The Utah Division of the former Denver & 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 part of the Central Corridor. The modern Union Pacific has split the line into two subdivisions for operational purposes, the Green River Subdivision between Grand Junction and Helper, Utah and the Provo Subdivision from Helper to Salt Lake City.Agreement Between Union Pacific Railroad Company and Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, effective February 1, 2000 (includes a list of subdivisions from the first post-merger timetable in 1998) Daily passenger service is provided by Amtrak's California Zephyr; 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 lines, the longest being the Marysvale Branch through the Sevier Valley.
Route description
History Construction: 1870s to 1883 When the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) was chartered in 1870, it had the goal of connecting Denver with El Paso, Texas.LeMassena, p. 15 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.LeMassena, p. 22 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.LeMassena, pp. 26, 30
In the meantime, the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway (U&PV) had built a 3-foot (914mm) narrow gauge 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 UtahInterstate Commerce Commission, 26 Val. Rep. 733 (1929), p. 805: Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company 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.Hilton, George W. American Narrow Gauge Railroads, p. 530, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1990. 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 narrow gauge mining roads - the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Rail Road since 1873 and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad since 1875 - acquired the U&PV in October 1878.Clarence A. Reeder, Jr., The History of Utah's Railroads, 1869-1883 (1970 doctoral dissertation), published 1981 by Arno Press, Hilton, George W. American Narrow Gauge Railroads, p. 530-1, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1990.
The U&PV began at a mine in the Pleasant Valley south of Scofield,Rand McNally & Company, Denver and Rio Grande Railway System, 1886 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 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.Google Maps street maps and USGS topographic maps, accessed July 2008 via ACME Mapper
The Central Pacific Coal & Coke Co. Ltd. of London chartered the San Pete Valley Railroad in 1873 to develop its mining properties in Utah. Opened in 1882, the narrow-gauge line ran 30 miles from Nephi to the parent company's coal deposits at Wales, was extended 35 miles to Moroni in 1884, to Manti (43 miles) in 1893, and to Morrison (51 miles) in 1894. The D&RG purchased the railroad in 1907.Hilton, George W. American Narrow Gauge Railroads, p. 532, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1990.
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.Charter of the Salt Lake and Park City Railway: George A. Lowe, primary stockholder, was a D&RG man The lines of this company and the Sevier Valley were included in the far-reaching charter for the Denver & 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,Deseret News, Sevier Valley Railroad, April 27, 1881, p. 9 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 Canyons.
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,LeMassena, p. 83 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.Salt Lake Daily Tribune, November 23, 1882 D&RG and D&RGW crews met at a point now known as Desert, west of Green River, on March 30, 1883, and trains began running between Denver and Salt Lake City several days later.Ogden Daily Herald, Connection Completed, March 31, 1883 (Although the D&RG built the line from the state line to Desert, it was owned by the D&RGW.LeMassena, p. 85) 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.LeMassena, p. 41
Retrenchment and turmoil: 1883 to 1901 With the line into Utah complete, the D&RG system consisted of a narrow gauge main line from Denver to Ogden, passing through or over Colorado Springs, Pueblo, the Royal Gorge, 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.LeMassena, pp. 41, 83, 85, 367
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.Salt Lake Daily Tribune, Receiver Bancroft, August 13, 1884, p. 4 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.LeMassena, pp. 43, 46, 51, 85, 87 Palmer returned to his position as D&RGW president, the company having been released from receivership.Ogden Daily Herald, Changed Hands, July 30, 1886, p. 4