Charles Conway hardcover
This third volume covering the Denver & Rio Grande Western in the
era of color photography examines the origins and ultimate demise of
the D&RGW¹s Utah Division between Grand Junction, Colorado, and
Ogden, Utah. Built by the same General Palmer who had contributed so
much to the early Denver & Rio Grande in Colorado, the line across
the eastern Utah desert to the Wasatch Front never had large precious
mineral deposits as the siren song attraction for railroad construction.
This road would rely on the more mundane carloads of coal, iron ore,
and copper as its early mainstay.
Following the merger of the Utah and Colorado lines in 1908, the
company began focusing on upgrading its property and soliciting traffic
from far beyond the borders of its two home states. This
transcontinental traffic, along with the burgeoning coal business
developed after World War II, would make the D&RGW a successful and
profitable property, despite being surrounded by much larger, often
unfriendly carriers. A portion of the Utah Division¹s history is noted
in the coverage of the remnants of D&RGW¹s far-flung narrow-gauge
empire in Colorado. But the real story lies west of Grand Junction,
where merchandise, lumber products, perishables and piggyback shipments
were added to the area¹s considerable mineral traffic and the few
remaining passenger trains operated during the latter years of D&RGW
ownership.
As with many enterprises, circumstances are always changing and
despite its own good management and customer-oriented operations, the
D&RGW was not always in control of its own fate. One by one the
needed connections were eliminated until the D&RGW was forced to
cast its lot with a weakened Southern Pacific. This would prove to be a
short-lived partnership and as the 20th century drew to a close, new
owner Union Pacific finally got its wish of killing off the D&RGW
once and for all. Today, some of the lines covered in this volume see no
UP trains at all on a regular basis, but the pictures and stories
herein provide a look back to better days, when the Rio Grande was
indeed the Jewel of the Wasatch.
