Utah Railway

Index For This Page

This page was last updated on June 28, 2019.

Utah Railway Index

Utah Railway History -- Histories of Utah Railway, its predecessor roads, its operations, and the coal mines it served.

Utah Railway's Parent Companies -- Information about Utah Railway's parent corporations, from USSR&M, to UV Industries, to Sharon Steel, to Mueller Industries, to Genesee & Wyoming.

Employee Timetables -- Scanned images of several Utah Railway employee timetables, from 1948 to 2004.

Diesel Locomotive Roster -- Utah Railway's diesel locomotives.

Diesel Locomotive Notes -- Notes about Utah Railway diesel locomotives.

Steam Locomotive Roster -- Utah Railway's steam locomotives.

Steam Locomotive Notes -- Notes about Utah Railway's steam locomotives.

Steam Locomotive Diagram Book -- View a PDF version of Utah Railway's steam locomotive diagram book, courtesy of Allen Stanley. (PDF; 15 pages; 2.7MB)

McKeen Car -- Although not in service on Utah Railway, the body of the Southern Utah McKeen car was used by Utah Railway for many years.

Freight Cars -- Utah Railway's freight cars, including the famous Utah Coal Route GS gondolas. (under construction)

Cabooses -- Utah Railway's cabooses.

Overview

Utah and D&RGW are very closely tied together, since they share so much trackage in Utah. The daily operations of Utah Railway are closely tied to the daily operations of D&RGW in Utah, and vice versa, and have been since the Utah was incorporated in 1912.

Utah Railway's parent company, United States Smelting Refining & Mining Company, saw a need for transporting its coal, and D&RG could not fill that need, so the Utah was organized to do it. D&RG ran Utah's trains from 1912 until 1917, using D&RG crews and equipment. D&RG's continuing car shortage of the period was the reason both Utah Railway and Bingham & Garfield were organized: Utah Railway by USR&M for the Carbon County coal, and B&G by Utah Copper for the Bingham Canyon copper. For whatever reason, D&RG would not or could not furnish the empty cars that these two major D&RG customers needed so badly to serve their customers. By the time Utah decided to organize their own operating department in 1916, they were so negative towards D&RG that they approached UP about participating in the Union Pacific Equipment Association. Utah's basic feeling about its interchange partners was "anyone but D&RG."

While the Utah Railway shared certain facilities and equipment with the UP or its subsidiaries and affiliates, the Utah Railway was not, is not, and never was a UP property, nor has the UP ever had any ownership of the Utah Railway itself or its parent company. They have had, though, a very close operating association, mostly because USR&M's coal market was throughout the west, and UP served almost every market, either directly, or by interchange with SP.

The fact that Utah Railway was a member of the Union Pacific Equipment Association makes the railroad much easier to study, because so much of their equipment is very similar to UP's. The 2-10-2s, the 2-8-8-0s, and the cabooses all followed UP patterns, but with just enough differences to make them interesting.

Utah Railway operations was, and still is an interesting mix of heavy haul coal trains in any era, and includes both Rio Grande and Union Pacific equipment, in any era. Utah's coal trains operated over one of the steepest grades in the west, with helper locomotives, and on two railroads, with a third road at the western terminal. In the steam era, we have steam locomotives, GS gondolas, and wooden cabooses. In the transition era, Utah and Rio Grande both ran first generation power and GS gons, and during the 1980s, there were most modern 100-ton cars, Utah SD40s, UP SD90s and big GEs, and D&RGW and SP SD40T-2s.

Before Utah Railway

Castle Valley Railroad and Southern Utah Railroad

Southern Utah Railroad Locomotives -- Information about the steam locomotives of Southern Utah Railroad and Castle Valley Railroad, later owned by Utah Railway.

Castle Valley Railroad Locomotives -- Information about the steam locomotives of Southern Utah Railroad and Castle Valley Railroad, later owned by Utah Railway.

Southern Utah's McKeen Car -- Although the car itself was never owned by Utah Railway, the body of Southern Utah's one-only McKeen car remained on Utah Railway property until 1990.

Branches

Wattis Branch -- Information about the Wattis Branch, completed in 1917.

Utah Terminal Railway -- Information about Utah Railway's branch in Spring Canyon, Carbon County, Utah, completed in 1923.

National Coal Railway -- Information about the rail line in Gordon Creek Canyon, built in 1925 to haul coal from several mines; built and operated by Utah Railway; abandoned in 1954.

Map

Utah Railway Map -- A Google Map of Utah Railway, including its major junctions and spurs to the mines that it served, along with the Southern Utah and Castle Valley predecessor railroads.

Video

YouTube video of Utah Railway train passing Castle Gate, April 21, 2001

Sources

Sources -- Sources used for these Utah Railway pages, and further reading.

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