Does anyone know of a detailed map, on line, for the D&RG? Am looking for something just before the turn of the century. Which is clear enough, detailed enough, to see the lines around Colorado Springs. Boxcab E50
Look here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html If you use keyword search on denver rio grande, it will take you to a map from 1881. The URL is too long and bizarre to try to paste. Here's what it says about it: Map of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, showing its connections and extensions also the relative position of Denver and Pueblo to all the principal towns and mining regions of Colorado and New Mexico. Eccles, S. W. CREATED/PUBLISHED Chicago, c1881. SUMMARY Outline map of Colorado and New Mexico showing major relief by hachures, major drainage, cities and towns, and county boundaries. Main lines are indicated by heavy colored lines. NOTES Scale 1:760,320. At head of title: "776 miles in operation. 691 miles under construction."
I saved that map tot he desktop, and blew it up on Photoshop,a nd it became very hard to read... The CoS area seems to only have a main or 2, nothing major.
Oops Oops, I read it too fast and didn't see the emphasis on Colorado Springs. Still, it's a neat website. I downloaded the SID viewer they have a while ago, so I can download the huge sid files and look at things in detail. Even if it didn't do any good this time, someone else may find something useful for themselves.
Looking for maps that clearly show the line to Divide, and connections with other RR's at the time in the CS/Divide area. Boxcab E50
Maps, Books and Other Data Box, I have a lot of data on this, including Colorado Railroads by Tivis Wilkins, which is a year-by-year listing of construction and abandonments within Colorado up to 1966. I have the Colorado Railroad Museum's state map of all railroad lines as well as Steam Powered Video's Colorado Railroad Atlas. E-mail me with any specific questions you might have at coloradorailroads@gmail.com. In the meantime, I can tell you with a good amount of certainty that no railroads connected with the Denver & Rio Grande and no spur tracks exist between the points of Pikeview to the north of Colorado Springs and Douglas to the south of Castle Rock and the Madge Quarry sites. Only the D&RG and the AT&SF built between those two points. Now then, there was a lumber company that operated a rail line north of Woodland Park called the Manitou Park Logging Railroad. References on it are scarce as it was a private operation, disconnected from any railroad (engines were hauled in) and closed down after a few years. Still, it would be in the era you talked about.
coloradorailroads- Somewhere, I have a date. But can't find it right now. When did the Rock Island (predecessor?) reach CS? A little bit south of my original question- What about the Mopac? When did they get into Pueblo area? Ever operate north of Pueblo? Perhaps a passenger train toward Denver? Trackage rights perhaps over the D&RG? Was it Mopac, or an earlier operation, that reached Pueblo, and any interchange with the D&RG? Boxcab E50
1888. A daily mixed ran between CS and Goodland, KS starting October 15 and passenger service started November 4-5 of that year. Built by the Chicago, Rock Island & Colorado Railway Company (inc. January 1888), which was merged into CRI&P subsidiary Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska Railway Company and absorbed into the CRI&P in 1891. (Colorado Railroads by Wilkins) The Missouri Pacific beat CRI&P into the state by one year arriving in 1887 with the construction company Pueblo & State Line Railway. It entered the state south of the AT&SF line and crossed over it in the Arkansas River Valley about 26 miles east of Pueblo. The track paralleled the Santa Fe into town over a new bridge and connected with the D&RG on December 2, 1887. For a month, rail service to Horace, KS began under P&SL and regular passenger service started January 1, 1888 under MoPac's flag between Pueblo, Kansas City and St. Louis, MO. (ibid) If memory serves, it was the Colorado Eagle that was run between Pueblo and Denver with MoPac power and D&RGW crews. MP had some smart looking E units. Steve
