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Rio Grande Diesels, Railway Age, 1946

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"Diesels Aid the Rio Grande"

(Railway Age, Volume 121, Number 9, August 31, 1946, pp-367-369)

Important transcontinental freight handled with efficiency and dispatch over the Continental Divide by a fleet of 5,400-hp. freight locomotives

When the present management of the Denver & Rio Grande Western took over the railway on November 1, 1935, its members had no idea, of course, of the role that this railway was to play in World War II. Some idea of what happened on this important transcontinental link after war supplies began moving, particularly to the Pacific, may be obtained from a glance at the revenue statements on a comparative basis. In 1941 the freight revenues of the Rio Grande amounted to $28,418,000. In 1945 the figure was $60,859,000.

During the war also the railway was transformed from a line whose chief source of passenger revenue was from tourists visiting the scenic spots of the West to a most important troop-handling railway. As a result of this and other factors, passenger revenues showed astonishing increases from $1,747,000 in 1941 to $10,777,000 in 1945. These figures, in both cases, represent ticket revenues only and do not include head-end revenues, which showed comparable increases.

Despite the fact that the management had no idea in 1935 of what was to come in the way of war-time traffic, a very definite program, followed by a consistent plan of improving the railroad, was carried out to prepare the line for handling more traffic.. During the six years between 1935 and the beginning of the war, a total of $30,000,000 was expended for additions and betterments. Such improvements included repairing, building, rebuilding or eliminating literally thousands of bridges; the replacing of millions of crossties; the laying of much new rail; the purchase of new rolling stock; and many other items.

Included among the purchases were 20 new heavy duty steam locomotives. But the Rio Grande was one of the first railways to realize the advantages of Diesel-electric power as applied to its operations. Its first Diesels were switching-locomotives and a fleet of 35 has since been acquired, ranging in tractive effort from 26,400 lb. to 69.000 lb., and in engine rating from 380 hp. to 1.000 hp.

Orders for three 5,400-hp. Diesel-electric road freight locomotives were placed in 1941, and following their delivery their performance was such as to justify the Rio Grande in placing further orders, with the result that five more were delivered in 1943, four in 1944 and the railway now has three more on order. The fleet of Diesel road locomotives in operation at this time consists of 12 four-unit, 5.400-hp. locomotives with tractive effort ranging from 225,380 lb. to 229,370 lb. The three locomotives now on order are of the new 6,000-hp. type. All of these road locomotives were purchased from the Electro-Motive Division of the General Motors Corporation. In addition, two three-unit 6,000-hp. Alco passenger Diesels are being built for service on the new streamlined "California Zephyr."

The Rio Grande is a mountain railway, but for years improvements have been under way to eliminate curvature and reduce grades. Even so, by the very nature of the terrain traversed through the Colorado Rockies there still remain a number of adverse grades. For example, a 2.2 per cent grade is encountered westbound, beginning in the outskirts of Denver and continuing unbroken to the summit in the center of Moffat tunnel, a distance of some 40 miles. A similar sharp grade, although not as long, is encountered westbound out of Helper, Utah, and crossing the Wasatch range. The sharpest grade on the entire railway is found east from Minturn, Colo., to the summit at Tennessee Pass. This is a 3 per cent grade, 12 miles long.

The most powerful steam locomotives owned by the Rio Grande are 20 of the 2-8-8-2 type, having a tractive effort of 131,800 lb. The tonnage rating for these big Mallets on a 2 per cent grade is 1,750 tons, whereas the Diesel-electrics handle 2,100 tons on the same grade. Thus, one of the immediate advantages gained through the use of Diesels was the operation of heavier trains and the elimination in many cases of expensive helper service.

Another immediate advantage was found during the winter of 1942-43 shortly after the first Diesels had been delivered. This was an unusually severe winter and in the high altitude reached by the Rio Grande (over 10,000 ft. at the summit of Tennessee Pass, for example) this meant that the thermometer sank to 50 below zero overnight for weeks at a time. Steam locomotives taking siding froze up in large numbers, and for weeks during the severe weather one of the Diesels was assigned solely to relieving such stalled trains, since the Diesels do not freeze, of course, regardless of the temperature.

Locomotive Assignment

For some years, since the inauguration of long engine runs over two or more divisions, the locomotive assignment on the Rio Grande has been handled from the office of the general superintendent of transportation, rather than from the divisional offices. The steam locomotives are actually assigned to the various divisions. The Diesels are operated on a system basis and are not assigned to any particular division, and their movements are controlled from the office of the general superintendent of transportation also.

When the vastly increased freight traffic was at its height, it was found that the most efficient assignment of the Diesels to procure the greatest locomotive utilization was to dispatch three such locomotives out of Denver each day via the Moffat route. Two of these locomotives would handle their trains through from Denver to Salt Lake City, 570 miles. The third locomotive was cut out at the divisional point of Grand Junction, Colo., 274 miles from Denver, and handled an eastbound train from that point to Pueblo, Colo., 330 miles, via the Royal Gorge route. This locomotive then handled a westbound train through from Pueblo to Salt Lake City, 626 miles, and returned from there to Denver. This assignment required 11 of the total fleet of 12 Diesels, one being kept in the shop for inspection and repairs. The Diesels are repaired in a special facility which was constructed at the Burnham shops of the Rio Grande a few miles south of Denver.

Under this plan of operation, the Diesels were available for a large proportion of the total freight train movement on the railway. For example, in 1945 the steam locomotives operated 5,904,636 road freight miles, whereas the relatively small fleet of 12 Diesels operated 1,370,454 road freight miles.

Diesels in Passenger Service

For some years, the "Eagle," a daily train between St. Louis and Denver in connection with the Missouri Pacific, has been operated on the Rio Grande by Diesel passenger locomotive between Pueblo and Denver, 119 miles. The railway also has on order three new Diesel locomotives designed particularly for passenger service. With the reduction in freight traffic which occurred this spring and spurred by the necessity of reducing steam train mileage because of the coal strike, some of the D. & R. G. W. Diesels have been operating regularly on through passenger trains and have proved successful in restoring the on-time performance of such trains. These Diesels, designed for freight service, have a maximum speed limit of 65 m. p. h. However. because of the curves and grades necessary in this mountain territory, this is not a limiting factor on passenger trains, since there are relatively few places on the Rio Grande where the speed limit is not under 65 m. p. h. On the other hand, the additional power is of great value in ascending the heavy grades without the use of helpers. There are a number of places on the Rio Grande where even the heaviest steam passenger power cannot handle more than a seven-car train without helper assistance. The consist of the "Exposition Flyer," a through Chicago-San Francisco train, exceeds this limit by several cars daily. For this reason, the train is handled over the Rio Grande between Denver and Salt Lake City by four-unit, 5,400-hp. Diesels -- one in each direction daily. The "Prospector," a train operated only between Denver and Ogden, Utah, is held to a seven or eight car limit, and this train is handled daily in each direction by a two-unit Diesel locomotive of 2,700 hp.

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