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Denver & Rio Grande The Early Years 1871-1910 by Mallory Hope Ferrell w/DJ
Denver & Rio Grande The Early Years 1871-1910 by Mallory Hope Ferrell
Hard Cover w/Dust Jacket
Pages 328
Copyright 2018 Reflections for lights on some photos
Train Schedule
Dedication/Introduction5
Foreword11
Acknowledgments12
Introduction13
Chapter 1: The Early Days14
Chapter 2: A War In The Gorge52
Chapter 3: Rails Over La Veta Pass82
Chapter 4: Rails To The San Juans104
Chapter 5: Westward Expansion150
Chapter 6: On To Utah220
Chapter 7: The Leadville Line240
Chapter 8: Narrow Gauge Transcontinental252
Chapter 9: Standard Gauging272
Chapter 10: Narrow Gauge Glory Days286
One Last Thing: Butch Cassidy Robs the Castle Gate Payroll318
Epilogue:320
Contributors Credits/Illustration Index321
Maps
Rio Grande System: Denver & Rio Grande,
Rio Grande Western and Rio Grande Southern Endsheets
1875 Denver & Rio Grande21
1883 Narrow Gauge Transcontinental229
Inside dust jacket
It was a glorious period that the late Gilbert Lathrop called the days of "wooden cars and iron men." Today it is difficult to even comprehend the tremendous amounts of energy, manpower and money that went into constructing the Denver & Rio Grande into and across the Rocky Mountains. The courage, determination and sheer guts of such an undertaking are impressively apparent today on the two remaining portions of three foot gauge trackage out of Durango, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico.
By 1883, Palmer's "Narrow Gauge Transcontinental" mainline stretched 771 miles from Denver to Ogden. The Pullman sleeper-equipped Pacific Express (westbound), and the eastbound Atlantic Express operated on a forty-one and a half hour schedule and was trailed by "named" parlor cars.
Elsewhere, on the Cumbres Pass line in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, the daily Colorado & New Mexico Express ran in both directions between Salida, Alamosa and Durango, with a helper being added for the fourteen miles of steep four percent grade between Chama and the 10,015-foot summit at Cumbres.
A hike along the abandoned grades over Marshall, Cerro Summit and Poncha Pass is sure to bring visions of a small 2-8-0 Consolidation and a diminutive 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler as they blasted upgrade with an 1890s varnish run. You can almost hear the double-header's exhaust, smell the coal smoke mixed with valve oil and feel the saturated steam as the consist passes.
After over sixty years of research and what the late Robert W. Richardson termed "picture hunting," this book is a pictorial history of the D&RG's narrow gauge. The Rio Grande Glory Days are preserved here in rare old photographs and art. Climb aboard for the ride of your life as we relive the days when the world and the Rio Grande were young.
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