Glenwood Springs reaching Aspen in October of
1887 . The D&RG then joined with the Colorado Midland to build a line from Glenwood Springs connecting with D&RG at Grand Junction. Originally considered a secondary branch route to Grand Junction, the entire route from Leadville to Grand Junction was upgraded to standard gauge in 1890, and the original narrow gauge route via Marshall Pass became a secondary route.
was converted to a business car at the Burhnam shop in 1929 and is now restored as the
''Abraham Lincoln'' ]]
The original Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway had built a narrow gauge line from
Ogden, Utah to via
Soldier Summit to
Grand Junction, Colorado . The railroad became the Rio Grande Western Railway in 1889 as part of a finance plan to upgrade the line from narrow gauge to standard gauge, and built several branch lines in Utah to reach lucrative coal fields. In
1901 the Denver and Rio Grande merged with the Rio Grande Western consolidating in
1908 . However, the railroad was weakened by speculators, who had used the Rio Grande's equity to finance
Western Pacific construction. The United States Railway Administration (USRA) took over the D&RG during
World War I . In
1918 the D&RG fell into receivership after the bankruptcy of the
Western Pacific Railroad. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RGW or DRGW) emerged as a new company in 1920.
In
1931 , the D&RGW acquired the
Denver And Salt Lake Western Railroad (a company in name only), a subsidiary of the
Denver And Salt Lake Railroad (D&SL) which had acquired the rights to build a 40 mile (64km) connection between the two railroads. After years of negotiation the D&RGW gained trackage rights on the D&SL from Denver to the new cutoff. In
1932 , the D&RGW began construction of the
Dotsero Cutoff west of Glenwood Springs to near
Bond on the
Colorado River , at a location called Orestod (Dotsero spelled backward). Despite the common misconception that Dotsero is a shortening of "Dot Zero," the station name exists from the construction of the Standard Gauge line to Glenwood Springs in the
1890s . Construction completed in
1934 giving
Denver a direct transcontinental link to the west. The D&RGW though slipped again into bankruptcy in
1935 . Emerging in
1947 it merged with the D&SL on
3 March 1947 gaining control of the "Moffat Road" through the
Moffat Tunnel and a branch line from Bond to
Craig, Colorado .
Finally free from financial problems, the D&RGW now possessed a direct route from Denver to Salt Lake City (the detour south through Pueblo and Tennessee Pass was no longer required for direct service), but a problem still remained: for transcontinental service, the (MU) capabilities, to equip each train with the optimum horsepower needed to meet the D&RGW's aggressive schedule.
The D&RGW's sense of its unique geographical challenge found expression in what is arguably the world's most famous passenger train, the
California Zephyr , which was jointly operated with the
Chicago, Burlington, And Quincy (CB&Q) from Chicago to Denver and the
Western Pacific from Salt Lake City to
Oakland , California (with ferry and bus connections to
San Francisco ). Unable to compete with the
Union Pacific 's faster, less mountainous route and 39-hour schedules, the
California Zephyr offered a more leisurely journey -- a "rail cruise" -- with ample vistas of the Rockies. Although the
California Zephyr ran at full capacity and turned a modest profit from its 1950 inception through the late 1950s, by the mid-1960s the train was profitable only during the late spring, summer, and fall. In 1970,
Western Pacific ,claiming multi-million dollar losses, dropped out. However, the D&RGW refused to join the national
Amtrak system, and continued to operate its share of the Zephyr equipment as the
Rio Grande Zephyr until 1983.
Even as the D&RGW exploited the best new standard-guage technology to compete with other transcontinental carriers, the railroad continued to operate the surviving steam-powered narrow gauge lines, including the famed
Narrow Guage line between
Durango and
Silverton , Colorado. Although most of the remaining
Narrow-gauge trackage was abandoned in the 1960s and 1970s, two of the most beautiful routes, including the Durango-Silverton route, were sold to tourist railroad operators, and remain in operation today.
In
1988 ,
Rio Grande Industries , the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, under the direction of
Philip Anschutz , purchased the
Southern Pacific Railroad . The combined company took the Southern Pacific (SP) name due to its name recognition among shippers. In time, the D&RGW's "fast freight" philosophy gave way to SP's long-established practice of running long, slow trains. A contributing factor was the rising cost of
Diesel Fuel , a trend that set in after the 1973
Arab Oil Crisis , which gradually undermined the D&RGW's fuel-consuming "fast freight" philosophy. By the early 1990s, the D&RGW had lost much of the competitive advantage that made it attractive to transcontinental shippers, and became largely dependent on hauling away the high-quality coal produced in the mine fields of Utah.
On
11 September 1996 Anschutz sold the combined company to the
Union Pacific Railroad , partly in a response to the earlier merger of the
Burlington Northern and the
Santa Fe which formed the
Burlington Northern And Santa Fe Railway . As the
Union Pacific absorbed the D&RGW into its system, signs of the fabled mountain railroad's existence are slowly fading away. As of April 16, 2006 the DRGW 5371 is the last operating original D&RGW locomotive on the Union Pacific today. The DRGW 5371 runs helper service out of Helper, Utah.
This is a partial list of D&RGW passenger trains since 1947. Westbound trains had odd numbers, while eastbound trains had even numbers.
Today, the D&RGW's ''
Ski Train '' serves the city of
Winter Park, Colorado , out of
Union Station in Denver.
The ''
Silverton ,'' which has been operating since 1881, provides scenic day trips from Durango.
- Athearn, Robert G. (1962). ''The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Rebel of the Rockies.'' Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, University of Nebraska, 1977. Reprint of ''Rebel of the Rockies: A History of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962.
- Athearn, Robert G. (1957). "Railroad Renaissance In The Rockies," ''Utah Historical Quarterly," 35: 1, (January, 1957): 1-26.
- Merle Armitage, ''Operations Santa Fe'' (1948), pp. 9-15
- James R. Griffin, ''Rio Grande Railroad'' (2003)
- Ross B. Grenard, ''Rio Grande In Color, Volume 1'' (1992)
- James Sandrin, ''Rio Grande In Color, Volume 2'' (1998)
- Jackson C. Thode, ''A Century of Passenger Trains...And Then Some...'' (1972)
- Stewart, Paul Logan (1931). ''The History Of The Denver And Rio Grande Railway, 1871-1881. M. A. Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder.
- ''Colorado Rail Annual, No. 11'' (1981)
- C.W. McCall , ''The Silverton'' (song)
