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Wagon Wheel Gap Routeand the Denver & Rio Grande Railway
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The Railroads
Regional Railroads There were many railroads in the Southern Rocky Mountains, these include: Denver & Rio Grande ( Western ) Railway ( Railroad )
D&RG RY Map - 1881 776 miles in operation - 691 miles under construction. 1873 Map The Denver & Rio Grande Railway opened the Rocky Mountains more than any other form of transportation. Started in the 1870's by Col. William Jackson Palmer, it weaved it's way through the tall Colorado Mountains and through the folklore and history of this area. This was the premiere railroad of Colorado. Rio Grande Southern Railroad
The Opher Loop on the Rio Grande Southern, between Rico and Telluride & Lizard Head Pass 1890's Built during the height of the silver mining boom in the 1880's to service the mines in the Telluride area, when the price of silver dropped the railroad fell on hard times. It was later operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad but always kept its separate identity. Became well known for its Galloping Goose Rail Busses. Ended business and was scrapped in the early 1950's Look carefully at the photo, the cuts on the mountains are where the Rail Line passes, at the bottom out of sight is the Ames generating plant that was the first A/C Power Generating plant in commercial service and it is still in service. Lot of history out there...
Rio Grande Southern Railroad "Goose" #3 on the Ophir Bridge and in Rico Denver & South Park Pacific Railroad The Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railroad In the late 1880's the Union Pacific trains ran through Wyoming, and the Denver and Rio Grande line was routed through Pueblo and ran west through the Royal Gorge. The city of Denver was being by-passed, which caused great concern in the Denver business community. David H. Moffat was the wealthiest man in Colorado at the turn of the century, as a result of hard work and wise investments, and he realized that a shorter route directly west of Denver would reduce freight rates and open up the rich ranching, farming, and coal mining areas of northwestern Colorado. Mr. Moffat incorporated the Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific Railroad in 1902, and in April 1903 construction of the railroad west of Denver began. By the middle of 1905, tracks were laid through 33 tunnels and over numerous bridges, up South Boulder Canyon and over Rollins Pass (dubbed Corona Pass by the railroad workers), to Hot Sulphur Springs. Originally, Moffat had planned to build a tunnel through the most precipitous part of the pass, but their original efforts failed. Instead, the tracks that were consequently built over the top of Rollins pass had to be enclosed by a two-mile long snow shed, which alleviated only some of the drift problems, and delays were common. The rotary snow plow was developed to keep the Moffat Road open. Mr. Moffat's dream of reaching Salt Lake was not realized before his death in 1911. The railroad went bankrupt in 1912 and was reorganized as the Denver and Salt Lake. By 1913 the railroad reached Craig, Colorado. It took until 1923 for The Moffat Tunnel Commission to be formed and work started on the Moffat Tunnel. Work progressed until February 1927, at that time the east and the west tunnels meet almost perfectly. Several years later when work finished, the tunnel was 6.2 miles long and replaced 33 miles of track over the top of the divide. The trip from East Portal to West Portal was reduced from 5 hours with good weather to about 12 minutes in any weather. Still active today, at least 12 to 16 trains a day go through the tunnel. If you drive up Rollins Pass, you may still see parts of the old trestles. Colorado Central
Colorado & Southern
Colorado Midland
Major Western Railroads Connection to the west and east coasts were through: Union Pacific Western Pacific Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Southern Pacific ( Purchased the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad )
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Web Site E-Mail Address is Wagon-Wheel-Gap@hotmail.com
Also see our History of San Luis Valley & it's Railroads web site:Wagon-Wheel-Gap.freehomepage.com It's still under construction but you may find it interesting.
This is not an official web site of the D&RG Ry. Historical Foundation.It is a private informational site by Richard Cutter who is solely responsible for content andcontent is not submitted to, approved nor controlled by the D&RG Historical Foundation.
Unless otherwise NotedHistorical Photographs 1800's to 1940's from the National Archives Photos, Videos and Text are Copyrighted by Richard Cutter- Photos can be used for non-commercial use if plainly identified as to copyright holder and location, such as "at Wagon-Wheel-Gap-Route, Colorado"The name "Wagon Wheel Gap Route" refers to the section of the Creede Branch of the Old "Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad" that extends from South Fork to Creede Colorado, the name was developed and used for this website and is considered as our trademark. Last updated: July 03, 2005
You are at..... WWW.Wagon-Wheel-Gap-Route.Freehomepage.com
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