D&RGW Kenilworth Branch

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This page was last updated on April 28, 2025.

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Overview

The D&RGW Kenilworth Branch was built in 1926 to replace the Kenilworth & Helper Railroad, which had been built in 1907 to ship coal from the Kenilworth coal mine of Independent Coal & Coke Company.

The original Kenilworth & Helper railroad had been built by Rio Grande Western construction crews and leased to the newly organized Kenilworth & Helper Railroad.

As mentioned on the above Kenilworth & Helper page, the railroad was leased to D&RG in 1915, and operated by D&RG (and later D&RGW) crews using the Kenilworth & Helper Shay locomotives, in-turn leased from the parent coal company.

The tracks, roadbed and locomotives of the Kenilworth & Helper were owned by the parent coal company and leased to D&RGW for operation. In 1924, the coal company completed a new rock into the line at a lower level, allowing an increase to 100 tons per hour. The old Kenilworth & Helper line was very soon found to be inadequate, and was replaced by a new D&RGW Kenilworth Branch.

Timeline

September 1, 1925
The lease of Kenilworth & Helper to D&RGW expired on September 1, 1925, after being extended several occasions after the initial expiration date of December 1, 1924. (D&RGW legal department files held by Colorado Railroad Museum)

1926
D&RGW built the Kenilworth Branch to replace the steep Kenilworth & Helper Railway, which was leased for operation by D&RGW and operated with K&H's Shay locomotives. Five miles of new construction. (LeMassena, p. 145)

January 28, 1926
Kenilworth & Helper Railroad and Denver & Rio Grande Western filed a joint application for the abandonment of the Kenilworth line, operated under lease by the D&RGW, and to construct a branch line of the D&RGW extending from a connection with the D&RGW mainline at or near Spring Canyon Junction, in a general easterly direction for 6.28 miles to Kenilworth. The Kenilworth's line, as operated by D&RGW, was 3.75 miles long and extended from a connection with D&RGW's mainline at Kenilworth Junction (Spring Glen) to Kenilworth. The daily production of the Kenilworth mine in 1926 was about 2,000 tons, or about 40 fifty-ton carloads. In 1924 the Kenilworth mine's production amounted to 382,336 tons (about 7,600 carloads, about 21 cars per day) and projections for 1925 production called for an increase of about 21 percent, to 465,000 tons, or five more carloads per day. The Kenilworth line had grades in excess of six percent and its operation required the use of a Shay locomotives, which required increased maintenance and operating expenses. The coal company was about to expand their No. 2 mine which was projected to produce an additional 2,000 tons, or 40 carloads, per day, and construct a new loading tipple and tipple yard, and the current railroad would not be able to handle the increased traffic at a reasonable expense. The coal company desired to construct an alternate line with more capacity and reduced operating expenses. This was projected to cost $469,000.00 for its construction, and the projected traffic was 600,000 tons for the first year, increasing to 1,000,000 tons by the fifth year. The land for the right-of-way for the new line was donated by the coal company. The new line was laid with 85-pound rail and was constructed with three percent grades westbound (loads) and 1.5 percent eastbound (empties), and was projected to be complete and in operation by October 1, 1926. (105 ICC 720; map accompanying application)

March 23, 1926
The abandonment was approved by the ICC on March 23, 1926, but was not to take effect until the new D&RGW Kenilworth Branch was completed and placed into operation. (ICC Finance Docket 5323; applied March 9, 1926; Decided March 23, 1926; Published in ICC Reports Volume 105, page 719 -- 105 ICC 719)

September 1926
Kenilworth & Helper Railroad received Utah Public Utilities Commission approval to abandon its railroad line. The railroad company was incorporated in Wyoming and was 100 percent owned by the Independent Coal & Coke Company. The railroad was leased for operation for ten years to D&RG on December 1, 1914. The first coal was shipped in October 1907. Shay locomotives of the coal company were used on a separate tramway to bring the coal down to the No. 1 tipple. Shay locomotives of the railroad company had a capacity of twelve cars over the line's 6.5 percent grades; seven empties up from the D&RGW connection at Spring Glen, and twelve to fifteen loads down. Current production was 2,200 tons per day and the old Kenilworth & Helper railroad could not handle the new, additional tonnage from the newly opened No. 2 mine. John H. Tonkin, president of the railroad company, was also general manager of the coal company. (Utah Public Service Commission case 868)

November 24, 1926
The new D&RGW Kenilworth Branch shipped its first coal traffic on November 24, 1926. (The Sun, November 26, 1926, p. 1, "last Wednesday")

September 1933
Production from the Kenilworth mine increased again when Independent Coal and Coke company constructed a new rock tunnel 7,000 feet long that connected the working areas of the coal mine with the the loading tipple at Kenilworth. The portal was slightly west of the Kenilworth surface facilities, and connected underground with the lower coal seam. The new rock tunnel allowed an almost level haulage of coal from mined spaces direct to the processing plant on the surface at Kenilworth. The new portal was in a side canyon northwest of the tipple area, 1,950 feet from the tipple, and was 534 feet below the original portal constructed in 1907, high of the cliff wall. The surface portion of the new tramway dropped at a 2.5 percent grade down to the tipple. The resulting haulage no longer required hoists to move the coal up the incline of the coal seam inside the mine, then down to the tipple. After the new rock tunnel, and new tramway, the only hoisting was downward inside the mine, lowering the coal down to the level of the tunnel. From that point inside the mine, the coal was simply hauled by electric locomotives 7,000 feet through the new rock tunnel to the portal, then down 1,950 feet by way of the new tramway to the tipple. The cost savings were significant, and the new tunnel very soon had paid for itself. (Coal Age magazine, September 1933, pages 305-307)

September 1939
Independent Coal and Coke company announced that it had contracted with McNally-Pittsburgh Manufacturing company for the addition of a rescreening plant and blending bins to handle 120 tons per hour of 1-5/8-in.x0 coal to produce marketable coal in four sizes, down to 3/16x0-in. The new addition was to be complete by October. (Coal Age magazine, September 1939, page 74)

1959
Independent Coal & Coke began a 5,000 foot rock tunnel that was drilled north from the 1924-built Aberdeen tunnel to the main slope of the Castle Gate mine. Work on the new tunnel was started in 1958 and was completed in 1959, coal was gravity fed down to the Castle Gate mine's main haulage tunnels and exited at the Castle Gate portals, adjacent to the coal washing plant, eliminating the cost of hauling coal around the mountain by railroad. (National Park Service. "Historical and Descriptive Data, Independent Coal & Coke Company, Kenilworth Mine Surface Workings, Kenilworth, Carbon County, Utah", Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. UT-31. Department of the Interior, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, 1983, pp. 27,28)

October 1960
The Kenilworth tipple operations were closed down during the middle week of October 1960. (Deseret News, October 13, 1960, "this week")

(The underground mining methods, and the underground rock tunnel connecting the Kenilworth workings with the Castle Gate workings were the subject of a five-page article in Coal Age magazine, April 1962. The article included several photos of the underground operations, and a diagram of the connecting tunnel.)

The completion of the new Kenilworth to Castle Gate tunnel allowed the closure of the Kenilworth tipple and mine portals in 1960, and the railroad branch was no longer needed. The surface workings and tipple at Kenilworth were gradually dismantled and otherwise demolished.

December 1971
D&RGW received federal ICC approval to abandon its Kenilworth Branch, Helper to Kenilworth, 6.23 miles. (Railroad magazine, April 1972, page 65)

Map

Kenilworth Railroads -- A Google Map of the railroads that served the Kenilworth mines, including the Kenilworth & Helper Railway.

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