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Utah Division (D&RGW)
Encyclopedia
The Utah Division of the former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
(D&RGW) is a rail line that connects Grand Junction, Colorado
and Salt Lake City, Utah
(formerly Ogden) in the Western United States
. It is now incorporated into the Union Pacific Railroad
(UP) system as its Green River and Provo Subdivisions, forming a portion of the Denver-Nevada
Central Corridor
. Daily passenger service is provided by Amtrak
's California Zephyr
, and the BNSF Railway
and Utah Railway
have trackage rights
over the line.
The line dates back to the early 1880s, when the predecessors of the D&RGW completed a narrow gauge
line through the Royal Gorge
, over Marshall Pass
, through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, across the Utah desert
, and over Soldier Summit. It was rebuilt to standard gauge
in 1890, and has since remained a through line, often serving as parts of larger networks including the Gould transcontinental system
, Southern Pacific, and now the Union Pacific.
The division also included a number of branch line
s, the longest being the Marysvale Branch through the Sevier Valley.
. But when it reached Raton Pass
in 1878, it found that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had beaten it to the best crossing into New Mexico
. After several years of financially draining battle, the two companies came to an agreement in 1880, and the D&RG, under the direction of William J. Palmer, set its sights on Salt Lake City.
In the meantime, the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway (U&PV) had built a line from the coal mines in the Pleasant Valley to Provo on the Union Pacific Railroad
-controlled Utah Southern Railroad
. The company was incorporated on December 11, 1875 under the general laws of Utah by owners of land in the valley. The company began grading in April 1877 and track laying on August 29, 1878, driving the last spike between Pleasant Valley and Springville on November 5, 1879. The short distance in the Utah Valley
from Springville to the larger city of Provo, which closely paralleled the Utah Southern, opened in October 1880. Investor Charles W. Scofield of New York
, who was already in control of two other mining roads - the Bingham Canon and Camp Floyd Rail Road since 1873 and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad since 1875 - acquired the U&PV in October 1878.
The U&PV began at a mine in the Pleasant Valley south of Scofield, heading north along the present Pleasant Valley Subdivision to the Scofield Reservoir
. The old grade has been flooded until it leaves the lake to the north, rising to an elevation of 7967 feet (2,428.3 m) above sea level before descending, via a pair of switchbacks, to Starvation Creek. The valley of that creek took the railroad to the Spanish Fork Canyon, and the later D&RGW, at Tucker
. The remainder of the U&PV is now, for the most part, still operated, as it follows Spanish Fork Canyon into the Utah Valley.
Associates of Palmer incorporated the Sevier Valley Railway in Utah on December 7, 1880, with a route paralleling the Union Pacific's lines from the railroad center of Ogden south through Salt Lake City and Provo to Nephi, and then continuing through Salt Creek Canyon and the Sanpete Valley to Salina in the Sevier Valley. There it would split, one line continuing south to the Arizona
state line, and the other turning east through Salina Canyon and across the Castle Valley to the Grand (Colorado) River
, following it to meet the westward-building D&RG at the Colorado
border. To counter this threat to its monopoly, the Union Pacific set up the Utah Southern and Castle Valley Railroad less than two weeks later to extend its Utah Southern through Salina Canyon to the Castle Valley. In another week, when UP workers reached the canyon, the Sevier Valley had already begun grading.
On May 26, 1881, D&RG interests incorporated the Salt Lake and Park City Railway, a branch from Salt Lake City east to Park City and Coalville. The lines of this company and the Sevier Valley were included in the far-reaching charter for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway, incorporated on July 21, 1881 and immediately consolidated with the others. Palmer knew that it would be important to first complete the line to Ogden, where the Central Pacific Railroad
extended west to California
. It was rumored as early as April 1881 that the D&RG had gained control of the U&PV and would bypass Salina Canyon, instead using a shorter route northwesterly from Castle Valley to a connection with that road, and Palmer confirmed this in September. (The original grading through Castle Valley was never used for a railroad, although in the 1910s it was briefly part of the Midland Trail
, now US-6.) The D&RGW bought the assets of the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad, which had merged with the Bingham Canon and Camp Floyd Rail Road, at foreclosure
on December 31, 1881, adding to its system two profitable branches from Midvale to Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyon
s.
The D&RGW similarly acquired the U&PV's property on June 14, 1882, and at about that time began operating trains between Salt Lake City and Pleasant Valley, using new trackage north of Provo. The D&RG of Colorado leased the D&RGW of Utah on August 1, allowing the former to operate the latter for a payment of 40% of gross receipts. The difficult double switchback on the original U&PV was bypassed by a new connection to the under-construction D&RGW at Colton
on November 23, 1882, as well as the new line from Colton over Soldier Summit to Tucker
. D&RG and D&RGW crews met at a point now known as Desert, 14 miles (22.5 km) west of Green River, on March 30, 1883, and trains began running between Denver and Salt Lake City several days later. (Although the D&RG built the line from the state line to Desert, it was owned by the D&RGW.) Final completion to Ogden in May was delayed for several days by the Union Pacific's refusal to let the D&RGW cross, but on May 19 the D&RGW was complete. Palmer soon resigned as D&RG president, since the directors were opposed to further expansion, but remained in control of the leased D&RGW.
, Salida, Marshall Pass
, Gunnison, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Montrose, Grand Junction, Green River, and Salt Lake City. It included numerous branches, but only three west of Grand Junction - to Pleasant Valley, Bingham Canyon, and Little Cottonwood Canyon. The main line began by following the valley of the Grand (Colorado) River
west out of Grand Junction, but curved away at Mack
to avoid Ruby Canyon
. Some steep grades and sharp curves carried the original line over the highlands north of the river, crossing the state line and continuing southwesterly and westerly to Green River, Utah
. Curving northwest around the Beckwith Plateau, the railroad crossed the Price River
at Woodside, where it began to follow that river through its valleys and canyons. Almost immediately, due to flooding, the railroad had to be removed from the canyon between Grassy Trail (south of Cedar) and Farnham (southeast of Wellington), though it remained alongside the river from Grassy Trail southeast to Woodside until bypassed by the present standard gauge alignment. Continuing on, the line passed through the Price Canyon, including the Castle Gate rock formation, as it rose to the top of the Wasatch Range
at Soldier Summit. The Spanish Fork Canyon took the line down into the Utah Valley
, with some 4% grades near the top before it met the earlier U&PV at Tucker
. Through the Utah Valley and adjacent Salt Lake Valley
, connected by the Jordan Narrows, the D&RGW's line closely paralleled a UP line, serving many of the valleys' populated areas. The final stretch generally followed the Great Salt Lake
's shore to Ogden, where it connected to the Central Pacific Railroad
.
The expansion resulted in a large debt
that the D&RG was unable to pay the interest
on. D&RGW president Palmer and D&RG president Frederick Lovejoy got into an argument over the management and payment of rental for the leased D&RGW. Unable to break the lease, Lovejoy ordered the tracks torn up at the state line in retaliation, costing both railroads the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
's through traffic. The D&RG entered receivership
on July 12, 1884 and the D&RGW on August 12, with D&RGW superintendent W. H. Bancroft being appointed to the Utah company. The two companies resumed friendly relations, and after the D&RG reorganized on July 14, 1886, it terminated the lease of the D&RGW on July 31, giving the latter company significant amounts of rolling stock
. Palmer returned to his position as D&RGW president, the company having been released from receivership.
Now independent, the D&RGW looked to the east, where the standard gauge
Colorado Midland Railway
was building west from Colorado Springs with the intent of entering Utah. Palmer realized that if he did not widen his gauge and cooperate with the Midland, he might soon have new competition. To raise the money to convert the line, which would require about 100 miles (160.9 km) of new railroad where the existing grade was too steep or curvy, he incorporated a new Rio Grande Western Railway. (Palmer had initially proposed the name "Utah and Colorado Railway" for the new company.) The State Line and Denver Railway was incorporated May 16, 1889 with the power to build east to Glenwood Springs, Colorado
, then the terminus of the Midland. That same day, it was consolidated with the old Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway, with articles of incorporation filed in both states on June 24.
Construction began immediately, the line being converted from Ogden to Salt Lake City by mid-November 1889, to Provo on March 7, 1890, and the rest of the way to Grand Junction on June 10. The line was completely relocated out of the canyon of the Price River
from Grassy Trail to Woodside, and into the Ruby Canyon
of the Grand (Colorado) River
from Whitehouse to Crevasse, Colorado. Beyond Crevasse, the RGW leased the D&RG track to Grand Junction in December 1889 and subsequently widened its gauge. The Rio Grande Junction Railway, owned jointly by the D&RG and Midland, was completed to Grand Junction on November 15, 1890, and through service began the next day over the RGW and both eastern roads, the D&RG having completed its standard gauge line over Tennessee Pass
. All branches were also converted, except for short narrow-gauge sections at the ends of the lines into Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyons.
For the next ten years, the RGW operated as an independent standard gauge bridge line
connecting Grand Junction to Salt Lake City and Ogden, with branches to sources of valuable minerals. Through its new subsidiary, the Utah Central Railroad, the RGW acquired several Salt Lake City-area lines in 1898, finally adding to its system the branch to Park City through Parley's Canyon
that had been chartered in 1881. The RGW teamed up with the Colorado and Southern Railway
, which had recently been split from the bankrupt Union Pacific Railroad
, and stretched north-south from Wyoming
through eastern Colorado into Texas
, to jointly buy control of the connecting Colorado Midland Railway
. RGW stock
prices rose, delaying a takeover by the D&RG until George Gould arrived. Gould, owner of the Missouri Pacific Railroad
(MP), wished to create a transcontinental railroad system
, and identified the D&RG/RGW as the best route west into Utah. The MP began buying D&RG stock in 1900, and the D&RG did the same with the RGW. Palmer still owned a controlling interest
in the RGW, but he came to an agreement to sell the company to Gould, and Gould management, including new president Edward T. Jeffery, took over on July 1, 1901.
gained control of the Southern Pacific Railroad
, which owned the Central Pacific Railway, the portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad
west of Ogden. Searching for another route to the Pacific, Gould incorporated the Castle Valley Railway as a cutoff from the RGW's main line near Farnham to the Marysvale Branch at Salina and beyond to the under-construction San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (Salt Lake Route) at Milford. However, the Union Pacific gained control of the Salt Lake Route in mid-1903, forcing Gould to construct an entirely new line to California. The financing of the Western Pacific Railway (WP) would take almost all the revenues of the MP, D&RG, and RGW, leaving very little for maintenance, let alone improvements. The D&RG and RGW, operated as a single system since 1901, were merged as the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad on July 31, 1908, finally combining the two halves of the Denver-Ogden line into one railroad company.
Improvement of the standard-gauge main line through Utah to relieve congestion had begun in 1898, when the RGW added a second track to the steep 4% grade to Tucker
on the west side of Soldier Summit. The shallower east-side grade was similarly doubled to Colton in 1906, and further to Kyune and from Castle Gate to Helper in 1909. Construction began on a new low-grade line west of the summit in 1912, when the D&RG added a track between Detour (the west end of the realignment) and Thistle. The new line, with a double hairpin curve, was completed the next year, as was a second track between Kyune and Castle Gate, completing a double-track line between Thistle and Helper, with a maximum grade of 2.4% on the east slope and 2.0% on the west. Local competition arrived in 1912, when the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, which owned coal mines southwest of Price, organized the Utah Railway
(originally the Utah Coal Railway). U.S. Smelting objected to the D&RG's charging of higher freight rates due to the mines' location on a branch line
, and began to build its own line over Soldier Summit into the Utah Valley
. The two companies reached an agreement in November 1913, where the D&RG would operate the Utah Railway between a junction near Castle Gate and the mines, and the unfinished line between Thistle and Provo would be completed as a second track. This arrangement began with the completion of the road in 1914, and the D&RG now had a double-track line between Provo and Helper. Three years later, the Utah Railway began independent operations between the mines and Provo under a reciprocal trackage rights arrangement that has persisted to the present, where each company allows the other to use its half of the double-track line.
The WP was completed in 1910, but its construction had given the D&RG enormous debts. After periods of ownership by Eastern bankers, the courts appointed two local trustee
s in 1935. The system was slowly rebuilt into a profitable enterprise, and in 1947 it was reorganized as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
. After buying the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1988 and adopting the latter's name, the D&RGW became part of the Union Pacific Railroad
in 1996.
With the level of the Great Salt Lake
rising in the mid-1980s, the D&RGW and UP came to a trackage rights
agreement, where the D&RGW would use the UP's higher line between Salt Lake City and Ogden, and in exchange the UP could use the D&RGW between Salt Lake City and Provo, a better-designed route than the UP's. The majority of the ex-D&RGW north of Salt Lake City is now the Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Trail, while the UP has sold its Sharp Subdivision north of Provo to the Utah Transit Authority
, which operates the Sandy/Salt Lake light rail
line and contracts with the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad
for freight.
, by the Sevier Railway, and that same year the Tintic Range Railway built from Springville southwest and west to Eureka in the Tintic Mountains. The RGW organized both of these companies to be owned by RGW stockholders, but out of the control of RGW bondholders. The Panic of 1893
stopped new construction until 1896, when the Sevier Railway was extended farther south to Belknap.
The Ballard & Thompson Railroad
between Thompson Springs and Sego was purchased in 1913 by the D&RGW and became the Sego Branch.
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
(D&RGW) is a rail line that connects Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...
and Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
(formerly Ogden) in the Western United States
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
. It is now incorporated into the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
(UP) system as its Green River and Provo Subdivisions, forming a portion of the Denver-Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
Central Corridor
Central Corridor (Union Pacific Railroad)
The Central Corridor is a rail line operated by the Union Pacific Railroad from near Winnemucca, Nevada to Denver, Colorado in the western United States. The line is in use for freight, and provides the route of the California Zephyr. The BNSF Railway has trackage rights on the entire line. The...
. Daily passenger service is provided by Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
's California Zephyr
California Zephyr
The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...
, and the BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway
The BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second largest freight railroad network in North America, second only to the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary...
and Utah Railway
Utah Railway
The Utah Railway is a class III railroad operating in Utah and Colorado, and owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.-History:The Utah Railway Company was incorporated on January 24, 1912, with the name of Utah Coal Railway, shortened to Utah Railway in May of the same year...
have trackage rights
Trackage rights
Trackage rights , running rights or running powers is an agreement whereby a railway company has the right to run its trains on tracks owned by another railway company....
over the line.
The line dates back to the early 1880s, when the predecessors of the D&RGW completed a narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
line through the Royal Gorge
Royal Gorge
The Royal Gorge is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Cañon City, Colorado. With a width of at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak...
, over Marshall Pass
Marshall Pass
Marshall Pass is between Salida and Gunnison at the Continental Divide. Marshall Pass was discovered by, and named for, Lt. William L. Marshall of the Wheeler Survey in 1873...
, through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, across the Utah desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
, and over Soldier Summit. It was rebuilt to standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
in 1890, and has since remained a through line, often serving as parts of larger networks including the Gould transcontinental system
Gould transcontinental system
The Gould transcontinental system was a system of railroads assembled by George Jay Gould I in the early 1900s. This was Gould's attempt to fulfill a goal of his late father, financier Jay Gould...
, Southern Pacific, and now the Union Pacific.
The division also included a number of branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
s, the longest being the Marysvale Branch through the Sevier Valley.
Construction: 1870s to 1883
When the Denver and Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) was chartered in 1870, it had the goal of connecting Denver with El Paso, TexasEl Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
. But when it reached Raton Pass
Raton Pass
Raton Pass is a mountain pass on the Santa Fe Trail along the Colorado-New Mexico border in the United States. Raton Pass is a federally designated National Historic Landmark...
in 1878, it found that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had beaten it to the best crossing into New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. After several years of financially draining battle, the two companies came to an agreement in 1880, and the D&RG, under the direction of William J. Palmer, set its sights on Salt Lake City.
In the meantime, the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway (U&PV) had built a line from the coal mines in the Pleasant Valley to Provo on the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
-controlled Utah Southern Railroad
Utah Southern Railroad (1871–1881)
The Utah Southern Railroad was built by the Mormons between Salt Lake City and York , and acquired by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1875.-External links:* , Utah History Encyclopedia, University of Utah...
. The company was incorporated on December 11, 1875 under the general laws of Utah by owners of land in the valley. The company began grading in April 1877 and track laying on August 29, 1878, driving the last spike between Pleasant Valley and Springville on November 5, 1879. The short distance in the Utah Valley
Utah Valley
Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains Provo, Orem, and their suburbs, including Highland, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Lehi, Payson, and...
from Springville to the larger city of Provo, which closely paralleled the Utah Southern, opened in October 1880. Investor Charles W. Scofield of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, who was already in control of two other mining roads - the Bingham Canon and Camp Floyd Rail Road since 1873 and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad since 1875 - acquired the U&PV in October 1878.
The U&PV began at a mine in the Pleasant Valley south of Scofield, heading north along the present Pleasant Valley Subdivision to the Scofield Reservoir
Scofield Reservoir
Scofield Reservoir is a reservoir in Carbon County, Utah, United States. Located on the Price River, a tributary of the Green River, Scofield Reservoir is adjacent to northernmost boundary of the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The reservoir sits at an elevation of , on the northern edge of the...
. The old grade has been flooded until it leaves the lake to the north, rising to an elevation of 7967 feet (2,428.3 m) above sea level before descending, via a pair of switchbacks, to Starvation Creek. The valley of that creek took the railroad to the Spanish Fork Canyon, and the later D&RGW, at Tucker
Tucker, Utah
Tucker is a ghost town located in Utah County, Utah, below Soldier Summit on U.S. Route 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon. It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. After the town was abandoned, the state of Utah used the town site for...
. The remainder of the U&PV is now, for the most part, still operated, as it follows Spanish Fork Canyon into the Utah Valley.
Associates of Palmer incorporated the Sevier Valley Railway in Utah on December 7, 1880, with a route paralleling the Union Pacific's lines from the railroad center of Ogden south through Salt Lake City and Provo to Nephi, and then continuing through Salt Creek Canyon and the Sanpete Valley to Salina in the Sevier Valley. There it would split, one line continuing south to the Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
state line, and the other turning east through Salina Canyon and across the Castle Valley to the Grand (Colorado) River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
, following it to meet the westward-building D&RG at the Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
border. To counter this threat to its monopoly, the Union Pacific set up the Utah Southern and Castle Valley Railroad less than two weeks later to extend its Utah Southern through Salina Canyon to the Castle Valley. In another week, when UP workers reached the canyon, the Sevier Valley had already begun grading.
On May 26, 1881, D&RG interests incorporated the Salt Lake and Park City Railway, a branch from Salt Lake City east to Park City and Coalville. The lines of this company and the Sevier Valley were included in the far-reaching charter for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway, incorporated on July 21, 1881 and immediately consolidated with the others. Palmer knew that it would be important to first complete the line to Ogden, where the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
extended west to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It was rumored as early as April 1881 that the D&RG had gained control of the U&PV and would bypass Salina Canyon, instead using a shorter route northwesterly from Castle Valley to a connection with that road, and Palmer confirmed this in September. (The original grading through Castle Valley was never used for a railroad, although in the 1910s it was briefly part of the Midland Trail
Midland Trail
For the trail's section in West Virginia see: The Midland Trail in West Virginia.The Midland Trail, also called the Roosevelt Midland Trail, was a national auto trail spanning the United States from Washington, D.C...
, now US-6.) The D&RGW bought the assets of the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad, which had merged with the Bingham Canon and Camp Floyd Rail Road, at foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
on December 31, 1881, adding to its system two profitable branches from Midvale to Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyon
Little Cottonwood Canyon
Little Cottonwood Canyon lies within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest along the eastern side of the Salt Lake Valley, roughly 15 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah. The canyon is part of Granite, a CDP and “Community Council” designated by Salt Lake County. The canyon is a glacial trough , carved by...
s.
The D&RGW similarly acquired the U&PV's property on June 14, 1882, and at about that time began operating trains between Salt Lake City and Pleasant Valley, using new trackage north of Provo. The D&RG of Colorado leased the D&RGW of Utah on August 1, allowing the former to operate the latter for a payment of 40% of gross receipts. The difficult double switchback on the original U&PV was bypassed by a new connection to the under-construction D&RGW at Colton
Colton, Utah
-External links:* at GhostTowns.com* at Legends of America...
on November 23, 1882, as well as the new line from Colton over Soldier Summit to Tucker
Tucker, Utah
Tucker is a ghost town located in Utah County, Utah, below Soldier Summit on U.S. Route 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon. It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. After the town was abandoned, the state of Utah used the town site for...
. D&RG and D&RGW crews met at a point now known as Desert, 14 miles (22.5 km) west of Green River, on March 30, 1883, and trains began running between Denver and Salt Lake City several days later. (Although the D&RG built the line from the state line to Desert, it was owned by the D&RGW.) Final completion to Ogden in May was delayed for several days by the Union Pacific's refusal to let the D&RGW cross, but on May 19 the D&RGW was complete. Palmer soon resigned as D&RG president, since the directors were opposed to further expansion, but remained in control of the leased D&RGW.
Retrenchment and turmoil: 1883 to 1901
With the line into Utah complete, the D&RG system consisted of a main line from Denver to Ogden, passing through or over Colorado Springs, Pueblo, the Royal GorgeRoyal Gorge
The Royal Gorge is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Cañon City, Colorado. With a width of at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak...
, Salida, Marshall Pass
Marshall Pass
Marshall Pass is between Salida and Gunnison at the Continental Divide. Marshall Pass was discovered by, and named for, Lt. William L. Marshall of the Wheeler Survey in 1873...
, Gunnison, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Montrose, Grand Junction, Green River, and Salt Lake City. It included numerous branches, but only three west of Grand Junction - to Pleasant Valley, Bingham Canyon, and Little Cottonwood Canyon. The main line began by following the valley of the Grand (Colorado) River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
west out of Grand Junction, but curved away at Mack
Mack, Colorado
Mack is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office located about 10 miles east of the Colorado/Utah border in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The Mack Post Office has the ZIP Code 81525...
to avoid Ruby Canyon
Ruby Canyon
Ruby Canyon is a roughly 25 mile long canyon on the Colorado River located on the Colorado-Utah border in the western United States, and is a popular destination for rafting...
. Some steep grades and sharp curves carried the original line over the highlands north of the river, crossing the state line and continuing southwesterly and westerly to Green River, Utah
Green River, Utah
Green River is a city in Emery County, Utah, United States. The population was 973 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Green River is located at , on the banks of the Green River, after which the city is named. The San Rafael Swell region is to the west of Green River, while Canyonlands National Park...
. Curving northwest around the Beckwith Plateau, the railroad crossed the Price River
Price River
The Price River is a river in the state of Utah, in the United States. The river originates in the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah and flows southeastward through Price Canyon, alongside U.S. Route 6, to the cities of Helper and Price...
at Woodside, where it began to follow that river through its valleys and canyons. Almost immediately, due to flooding, the railroad had to be removed from the canyon between Grassy Trail (south of Cedar) and Farnham (southeast of Wellington), though it remained alongside the river from Grassy Trail southeast to Woodside until bypassed by the present standard gauge alignment. Continuing on, the line passed through the Price Canyon, including the Castle Gate rock formation, as it rose to the top of the Wasatch Range
Wasatch Range
The Wasatch Range is a mountain range that stretches approximately from the Utah-Idaho border, south through central Utah in the western United States. It is generally considered the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region...
at Soldier Summit. The Spanish Fork Canyon took the line down into the Utah Valley
Utah Valley
Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains Provo, Orem, and their suburbs, including Highland, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Lehi, Payson, and...
, with some 4% grades near the top before it met the earlier U&PV at Tucker
Tucker, Utah
Tucker is a ghost town located in Utah County, Utah, below Soldier Summit on U.S. Route 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon. It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. After the town was abandoned, the state of Utah used the town site for...
. Through the Utah Valley and adjacent Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...
, connected by the Jordan Narrows, the D&RGW's line closely paralleled a UP line, serving many of the valleys' populated areas. The final stretch generally followed the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...
's shore to Ogden, where it connected to the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
.
The expansion resulted in a large debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
that the D&RG was unable to pay the interest
Interest
Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets. It is most commonly the price paid for the use of borrowed money, or money earned by deposited funds....
on. D&RGW president Palmer and D&RG president Frederick Lovejoy got into an argument over the management and payment of rental for the leased D&RGW. Unable to break the lease, Lovejoy ordered the tracks torn up at the state line in retaliation, costing both railroads the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...
's through traffic. The D&RG entered receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
on July 12, 1884 and the D&RGW on August 12, with D&RGW superintendent W. H. Bancroft being appointed to the Utah company. The two companies resumed friendly relations, and after the D&RG reorganized on July 14, 1886, it terminated the lease of the D&RGW on July 31, giving the latter company significant amounts of rolling stock
Rolling stock
Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
. Palmer returned to his position as D&RGW president, the company having been released from receivership.
Now independent, the D&RGW looked to the east, where the standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
Colorado Midland Railway
Colorado Midland Railway
The Colorado Midland Railway , incorporated in 1883, was the first standard gauge railroad built over the Continental Divide in Colorado. It ran from Colorado Springs to Leadville and through the divide at Hagerman Pass to Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction....
was building west from Colorado Springs with the intent of entering Utah. Palmer realized that if he did not widen his gauge and cooperate with the Midland, he might soon have new competition. To raise the money to convert the line, which would require about 100 miles (160.9 km) of new railroad where the existing grade was too steep or curvy, he incorporated a new Rio Grande Western Railway. (Palmer had initially proposed the name "Utah and Colorado Railway" for the new company.) The State Line and Denver Railway was incorporated May 16, 1889 with the power to build east to Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
The City of Glenwood Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 8,564 in 2005...
, then the terminus of the Midland. That same day, it was consolidated with the old Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway, with articles of incorporation filed in both states on June 24.
Construction began immediately, the line being converted from Ogden to Salt Lake City by mid-November 1889, to Provo on March 7, 1890, and the rest of the way to Grand Junction on June 10. The line was completely relocated out of the canyon of the Price River
Price River
The Price River is a river in the state of Utah, in the United States. The river originates in the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah and flows southeastward through Price Canyon, alongside U.S. Route 6, to the cities of Helper and Price...
from Grassy Trail to Woodside, and into the Ruby Canyon
Ruby Canyon
Ruby Canyon is a roughly 25 mile long canyon on the Colorado River located on the Colorado-Utah border in the western United States, and is a popular destination for rafting...
of the Grand (Colorado) River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
from Whitehouse to Crevasse, Colorado. Beyond Crevasse, the RGW leased the D&RG track to Grand Junction in December 1889 and subsequently widened its gauge. The Rio Grande Junction Railway, owned jointly by the D&RG and Midland, was completed to Grand Junction on November 15, 1890, and through service began the next day over the RGW and both eastern roads, the D&RG having completed its standard gauge line over Tennessee Pass
Tennessee Pass (Colorado)
Tennessee Pass elevation is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass traverses the continental divide north of Leadville in a gap between the northern end of the Sawatch Range to the west and the northern end of the Mosquito Range to the east...
. All branches were also converted, except for short narrow-gauge sections at the ends of the lines into Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyons.
Bridge line
A bridge line or bridge route is a rail carrier tasked primarily with moving traffic from one major carrier to another . Bridge lines often were located between two major cities, connecting rail carriers that served those cities and interchanging their cars...
connecting Grand Junction to Salt Lake City and Ogden, with branches to sources of valuable minerals. Through its new subsidiary, the Utah Central Railroad, the RGW acquired several Salt Lake City-area lines in 1898, finally adding to its system the branch to Park City through Parley's Canyon
Parley's Canyon
Parley's Canyon is a canyon located in the U.S. state of Utah. The canyon provides the route of Interstate 80 up the western slope of the Wasatch Mountains and is a relatively wide, straight canyon. The lower part of the canyon, however, is relatively twisty and had to be dynamited to make way for...
that had been chartered in 1881. The RGW teamed up with the Colorado and Southern Railway
Colorado and Southern Railway
The Colorado and Southern Railway was a railroad company in the western United States that operated independently from 1898 to 1908, then as part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad until it was absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1981.The railway began as the...
, which had recently been split from the bankrupt Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
, and stretched north-south from Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
through eastern Colorado into Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, to jointly buy control of the connecting Colorado Midland Railway
Colorado Midland Railway
The Colorado Midland Railway , incorporated in 1883, was the first standard gauge railroad built over the Continental Divide in Colorado. It ran from Colorado Springs to Leadville and through the divide at Hagerman Pass to Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction....
. RGW stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
prices rose, delaying a takeover by the D&RG until George Gould arrived. Gould, owner of the Missouri Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...
(MP), wished to create a transcontinental railroad system
Gould transcontinental system
The Gould transcontinental system was a system of railroads assembled by George Jay Gould I in the early 1900s. This was Gould's attempt to fulfill a goal of his late father, financier Jay Gould...
, and identified the D&RG/RGW as the best route west into Utah. The MP began buying D&RG stock in 1900, and the D&RG did the same with the RGW. Palmer still owned a controlling interest
Controlling interest
Controlling interest in a corporation means to have control of a large enough block of voting stock shares in a company such that no one stock holder or coalition of stock holders can successfully oppose a motion...
in the RGW, but he came to an agreement to sell the company to Gould, and Gould management, including new president Edward T. Jeffery, took over on July 1, 1901.
Gould control and aftermath: 1901 to present
In 1901, the Union Pacific RailroadUnion Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
gained control of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
, which owned the Central Pacific Railway, the portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
west of Ogden. Searching for another route to the Pacific, Gould incorporated the Castle Valley Railway as a cutoff from the RGW's main line near Farnham to the Marysvale Branch at Salina and beyond to the under-construction San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (Salt Lake Route) at Milford. However, the Union Pacific gained control of the Salt Lake Route in mid-1903, forcing Gould to construct an entirely new line to California. The financing of the Western Pacific Railway (WP) would take almost all the revenues of the MP, D&RG, and RGW, leaving very little for maintenance, let alone improvements. The D&RG and RGW, operated as a single system since 1901, were merged as the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad on July 31, 1908, finally combining the two halves of the Denver-Ogden line into one railroad company.
Improvement of the standard-gauge main line through Utah to relieve congestion had begun in 1898, when the RGW added a second track to the steep 4% grade to Tucker
Tucker, Utah
Tucker is a ghost town located in Utah County, Utah, below Soldier Summit on U.S. Route 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon. It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. After the town was abandoned, the state of Utah used the town site for...
on the west side of Soldier Summit. The shallower east-side grade was similarly doubled to Colton in 1906, and further to Kyune and from Castle Gate to Helper in 1909. Construction began on a new low-grade line west of the summit in 1912, when the D&RG added a track between Detour (the west end of the realignment) and Thistle. The new line, with a double hairpin curve, was completed the next year, as was a second track between Kyune and Castle Gate, completing a double-track line between Thistle and Helper, with a maximum grade of 2.4% on the east slope and 2.0% on the west. Local competition arrived in 1912, when the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, which owned coal mines southwest of Price, organized the Utah Railway
Utah Railway
The Utah Railway is a class III railroad operating in Utah and Colorado, and owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.-History:The Utah Railway Company was incorporated on January 24, 1912, with the name of Utah Coal Railway, shortened to Utah Railway in May of the same year...
(originally the Utah Coal Railway). U.S. Smelting objected to the D&RG's charging of higher freight rates due to the mines' location on a branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
, and began to build its own line over Soldier Summit into the Utah Valley
Utah Valley
Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains Provo, Orem, and their suburbs, including Highland, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Lehi, Payson, and...
. The two companies reached an agreement in November 1913, where the D&RG would operate the Utah Railway between a junction near Castle Gate and the mines, and the unfinished line between Thistle and Provo would be completed as a second track. This arrangement began with the completion of the road in 1914, and the D&RG now had a double-track line between Provo and Helper. Three years later, the Utah Railway began independent operations between the mines and Provo under a reciprocal trackage rights arrangement that has persisted to the present, where each company allows the other to use its half of the double-track line.
The WP was completed in 1910, but its construction had given the D&RG enormous debts. After periods of ownership by Eastern bankers, the courts appointed two local trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s in 1935. The system was slowly rebuilt into a profitable enterprise, and in 1947 it was reorganized as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
. After buying the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1988 and adopting the latter's name, the D&RGW became part of the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
in 1996.
With the level of the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...
rising in the mid-1980s, the D&RGW and UP came to a trackage rights
Trackage rights
Trackage rights , running rights or running powers is an agreement whereby a railway company has the right to run its trains on tracks owned by another railway company....
agreement, where the D&RGW would use the UP's higher line between Salt Lake City and Ogden, and in exchange the UP could use the D&RGW between Salt Lake City and Provo, a better-designed route than the UP's. The majority of the ex-D&RGW north of Salt Lake City is now the Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Trail, while the UP has sold its Sharp Subdivision north of Provo to the Utah Transit Authority
Utah Transit Authority
The Utah Transit Authority operates a public transportation system throughout the Wasatch Front of Utah, United States. It operates fixed route buses, express buses, ski buses, three light rail lines , and a commuter rail line from Salt Lake City to Pleasant View, north of Ogden. UTA is based in...
, which operates the Sandy/Salt Lake light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
line and contracts with the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad
Salt Lake City Southern Railroad
The Salt Lake City Southern Railroad is a 25-mile shortline operating between Salt Lake City, Utah and Murray, Utah. The SL began operating on April 19, 1993 as a RailTex subsidiary. Today the SL is a subsidiary of the Utah Railway and is owned by the Genesee & Wyoming Inc.-History:The line was...
for freight.
Branches
A long branch was begun in 1890 as narrow gauge and widened in 1891, extending south from Thistle up Thistle Creek and down the San Pitch River to Manti. It was extended south to Sevier in 1891, via the Sevier RiverSevier River
The Sevier River , extending , is the longest Utah river entirely in the state and drains an extended chain of mountain farming valleys to the intermittent Sevier Lake...
, by the Sevier Railway, and that same year the Tintic Range Railway built from Springville southwest and west to Eureka in the Tintic Mountains. The RGW organized both of these companies to be owned by RGW stockholders, but out of the control of RGW bondholders. The Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
stopped new construction until 1896, when the Sevier Railway was extended farther south to Belknap.
The Ballard & Thompson Railroad
Sego, Utah
Sego is a ghost town in Grand County, Utah, United States. It lies in the narrow, winding Sego Canyon, in the Book Cliffs some north of Thompson Springs. Formerly an important eastern Utah coal mining town, Sego was inhabited about 1910–1955...
between Thompson Springs and Sego was purchased in 1913 by the D&RGW and became the Sego Branch.
Presidents
This is a list of presidents (and equivalents) of the Utah company before it was merged into the D&RG in 1908. For post-1908 presidents, see Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad#Presidents.- William J. Palmer, 1881–1884
- W. H. Bancroft, 1884-1886 (receiver)
- William J. Palmer, 1886–1901
- Edward T. Jeffery, 1901–1908
Station listing
| County | Location | MP | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesa | Grand Junction | 450.0 | Grand Junction Grand Junction (Amtrak station) Grand Junction is a train station in Grand Junction, Colorado. It is served by Amtrak's California Zephyr train. It was originally built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.... |
Junction of Tennessee Pass Line/Moffat Line (1890–present) and Gunnison Line (1882–present) |
| 451.7 | Durham | |||
| Fruita | 460.5 | Fruita | ||
| 468.9 | Mack Mack, Colorado Mack is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office located about 10 miles east of the Colorado/Utah border in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The Mack Post Office has the ZIP Code 81525... |
Junction of Uintah Railway Uintah Railway The Uintah Railway was a small railroad company in Utah and Colorado in the United States. It operated from 1902 to 1939.-History:The company was founded in 1902 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gilson Asphaltum Co. with the sole purpose of building a railroad into the isolated Uintah basin... (1904–1939) |
||
| 473.1 | Ruby | |||
| 478.0 | Shale | |||
| 483.3 | Utaline | |||
| Grand | 488.4 | Westwater | ||
| 498.1 | Agate | |||
| 504.4 | Cisco Cisco, Utah Cisco is a ghost town in Grand County, Utah near the junction of State Route 128 and Interstate 70. At one time the town served as a saloon and water-refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The town's demise came with the demise of the steam locomotive. The town site... |
|||
| 510.5 | Whitehouse | |||
| 515.6 | Elba | |||
| 520.7 | Sagers | |||
| 528.1 | Thompson | Junction with Ballard and Thompson Railroad (1912–1950) | ||
| 533.8 | Brendel | Junction with Cane Creek Branch (1962–present) | ||
| 540.4 | Floy | |||
| 546.9 | Solitude | |||
| Emery | Green River | 555.2 | Green River Green River (Amtrak station) Green River is a train station in Green River, Utah. It is served by Amtrak's California Zephyr train. Originally built by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Amtrak did not use this depot until 1994... |
|
| 561.5 | Sphinx | |||
| 567.6 | Desert | |||
| 574.2 | Cliff | |||
| 581.4 | Woodside Woodside, Utah Woodside is a ghost town located on the west bank of the Price River in the nearly uninhabited eastern part of Emery County, Utah, United States. Its fenced-in filling station is one of the only signs of human activity along the lonely stretch of U.S... |
|||
| 586.6 | Grassy | |||
| 593.1 | Cedar | |||
| 602.9 | Mounds | Junction with Sunnyside Branch (1899–present) | ||
| Carbon | 611.3 | Wash | ||
| Wellington | 613.0 | Wellington | ||
| Price | 619.1 | Price | ||
| 622.1 | Maxwell | |||
| Spring Glen | Junction with Kenilworth and Helper Railway (1907–1926) | |||
| Helper | 626.4 | Helper Helper (Amtrak station) The Helper Amtrak station is a train station in Helper, Utah, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system. It is served daily by the California Zephyr... |
Junction with Kenilworth Branch (1926-1960s) and Spring Canyon Branch (1912-1970s) | |
| 628.8 | Utah Railway Junction | Junction with Utah Railway Utah Railway The Utah Railway is a class III railroad operating in Utah and Colorado, and owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.-History:The Utah Railway Company was incorporated on January 24, 1912, with the name of Utah Coal Railway, shortened to Utah Railway in May of the same year... (1914–present) |
||
| 630.4 | Castle Gate Castle Gate, Utah Castle Gate is a ghost town located in Carbon County in eastern Utah, USA. Castle Gate was a mining town approximately southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. The name of the town was derived from a rock formation near the mouth of Price Canyon... |
|||
| 632.0 | Lynn | |||
| Utah | 638.9 | Kyune | Junction with Jennings and Potter's Quarry Branch (1892–1917) | |
| 644.8 | Colton Colton, Utah -External links:* at GhostTowns.com* at Legends of America... |
Junction with Pleasant Valley Branch (1882–present) | ||
| Wasatch | 651.4 | Summit Soldier Summit, Utah Soldier Summit is the name of both a mountain pass in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and a ghost town located at the pass. Soldier Summit has been an important transportation route between the Wasatch Front and Price, Utah since the area was settled by the Mormon pioneers. It is on the route of both... |
||
| Utah | 661.0 | Gilluly | ||
| Tucker Tucker, Utah Tucker is a ghost town located in Utah County, Utah, below Soldier Summit on U.S. Route 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon. It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. After the town was abandoned, the state of Utah used the town site for... |
Original junction with Pleasant Valley Branch (1882) | |||
| 665.6 | Detour | |||
| 672.3 | Narrows | |||
| 676.7 | Rio | |||
| 681.0 | Thistle Thistle, Utah Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, United States, about southeast of Salt Lake City. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad... |
Junction with Marysvale Branch (1890–1983) | ||
| 684.4 | Castilla | |||
| Springville | 695.8 | Springville | Junction with Tintic Branch (1891–present) | |
| 698.6 | Ironton | |||
| Provo | 701.1 | Provo Provo (Amtrak station) The Provo Amtrak station is a train station in Provo, Utah, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system. It is served daily by the California Zephyr... |
Junction with Orem Branch (1946-1970s) and Provo Canyon Branch (1899–1970) | |
| Orem | 705.7 | Lakota | ||
| 707.1 | Geneva | |||
| 708.4 | Pipe Mill | |||
| American Fork | 715.0 | American Fork | ||
| Lehi | 720.3 | Mesa | ||
| Salt Lake | Draper | 728.6 | Riverton Riverton, Utah Riverton is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 38,753 at the 2010 census. Riverton is one of the fastest-growing cities in the state of Utah, and was ranked by CNN Money Magazine as the 60th best... |
|
| Midvale | 734.9 | Midvale | Junction with Bingham Branch (1882–present) and Little Cottonwood Branch (1882–1964) | |
| South Salt Lake | 742.0 | Roper | Junction with Park City Branch (1900–2005) | |
| Salt Lake City | 745.1 | Salt Lake City | ||
| 745.5 | Grant Tower | |||
| 748.7 | Becks | |||
| Davis | North Salt Lake | 750.3 | North Salt Lake | |
| West Bountiful | 753.9 | Woods Cross Woods Cross, Utah Woods Cross is a city in Davis County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Ogden–Clearfield, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 9,761 as of the 2010 census... |
||
| Farmington | Farmington | Junction with Lake Park Branch (1887–1925) | ||
| Clearfield | 770.4 | Clearfield | ||
| Weber | Roy | Roy | Junction with Hooper Branch (1905–1959) | |
| Ogden | 779.3 | Sugar Works | ||
| 782.0 | Ogden Union Station (Ogden) Union Station in Ogden, Utah, also known as Ogden Union Station, is located on Historic 25th Street. It was formerly the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads.... |