Uintah Railway

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This page was last updated on May 29, 2011.

Overview

While the Uintah Railway is one of the more interesting Western railroads, and is closely followed by its fans, it is not covered as part of the railroads of Utah, along with its locomotives. Uintah Railway was based in Colorado and crossed the Colorado-Utah line as part of its route to access and ship asphaltum rock, known by its commercial name of "Gilsonite," found nowhere else in the world. The mines were in Utah, but all management and maintenance for the railroad were on the Colorado side.

Uintah Railway was 36-inch narrow gauge line in eastern Utah, known as the "crookedest railroad in the world", but operated only 12 miles in Utah, of its 62-mile mainline between Mack, Colorado and Watson, Utah. It served Watson, Utah as its western terminal, and included the four-mile Uintah Branch and the one-mile Black Dragon Branch, that each served several uintaite (Gilsonite) mines in Utah, and transported the mined Gilsonite eastward to Mack, Colorado.

There are other well-researched and readily available sources for Uintah Railway, most of which have very nice maps. Also, try a general internet search for "Uintah Railway". There is lots of good information available.

Read the Wikipedia article about Uintah Railway

Locomotives

The following Shay locomotives are shown in builder records as Uintah Railway, but are not included in the overall totals for Shays locomotives in Utah because all of Uintah Railway's management and maintenance was in Colorado. What follows is a listing of Uintah Railway's Shay locomotives that was extracted from Koch's "The Shay Locomotive - Titan of the Timber," back in August 1980 as part of the initial Utah railroads research.

Lima Number	Date	Gauge	Cylinders	Wheels
b/n 888	5/17/04	36 in. gauge	10x12	29 in. wheels

(888) Built as Uintah Ry. #1 at Mack, Colorado; Scrapped 6/30/28

Lima Number	Date	Gauge	Cylinders	Wheels
b/n 939	10/26/04	36 in. gauge	11x12	32 in. wheels

(939) Built as Uintah Ry. #2 at Mack, Colorado; Scrapped c. 1935-38

Lima Number	Date	Gauge	Cylinders	Wheels
b/n 1513	4/8/05	36 in. gauge	11x12	32 in. wheels

(1513) Built as Uintah Ry. #3 at Mack, Colorado; Scrapped 10/33

Lima Number	Date	Gauge	Cylinders	Wheels
b/n 1674	6/19/06	36 in. gauge	11x12	32 in. wheels

(1674) Built as Argentine Central Ry. #3 at Silver Plume, Colorado; to Georgetown and Gray's Peak Ry. #3 at Silver Plume, Colorado; to Argentine and Gray's Peak Ry. #3 at Silver Plume, Colorado; to Uintah Ry. #5 at Mack, Colorado; Scrapped /39

Lima Number	Date	Gauge	Cylinders	Wheels
b/n 3054	2/3/20	36 in. gauge	11x12	33 in. wheels

(3054) Built as Uintah Ry. #6 at Mack, Colorado; to Feather River Lumber Co. #3:2 at Delleker, California 5/27; to Hyman Michaels Co., (dealer) at San Francisco, California 3/45

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