The items below are a few samples of passenger brochures from the various periods as shown. All are original documents acquired from DRGW contacts except the 1915 reprint of the Denver Rio Grande - Western Pacfic schedule and brochure. The passenger forms are a multi-carbon copy form for revenue auditing in the pre-computer days. On the form, DRGW is 197, CBQ is 133, and WP is 840 - so perhaps this particular form was for the California Zephyr, although it is not so labeled. The Dining Car menu gives one an idea of prices from 1967. The Official Guide excepts are reprints from various years. A list of DRGW predecessor railroads as of the 1910 Official Guide is shown at the beginning of that group of links, to explain the inclusion of some of the rather obscure pages included. Of course, the Denver & Salt Lake (originally Denver Northwestern & Pacific) is included when found in the Guides. The Rio Grande Southern is also shown in some of the links. 

Employee Division Timetables

The following links are to employee timetables from the past, all except the 4th Division (1919) are original documents. The 1950s era documents were acquired at Owen Davies Bookseller in Chicago in 1973, all the others from DRGW contacts. The division timetables from 1970 are the most recent documents posted here. If you are interested in DRGW System Timetables which originated in 1972, contact me at the email address on the Home Page.

DRGW 4th Division (Alamosa West) 1919     DRGW-ATSF  Joint 1958     DRGW-ATSF Joint 1964     DRGW-ATSF Denver Joint 1967

DRGW Grand Junction 1955           DRGW Pueblo 1955 1-A/B               DRGW Pueblo 1952               DRGW  Salt Lake City 1955

DRGW Colorado 1967                    DRGW Colorado 1968                    DRGW Colorado 1970             DRGW Utah  1970

Operating Rules, Signal Rules, and Air Brake Rules

The first five entries from the very early years of the DRG came from a friend whose father was a DRGW signal department employee and dispatcher in the early 1900s. The 1895 "Roster of Divisions" was an early timetable-like document which may have come from an online source which I was unable to recall.  The two old Air Brake rules books were received from Art Schwab (DRGW engineer) after he retired many years ago.  I exceeded my 1970 year limitation somewhat in posting some later Safety, Rules and Airbrake rule books in January 2021. Perhaps some of these materials will be interesting to fans of the DRGW - I know there are many of these world wide.

Other items will be added to this section as appropriate.

Green Light 1967 -1984 (company magazine issues)

Company magazines are probably not normally considered historical material, however, these links are posted to provide a reference for those who might want to find information about a family member or friend that worked for the Denver Rio Grande Western during these years. Inside a number of issues, there was a series of articles with information about employees, departments and so forth entitled:  "Let's Get acquainted with the Rio Grande". The first issue in this collection that contains one of these articles is May 1968. Since a number of issues are missing, this series is unfortunately not complete. Other regular features helpful to a research project are lists of promotions, retirements, and deaths. Unfortunately, no indexing occurred over the years, so - happy hunting. In addition to articles about personnel, some of the magazine covers and articles provide some perspective about the competitive concerns that the company faced, and information about major customers and industries that were served. 

Anyone wishing to contribute company magazines not listed here, contact me at the email address on the home page. 

AUG/DEC  1984

A few trips on the South Branch 1979 -1981

Some train orders and commentary from a few days on Subdivision 16 and 16A from 1979 to 1981 are found below. These two subdivisions constituted the Denver Rio Grande Western Utah Division branch line that diverged south from the main line near 5th street in Grand Junction (under a long, elevated street viaduct, then and now). The branch line crossed the Colorado River (formerly the Grand River – thus the original source for the name of the town) and followed the Gunnison River along a scenic (mostly inaccessible by automobile) route to Delta, Colorado. At Delta, the coal branch (16A) split from subdivision 16 and went east  following the North Fork of the Gunnison River to load trains at several coal production facilities. The original DRG narrow gauge system had reached Grand Junction by travelling west from Salida over Marshall Pass, through Gunnison and then over Cerro Summit into Montrose. At the time covered here, the mileposts still reflected the mileage from Denver – Pueblo – Salida – Montrose (351) – Grand Junction (424). Thus, subdivision 16 was a remnant of the original Denver Rio Grande narrow gauge system, this portion having been converted to standard gauge in 1906. The North Fork branch was completed in 1902, and it was also converted to standard gauge in 1906. The Rio Grande Western narrow gauge lines west from Grand Junction were converted to standard gauge in 1890, coincident with the completion of the Rio Grand Junction Railway from Rifle to Grand Junction – which was originally built to standard gauge. The Grand Junction milepost on the “main line” was 450, a significant difference from the 424 milepost of the original narrow gauge line. The route west from Salida over Tennessee Pass, through Dotsero and Glenwood Springs was thus 26 more railroad miles than the original line through Montrose. 

Fast forward to 1979 - the Colorado Division train and engine service employees had inherited the seniority rights to the work on the “South” end from Grand Junction. When working sixteen hour days (the Federal Hours of Service limit through 1969, then changed to fourteen hours for a couple of years, and finally to the current twelve hours in 1972) – many of the Grand Junction Colorado Division employees had a dim view of this assignment. In previous periods, the job had been comprised of long hours, relatively low pay, rooming at houses when necessary to tie up away from home – not a great job in most respects. Some of the most senior employees told stories of forced assignments to Gunnison on the narrow gauge in its final days. By 1979, the assignment had changed a great deal. We were able to leave Grand Junction early in the morning (usually 500 AM to 700 AM on duty), get to the coal mines, load the coal and return within twelve hours most of the time. Although it was a much slower speed operation than the main line (30 MPH maximum compared to 50 or 60 MPH) – and loading coal for a couple of hours could be a bit tedious, I enjoyed the job and placed on it when able to hold it (usually in a fireman position, very occasionally as engineer).

At the time of the trips below, train operations were still by train order in “dark” territory (lacking signals). Copies of a few trips were saved because they contain some details greater than just “Run Extra Grand Junction to Delta”, etc. The June 4, 1979 trip was on a one hundred car unit train of NORX gondolas to load at the Westmoreland mine near Paonia, Colorado (at Converse on the Subdivision 16A station list). The railroad had constructed a wye at the Converse location, so that no switching or running around the train consist was required. We pulled east of the wye switch, backed the 100 cars under the tipple to the end of the tail track, lined the route to head back to Grand Junction and started loading coal. This relatively quick operation made this assignment one of the fastest turns available on the subdivision. On this day, there were three trains “working extra” between Delta and Converse on the North Fork coal branch, including our Westmoreland train (755102, Extra 3078). On our return leg home from Delta on the second yellow Clearance form at 142 PM order number 236 gave running authority to 4 Extras from Delta to Grand Junction. From the work message accompanying the orders, I can’t recall where the additional extra originated, but - this was a busy day on the south end.   Link:  Train 755 June 4, 1979

The August 1, 1979 trip was another trip to Westmoreland Coal in Paonia. On this day, there were two trains “working extra” on the North Fork line, our train Extra 3077 (755131) and train 782131 with engines 3124 and 3128. Additionally, the orders give authority and protection and time instructions for another work extra 3006 that was working between Grand Junction and Delta. I might have saved these orders because of these additional complexities.   Link:   Train 755 August 1, 1979

The last trip from 1979 was on August 6-7. The orders are for the Montrose local train 578 going and train 579 returning. Generally, this assignment was intended to return to Grand Junction the same day, after switching as necessary in Delta and Montrose (sometimes other stations, as mentioned on the work message for the train). We may have had some unusual work on August 6, because we stayed in Montrose that night and came home the following day. Work Extra 3018 was working between Delta and Grand Junction on both days, with appropriate authority, protection instructions, and wait times stipulated.  One interesting note is the instruction from the Assistant Superintendent Wilbur Lucore on August 7 addressed to our Conductor on train 579 to pick up a car from the work train if the work extra is not returning to Grand Junction that evening. Our Conductor was Tom Anderson (TMA in the message) and the maintenance supervisor was R C Phillips (RCP in the message). Some forty years later, I can’t remember if we stopped and picked up anything from the work extra, but Tom was a fine Conductor and would have been very efficient completing whatever was required. He was a pleasure to work with on the south branch assignments, and could handle cars about as well as any Conductor I recall working with at Grand Junction.

Links:  Train 578 August 6, 1979    Train 579 August 7, 1979          Photo Below:  Conductor Tom Anderson 1980

I should mention a bit about the engineer that I was working with on all these trips in 1979 – Harold J Cothern. His nickname was “Grump” – not because he was a grouch or a grump, but because he sounded grouchy on the radio - as he had a gravely deep voice that was unmistakable. He was a very friendly gentleman in fact, and he showed me a lot of good train handling and coal loading skills on the south branch trains. I worked with him a lot over my years in Grand Junction, and I imagine he thought I was a smart-ass punk (sadly, a somewhat accurate assessment). I am sorry I never thanked him for putting up with me and helping me learn the job early in my career.   

Photo Below:   Engineer Harold Cothern (Grump) March 1980

The single trip from 1980 (September 19, 1980) was a day I worked the yard on the 300PM shift and we relieved the 727/728 coal train on hours of service and brought it into the Grand Junction yard for the eastbound crew. The outbound orders and work orders for 727 are addressed to engine 3126, and the return orders from Delta for 728 in the afternoon are addressed to engine 5347. At the Hawknest mine at Oliver, Colorado, it was necessary to run around the train, change operating ends for the engine consist, and load the train in two moves. Although that sounds complicated, the load out was a two tipple structure (photo link below) and we loaded coal here faster than at any facility I can recall. The delays that the train had incurred were no doubt related to the activity of the two work trains working between Delta and Grand Junction this particular day. I remember times when high water had damaged track and rip rap and shoring were necessary.  Links:  Train 727 September 19, 1980         Photo Below:  Hawknest  Facility 1980

The final train with orders copied here involved a mishap, which fortunately was not too serious. On August 28, 1981, three coal trains were called at Grand Junction for the North Fork branch. Train 782 was headed to Somerset for U S Steel coal, train 755 to Westmoreland in Paonia, and our train 727 to Oliver to load at Hawknest. The first clearance and run orders issued in Grand Junction at 547AM authorized movement for the three trains to Delta, but did not properly authorize protection for Sperry Rail Service Car 144 which was working extra between Delta and Grand Junction after 701 AM. I recall that we had to stop and wait for a corrected set of orders, received on a new clearance at 734AM. The errant order (order 12 on the first clearance) is not with the paperwork I saved, perhaps because we were instructed to discard it. At any rate, all three crews remained on duty with the corrected paperwork, as I think management felt the primary fault for the error lay with the dispatcher that had originally issued the improper orders. In the operating environment found in the industry today, I doubt if the situation would have been handled in such a relatively lenient manner. All of us were very careful after this incident to verify that all proper orders were in effect when a Sperry Car or other work train was in the mix. A few misunderstandings occurred after track warrant authority was used for authority on these subdivisions a few years later, but never any serious incidents that I can recall.  Link:   Train 727 August 28, 1981

Photos (work in progress)

WARNING:  Lots of these photographs were taken on a basic beginner's camera (Kodak Instamatic with 126 film) by a rather novice and not very talented photographer - so some of the results are not great. I decided to try to put a few on the website because they do tell a bit of a story from all those years ago when I was a new employee in the industry. This first group of DRGW photographs is from the 1970s with subjects and locations when recalled.

DRGW Misc 1973-1  DRGW Misc 1973-2   DRGW Misc 1973-3   DRGW Misc 1973-4   DRGW Misc 1973-5  DRGW Misc 1973-6 

This group of photos are from 1979 and later, with a better camera. The photographer was still a novice, but some of the shots are a little better. As I get more photos copied digitally, I will be able to add more later years to this section.