About Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
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Incorporated in 1920 and taking over the predecessor Denver & Rio Grande Railroad’s properties in 1921, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Company made Denver, Colorado, its corporate home. The Rio Grande name inherited a much older mountain-railroading story, beginning with lines pushed south and west from Denver in the 1870s.
This was a railroad that treated the Rockies less as a polite warning and more as a scheduling problem. Its network served Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, hauling the mineral, agricultural, industrial, and coal traffic that kept hard-country railroading very much employed. Narrow-gauge lore, canyon walls, grades, tunnels, and stubbornly spectacular scenery came standard.
After a 1946 bankruptcy, the company emerged from reorganization in April 1947 and absorbed the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad and related properties. That brought the Moffat Road route into the fold and strengthened its Denver-to-Utah position. The railroad later became part of Denver-based Rio Grande Industries in 1970.
Rio Grande Industries purchased Southern Pacific Transportation Company on October 13, 1988. D&RGW initially remained a separate operating railroad, but its operations were consolidated under the Southern Pacific banner in 1992. A tidy ending? Naturally not: the larger Southern Pacific system was acquired by Union Pacific in 1996.
Our Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad collection celebrates the defiant, mountain-muscled spirit of a line that went through the Rockies, not around them. Expect big grades, bigger scenery, and the enduring visual swagger of a railroad that made impossible terrain look like normal office commute.