Denver and Salt Lake Railway
standard gauge |
The Denver and Salt Lake Railway (D&SL) was a
History
When the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific (DN&P) Railway was first incorporated in July 1902 by
Front Range
Construction began in December 1902 as the line headed west out of Denver and then started north up the face of the Front Range of the Rockies towards Boulder before turning west when it reached South Boulder Canyon. Chief Engineer H.A. Sumner, needing to enter the canyon area as high as possible but still maintain a 2% grade, gained the necessary altitude via the Big Ten Curve and some eight tunnels. As a bonus, his routing scheme along the front range provided rail passengers majestic views of Denver and its surrounding countryside.[2]
Continental Divide
By 1903, the tracks reached the
Middle Park
In the spring of 1905, the tracks were completed on the western side of the divide to Fraser, and from there, the line went through Granby, Hot Sulphur Springs, and Byers Canyon to the last of Sumner’s railroad engineering masterpieces, the three mile long traverse of Gore Canyon. Built on the side of the canyon wall, the railroad track is the only way through the canyon (other than whitewater rafting the Colorado River), and was considered a "monumental achievement" in its day. The road then continued west to State Bridge, where it then turned north to Steamboat Springs in the winter of 1909. By 1913, it arrived at what would turn out to be its final destination, Craig in Moffat County, Colorado.[6]
Moffat Tunnel
The trials and tribulations of railroading over Rollins Pass were solved in 1927 with the completion of the
Dotsero Cutoff
One year after Moffat’s death, the railroad was placed in receivership, and in 1913 it was reformed as the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad. Reorganized as the Denver & Salt Lake Railway in 1926, the DS&L was acquired by the D&RGW in 1931 along with the Denver & Salt Lake Western Railroad (a company in name only), whose sole function was to acquire the rights to build a 40-mile (64-km) connection between the two railroads. In 1932, the D&RGW began construction of the Dotsero Cutoff, from Dotsero (east of Glenwood Springs) to connect to the D&SL at Bond on the Colorado River. This project, which was completed in 1934, finally gave Denver its direct rail line to Salt Lake City. In 1947, the D&SL was completely absorbed into the D&RGW, which in turn was taken over by the Southern Pacific in 1988 and finally the Union Pacific RR in 1996. Other than the Rollins Pass section, all of the original DS&L railroad route is still in use today.[8]
Unfinished route
In Utah, the unfinished portion of the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad would have passed through the Uinta Basin en route to Salt Lake.[9] The Uinta basin has extensive oil shale resources. To take better advantage of this oil shale, multiple proposals to build a Uinta Basin Rail line connecting the basin to the national rail network have been made by both public and private interests, including multiple proposals made from 1915-1920.[10] Some of these proposals involve the constructing more of the proposed route of the former D&SL into Utah.
In 1984, the
In 2015, the
References
- ISBN 978-0962070723.
- ^ "Railfan Guide". RailroadConnection.com. August 18, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
- ^ "A Feat In Railroad Building: A New Road Over The Rocky Mountains From Denver To Salt Lake". GoogleBooks.com. 1905. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
- ^ "NRHP Submission". NPS,gov. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0918654298.
- ^ "Moffat Road History". Elvastower.com. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
- ASIN B0007EB0H6.
- ASIN B007EU3KEW.
- ^ Strack, Don (May 30, 2019). "Salt Lake & Denver Railroad". Utah Rails.net. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ Strack, Don (May 12, 2019). "Uinta Basin Railway". Utah Rails.net. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ "1,4,6,7". Utah State Rail Plan. udot.utah.gov (Report). Utah Department of Transportation. April 2015. pp. 20–21, 113–114, 138–146, 158–159. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 26, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
External links
- Moffat Road Railroad Museum history Archived June 10, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
- Museum of Northwest Colorado features Moffat Road memorabilia Archived January 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine