DRGW D&RGW steam classes

steam classifications

M: Mountain type
C: Consolidation type
K: Mikado Type
P: Pacific type
L: Mallet type
Etc....

 

That WAS the designation until the bigger locomotives began arriving.

And it doesn't matter what other railroads called their engines, it was up to each railroad to name them as they saw fit.

Therefore 4-8-2 and 4-8-4 engines are Mountains to the D&RGW

 

The Grande always went its own way...

That's correct. The previous post explaining the steam engine nomenclature is accurate, to the best of my knowledge.

--Bryan

 

Technically, they built straight south, oh "Rats!". Then they went west a bit and then south, then they went west again from another point, then really got lost and just kinda circled around a bit. Then they started from the other side and worked east, but that didn't connect to anything, then started from this new point and went straight west, only stopping when they had to load the cars onto boats. Later, they decided to go back to the beginning and head East, although they bought that part from someone else. Getting bored, they went out into the desert and then headed straight south, to no place in particular, just because it was fun to build something.
OK, so they got a bit lost along the way... :tb-rolleyes:

 

Remembering David Moffat

It was indeed an organized group building west out of Mile High City, although I wouldn't say "calculated": The numbers never did add up. The line, the Denver &Salt Lake (D&SL), was built by a dreamer, David Moffat, who was, like the D&RGW's General Palmer, one of the most interesting people in turn-of-the-century railroading. Unlike Palmer, though, Moffat was something of a tragic figure, as you'll see.

Moffat, a wealthy Denver business leader and passionate advocate for Denver's interests, attracted the initial, but sadly insufficient capitalization for the D&SL by harnessing the community's sour feelings about our old nemesis, the Union Pacific. Snubbing Denver, the UP had constructed its main line through Cheyenne, throwing the Mile High City's future into doubt.

Although Moffat was able to come up with some capital for the D&SL, the road was always viewed as, at best, an impractical effort and, at worst, a folly constructed by a man who had taken leave of his senses. In Moffat's lifetime, there was never enough capital to build a lengthy tunnel under the Continental Divide, a tunnel that, in Moffat's view, held the key to Denver's future.

Instead, Moffat constructed the route over Rollins Pass at absurd elevations (11,680' at the summit) and at an equally absurd cost, estimated to exceed $75,000 per mile. But all this effort and expenditure created little more than a line to nowhere. There wasn't enough capital to extend the line beyond Craig, the mineral resources of which were not fully understood and exploited until much later. The D&SL never made it to Salt Lake City.

Sadly, the D&SL's major accomplishment was to exhaust Moffat's fortune and quite likely to kill him; in 1911, Moffat collapsed and died in New York City while attempting to obtain financing needed for a tunnel under the Continental Divide.

The tunnel for which Moffat arguably sacrificed his life was not completed until 1934, long after his death, and had little economic significance for Denver until the D&RGW acquired the DS&L and constructed the Dotsero Cutoff, which was completed in 1937. There is no small irony in the fact that the Union Pacific, which acquired the ex-D&RGW Moffat Tunnel route in 1996, is widely seen to be downplaying the Colorado route in preference to its less mountainous Wyoming main line, pushing Denver once again to the periphery in terms of its significance in our nation's railway infrastructure. It would not surprise me to learn that, on the day the UP took control of the Moffat tunnel, Moffat turned in his grave.

Fans of the D&SL-constructed Tunnel District might wish to pay a visit to the Forest Service-maintained Rollins Pass route from Tolland to Arrow. In the past, the old railroad roadbed could be traversed by four-wheel drive vehicles, but the Needles Eye Summit tunnel partially collapsed in 1990, resulting in its closure. I'm not sure whether it's possible to get around the tunnel today, although it has been possible at times in the past. (Does anyone have any up-to-date info on this? It's a trip I'd love to make.)

Darn, I've got to get back to work (aarggh, grading papers). I hope readers have enjoyed this little trip to the past as much as I did!


Bryan Pfaffenberger
Science, Technology, and Society
Univ. of Virginia

 

Denver voted for a water tunnel, not a railroad tunnel, and it had primary importance to the economy. The construction tunnel, used in construction of the parallel railroad tunnel, was built as a way to bring water to Denver, which had been stunted by a lack or water. This was all at the expense of Pueblo, which to that point had been Colorado's premier city, but floods had wiped out much of the business district. Flood control at the cost of losing out to Denver. Hard decisions, and hardball politics!

 

As Mr. Coors says, "It's the water."

So Moffat got his tunnel posthumously, but only because the Rio Grande main line was accompanied by a water main. Denver booster that he was, Moffat would undoubtedly have gratified by the fact that Denver managed to score on on Pueblo in addition to Cheyenne!

--B.

 

What "DRGW" stands for

During the Gould years DRGW was said to stand for "Dogs and Rats Go West" (or, my personal favorite, "Deteriorating and Rapidly Getting Worse"). During those years, Rio Grande service went off the edge of a cliff thanks to the fact that Gould was siphoning off the road's revenues to build the Western Pacific.

--B.