Follow Up: Transcontinental Railroad Symposium

As a follow up to my previous post from April 26, it's worth noting that the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden is conducting a symposium on the weekend of June 7-9 on the Transcontinental Railroad.

Celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad with a decidedly Colorado twist.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday June 7-9, 2019

The top scholars in railroad history explore the struggles undertaken to build one continuous line of track from coast to coast and the resulting impact this had on our nation’s settlement and economy.

Speakers currently on the schedule include filmmaker Richard Luckin, David Bain, Peter A. Hansen, James Ehernberger, Kyle Wyatt, Dick Kreck, and Jim Wrinn, editor of Trains magazine. Of particular interest is Saturday afternoon when Al Dunton is scheduled to present The Colorado Connection, speaking on the Kansas Pacific and the Denver Pacific Railroads. Presiding, of course, is the director of the Colorado Railroad Museum, Donald Tallman.

The symposium will be held off-site from the museum for Friday and Saturday, and seating is limited. Reservations required by Friday, May 31, 2019, only 10 days from this post, so do not wait! Visit the event site for all official details.⚒

The Ghost Railroad Hiding In Your Backyard

Every once in a while, an e-mail from the contact form catches my eye, like this one:

Dear Colorado Railroads,
Wasn't there a line running generally SE from Longmont, CO, generally thru Erie, then past Broomfield? If so, what became of it?


Regards,

Gregory Iwan

Dear Gregory,

Yes, there was! In fact, this area is steeped in the history of numerous railroads because the Front Range corridor between Denver and Cheyenne was the first to see development by railroads, and all of them wanted to be the first to get to wherever it was they were going! The period of 1870 to 1890 was a wild time here, with legal and financial wrangling, a great deal of courting of public opinion, strong arming, and more than a few shady dealings like kidnapping judges and taking of property by force!

I must admit that when I was initially searching, I was confused. I came across a narrow-gauge line running due north from Broomfield to Longmont. But you aren't referring to that line. The only line with all three points you mentioned was standard gauge and, strangely, it was built by the same company as the narrow gauge line! Suffice to say, this railroad has a complex, if brief, history.

The Denver, Utah & Pacific had narrow-gauge aspirations as a mountain railroad, and its ambitions were as big as its name. However, its progress seems a little more mundane. The first goal was to lay claim to a route west through the canyons and that's where their line through Longmont comes in. They were working on reaching Lyons and a potential route west over the Continental Divide. This appears to have caught the attention of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The CB&Q was also looking to expand westward of Denver and bought control of the DU&P. Because the CB&Q was a standard gauge carrier, the DU&P began converting or flat out re-building its system to match the Burlington's gauge.

The line was constructed in 1889 from Burns Junction on the Denver, Marshall & Boulder main line a little west of Broomfield by the Denver, Utah & Pacific in standard gauge. To save time and money, DU&P used 5 miles of a grade built by the Denver, Western & Pacific but not actually used. Once complete, they leased the line to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad on September 1st of that year. CB&Q operated the railroad via its Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska (phew!) subsidiary until February 1908, when the title was obtained by CB&Q outright.

The line connected through Erie with Longmont's branch to Lyons, which had to be standard gauged along with the connection to Denver, but the Burlington would eventually link it with Montana by controlling the Colorado & Southern whose Wind River Canyon line through Casper and Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Map

The line itself served many mines that came and went, but coal mining was curtailed by miners strikes in the late 1910s and early 20s, and the mines waned in profitability. Most of the spurs were gone by 1936 and passenger traffic also dwindled. Then in 1951, 1.5 miles of the main line between the connections with the Lafayette Loop was abandoned, diverting all traffic over the loop. From then until 1970, the line remained intact, more or less.

What became of it? As near as I can piece together, vandals burnt the bridge at Idaho Creek, severing the line. Rather than rebuild it, the Burlington Northern (I presume, based on corporate timelines) elected to serve Lafayette and Longmont via their other connections made by the control and eventual merger with the Colorado & Southern. Erie lost service in the 1980s or 90s. It's vague and unsubstantiated, but that's the best I can come up with at this time.

For a serious look at the line, I managed to find a book available in Denver's Public Library called Denver, Longmont and Northwestern by Berlyn (Billy) L. Boyles of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. I have not seen a copy of it myself but it looks promising, if a bit dated.

It's a little surprising to find this ghost railroad hiding in plain sight, running right through people's backyards. Who knows how much more history lies beneath the surface?⚒

References

Colorado Railroads by Tivis Wilkins
Tracking Ghost Railroads in Colorado by Robert Ormes
Colorado's Mountain Railroads by Robert LaMassena
Historical USGS Topo Maps
Rick Steel C&S History, UtahRails.net

POTD - Thin Air and Thin Rails On the Monarch Branch

In the twilight of the narrow gauge era of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the Monarch Branch had the rare distinction of being standard-gauged in 1956 and converted to diesel operation.¹ This was the year after the Marshall Pass line was scrapped. Thus, the conversion would end Salida's long years as a 3-rail terminal and as a cornerstone of the far-famed Narrow Gauge Circle. Still, for another 26 years, the Monarch branch would continue in use until 1982 when a shutdown of the steel furnaces at Pueblo obviated the need for limestone from the quarry near the summit of the pass. The Rio Grande officially abandoned the branch in 1984.²

Photo of the Day: John Dziobko
Click image for full size, original image

Button copy and a high-nosed EMD GP-9 would be the first clues that this isn't a recent photograph. In fact, it's early September 1969 on the Denver & Rio Grande Western's Monarch branch above Salida and its junction with the Tennessee Pass Route. Our Photo of the Day shows just how intense mountain railroading on the Rio Grande could be! Tight curves prevented six-axle diesels from working the branch. Grades of 4.5% and a pair of switchbacks, the only switchbacks on the entire system, were hardly enough to keep the brakes on the limestone gondolas from smoking. The easy access of US 50--the "Backbone of America" as Time magazine called it--and its activity into the 1980s made the branch something of a legend for the Rio Grande, especially among railfans. Those who witnessed the railroad's regular herculean struggle against gravity would seldom soon forget it!⚒

Footnotes:
1 Rio Grande: To the Pacific by Robert LaMassena 2nd Ed p176
2 www.drgw.net Monarch branch by Nathan Holmes

POTD - BN Caboose Two Miles High

Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman

It is 1984, and the Climax local has just returned to the two-mile high city of Leadville under threat of rain from a July cloudburst overhead. Winter snows still cling to Mount Elbert above the covered hopper and Mount Massive (at far right), the two highest peaks in Colorado. The summer storm belies the fact that summer, if it comes at all, is far too brief at this altitude to make much of an impact. Nevertheless, as noted photographer Mike Danneman notes, this line survives as the Leadville, Colorado & Southern, a summer tourist railroad in business long after the neighboring Tennessee Pass Route has fallen silent.

The isolated segment of the Burlington Northern system, 150 rail miles from its nearest connection at Pueblo, is still generating revenue many decades after coming into the fold of Colorado & Southern as part of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad. To get there, the DSP&P climbed from Como in South Park over the Continental Divide at Boreas Pass, down through Breckenridge and Frisco before heading up over Fremont Pass (and the Continental Divide, again). Such up and down, north and south wanderings are why they had such turbulent corporate histories and why Colorado narrow gauge railroads are so beloved. ⚒

POTD - A Plow In Aspen Gold

Photo of the Day: James Belmont

With the weather turning colder again, it's only fitting for the mind to turn to the one thing that made Colorado winters famous--or infamous, to the minds of railroad presidents and their accountants: snow. First in the line of defense of the high mountain passes and deep canyons were the plows, of which the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad's X-67 is one of very few built for them by the Russell Car & Snow Plow Company. Further, she was listed by the Rio Grande as a plow, rather than a plow and spreader. Nevertheless, she looks fantastic sitting in Minturn on a relatively hot spring day in June 1981, awaiting the call to action in a fresh coat of Grande Aspen gold with wide-vision caboose 01509. Since Tennessee Pass has been dormant for 20 years now (grrr!), X-67 has been summering in Glenwood Springs, not a bad way to spend one's time!⚒

POTD - Autumn Aspens Aflame Over La Veta Pass

The cooler weather of last week calls to mind that autumn is approaching and with it, the fall colors returning to the high country. Now, aspens aflame may seem synonymous with a number of Colorado's railroads, but for some reason, I don't readily recall the San Luis & Rio Grande, or as it's known to most folks, the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad as a primary venue for autumn viewing.

Could this soon change? The RGSR is booking tickets for its Fall Colors Explorer. Their first class tickets are still available for $130 aboard a standard gauge, diesel service departing Alamosa and Fort Garland for La Veta Pass. While not the typical steam trip, it looks like those willing to part with the tidy sum will enjoy food, wine, and a memorable experience on board to go with their photos.

Photo of the Day: Michael F. Allen

Michael F. Allen took the above frame at La Veta Pass of SLRG 18 hauling a photo freight westward in the midst of some dazzling and brilliant aspen. While the framing and timing of the photo is just right, the tall, open gons and the tall, standard gauge engine make it stand out from so many narrow gauge steamers. The green jacket to the boiler looks sharp and defined, giving contrast to the the former LS&I 18. Had it been the standard black, it just wouldn't pop like it does. Truly worthy of Photo of the Day!⚒

New Rio Grande Standard Gauge Steam Video From Greg Scholl

A new video of contemporary steam on the historic Rio Grande Railroad is not that hard to find any year, mostly because of the fine work by so many companies to document the daily operations of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge and the local preservation societies like the Durango Railroad Historical Society and their work with D&RGW 315.

In comparison, finding a standard gauge Rio Grande steam video is rare enough to pay attention to, even if big steam isn't always your thing. Only one standard gauge locomotive survived the scrapper's torch, and it's sitting in the museum in Golden. In other words, any big steam Rio Grande footage is vintage and something worth preserving.



While I have not yet previewed the actual video from Greg Scholl Video Productions, the trailer above looks promising! HT: DRGW.org's Green Light newsletter ⚒

Special POTD: Sadness On a Sunday Morning

As a finishing touch to the featured article on the 3600s, Dave Straight placed his photo "Sadness on a Sunday Morning." I can't look at it without an emotional reaction and I don't trust myself to be reliable in those moments. Yet, to not say anything would seem criminal.

Special Photo of the Day: Dave Straight

At the end of our summer, it's the end of the era of steam, specifically March 25, 1956. My father is not yet 16 years old and his days of driving an ice truck are still ahead of him (let alone parenting me and my three older siblings). Someone older, who would be in his 80s or 90s today, probably looks at the line of used steam engines as dirty, pre-war relics and thinks they look pitiful next to the modern first-generation diesels, all shiny and pristine. Oh, how different a perspective 60 years later!

Today, I still find it incredible that no one gave serious effort to save one of the largest locomotive classes in the world--and certainly in Colorado--off in a corner of a park somewhere in Denver, Pueblo, Grand Junction or Salt Lake City, someplace indebted to the Rio Grande's years of faithful service where such space would have easily been had for the asking. If they had, future generations could have possessed something tangible and real, not a paint scheme or a model, but a life-size representation of the Denver & Rio Grande Western's Main Line Thru the Rockies in an era that is gone forever.◊

POTD: Piercing The Flatirons With Silver and Gold

In 1978, more years lay behind the Rio Grande Zephyr in its brief existence than in front of it. A truncated version of a prestigious and luxurious train, passengers bemoaned the state of rail transportation where the RGZ was, if not a dimming reflection of the glory days, a reminder of the past that was herself quickly fading. Certainly, she was the last survivor of intercity passenger rail that was not swallowed up in the Nixon-Ford era Amtrak.

Running tri-weekly it was possible to use one train set and run it between Denver and Salt Lake City, Thursday, Saturday, and Monday, and Salt Lake City to Denver Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday, and never on Wednesday, which was when the cars received their maintenance. Only 5 years from the snap of this picture, Rio Grande would pull the plug on this last, tri-weekly gasp of private passenger rail service. Had she lived to be a hundred, I don't think anyone would have found the Zephyr to be worse than her successor.

Photo of the day: James Belmont

Photographer James Belmont says of this photo, "One of my all time favorite photos of the Rio Grande Zephyr..."     He went on to add that the fill the train is crossing over was washed out during the floods of September 2013. This washout disrupted service over the Moffat Route from Denver to Grand Junction for 17 days, and considering it's location, it's a testament to the maintenance and repair crews how fast they got the work done!

Interested in the Rio Grande Zephyr? Check out my friend James Griffin's very artful web treatment of the Silver Lady's last days.◊

POTD - A Silver Lady Passes Her Castle Gate

Drew Jacksich makes his debut here with Photo of the Day. Mr. Jacksich gets around if a quick tour of his flickr site is any indication. His photos appear in Wikipedia articles, and with good reason, because not only do they have some historic significance, but the bulk of them have some real beauty.

Photo of the Day: Drew Jacksich

Such is the case with his photograph of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Castle Gate, Utah in June 1975, just 40 years ago this year. The last remnant of the Silver Lady and the last privately controlled inter-city passenger train was 4 years into her proud, tri-weekly service following the demise of the popular California Zephyr, begun in 1949 by the Burlington, Rio Grande and Western Pacific railroads as a Chicago to San Francisco train timed to view Colorado's Rocky Mountains in the daylight.◊

Mike Armstrong's Steam Galore Annotated For Colorado Railroad Fans

Mike Armstrong is a photographer and videographer, posting on YouTube as CoasterFan2105. His body of work has grown quite a bit. So, as a showcase, Mr. Armstrong has put together a compilation of his steam videos and called it Steam Trains Galore! At the time of this writing, it has over 2.1 Million views. (You read that correctly.)

For 2 million pairs of eyes, the video is chock full of Colorado narrow gauge action (and a bit of RGSR's standard gauge engine 18). Thus, I've produced a small collection of notes detailing the different segments with links so you can skip to the parts that interest you. Honestly, my first impulse is to just let it run and see if you can identify the segments yourself. Just in case, however, I put the cheat sheet below.




Note: clicking the time links below will open the video in a second window (after an ad, which I have no control over, unfortunately)

• 0:01 - 0:12 Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge RR (D&SNG) Eureka & Palisade engine 4 "Eureka" crossing Animas  River south of Silverton
• 3:03 - 5:46 Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) engine  315, which was restored by Durango Railroad Historical  Society, at work pulling various specials on the D&SNG.
• 8:13 - 11:43 C&TS and Mudhen 463
  • 8:13 D&RGW 463, one of two surviving "Mudhens,"  leads a double-header on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR  (C&TS) along with D&RGW 487 on a mixed photo freight  over the 63 mile line.
  • 8:43 passing the tank at Lava
  • 9:06 entering the bottom of Tanglefoot Curve below  Cumbres Pass
  • 10:38 exiting the top of Tanglefoot Curve immediately above the entrance
  • 11:08 decending the 4%  grade toward Chama, NM (love the through-truss shot!)
• 11:44 - 12:03 D&RGW mikado 484 on the C&TS rounding the  balloon loop at Antonito, turning the train for the  return trip to Chama.
• 15:38 Intro photo of San Luis & Rio Grande SL&RG railroad  standard gauge engine (former LS&I) 18 descending  towards La Veta, CO with a consist for SL&RG's passenger arm the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad (RGSR)
• 15:48 - 17:50 SL&RG 18 eastbound from Alamosa across the  San Luis Valley then climbing the grade toward La Veta  Pass and topping the grade at Fir, CO. Finally,  descending the east side of the pass nearing La Veta, CO
• 17:51 - 19:57 SL&RG 18 returns with the same consist  climbing dramatically back over La Veta Pass to Alamosa.  Notice the wheel slip by locomotive 18 starting at  19:10. Don't get stingy with the sand now!
• 20:03 - 22:05 Eureka & Palisade number 4 idles for water  at Hermosa then departs northbound for Silverton.  (several beautiful shots)
• 22:06 - 22:10 Photo of the west side of Durango's Narrow Gauge Avenue (yes, technically a street)

Of course, Mike has put together a sequel called--what else?--Steam Trains Galore 2! It contains more of Colorado's railroads and engines for you to discover.

Great videos, Mike!◊