Utah Railroads

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This page was last updated on August 18, 2026.

from Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 10, pages 137-192 (published in 1967)

Although the Mormons sought isolation from their persecutors, and more than found it in the arid regions of the Great Basin, they were not long in realizing the need for a better type of transportation than was provided by the slow-moving oxen. Thus it was with joy that they learned of a proposed transcontinental railroad that would link the East to the West. Indeed, according to Tullidge, "It is a singular fact, yet one well substantiated in the history of the West, that the pioneers of Utah were the first projectors and first proposers to the American nation of a transcontinental railroad." It has been said that on the initial journey to Utah, Brigham Young would often point out the route where one day such a railroad would be built. Further proof of their great desire for better transportation and communication facilities was voiced at the first session of the territorial legislature of 1851-52 when ".... memorials to Congress were adopted, praying for the construction of a national central railroad and also a telegraph line from the Missouri River via Salt Lake City to the Pacific." The great dream became a reality on May 10, 1869, when the Golden Spike joined the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific at Promontory.

It was only a matter of a short time before a web of small railroads began spreading throughout the territory. As with all the other projects that had been undertaken by the Latter-day Saints in their conquering of the frontier, the building of railroads was accomplished in much the same manner. The people of each settlement became responsible for the line that would run through their area. The men [p.138] must build the grades, haul the timber for the ties and lay the rails. Once again they were called upon to abandon other pressing personal work to build for the benefit of the whole. It seems that such dedication should have been rewarded by more financial gain for the builders, but it became a sad reality that almost as soon as the branch railroads were built by the sweat and labor of the Saints, they were absorbed by the more powerful roads.

Utah Railroads by DUP -- A PDF of the complete 1967 article about all of Utah's railroads, published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. (PDF; 31 facing pages; 72MB)

(As seen below, each of the entries from the 1967 article have been integrated into each associated page on UtahRails, except the portions about Jacob Rock, and the railroads of 1884 and 1914, below.)

Utah Central Railroad

Utah Central, DUP -- An article about the Utah Central, as published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1967.

Utah Southern Railroad Company

Utah Southern, DUP -- An article about the Utah Southern, as published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1967.

Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad

Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Railroad

American Fork Railroad

The Utah Northern

Utah Northern, DUP -- An article about the Utah Northern, as published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1967.

The Coalville and Echo Railroad Company

The Utah Eastern Railroad

Echo and Park City Railroad

Salt Lake, Sevier Valley and Pioche Railroad

The Salt Lake and Western Railroad

Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad

Ogden and Syracuse Railroad

(Read more about the Ogden & Syracuse Railroad) (became UP's Syracuse Branch)

Oregon Short Line Railroad Company

Sanpete Valley Railroad

The Rio Grande Western Railway

The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad

The Uintah Narrow Gauge Railway

(Read more about the Uintah Railway)

The Salt Lake and Mercur

The Salt Lake City Railroad Company

The Salt Lake and Fort Douglas Railroad

Utah-Idaho Central Railroad Company

The Saltair Road

(Read more about the Saltair Road)

Mr. Rock

Jacob Nephi Rock, pioneer of 1860, who came to Utah with his parents in the J. D. Ross Company at the age of six, was a railroad veteran with varied experiences in railroading. He helped lay tracks, operated a locomotive for many years and conceived the idea for a safety brake which now is standard equipment on all railroad engines and cars. A Salt Lake City newspaper carried this story about him January 12, 1934:

Engines still appeal. Veteran railroader recalls early day history. "No, sir, I just can't pass a locomotive without stopping to look 'er over." In that manner Jacob N. Rock, eighty, of this city, sums up his boyish enthusiasm about railroads and all their appurtenances. Rock has probably helped build more miles of railroad in Utah and operated locomotives over the same roads than any single living resident of the state. He started railroading at the age of eighteen years. His first job was with a surveying party in American Fork Canyon, hired to lay out a railroad for the Miller Mining Company. The first stake for the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Railroad, which started at Midvale and ran via Bingham into Cedar Valley, was driven by Rock in September 1872. The road was later sold to the Denver and Rio Grande Western. Rock also helped construct the Utah Southern Railroad, and the Pleasant Valley Railroad, subsequently added to the Denver and Rio Grande Western properties.

In 1893 Rock went with the original Salt Lake and Ogden Railroad, now the Bamberger Electric Railway. It had been completed between Salt Lake and Beck's Hot Springs by John Beck when the veteran railroader went to work as a fireman and engineer. Beck and the late Simon Bamberger were motivating [p.191] forces which completed the road to Ogden. For eighteen years Rock piloted a locomotive on the line, even hauling the final load of materials used to electrify it. Then, unable to bring himself to the point of giving up a steam engine, Rock quit and started operating a stationary steam engine in the ice plant.

Gertrude Rock McFarlane, his daughter, wrote of him:

When Father was sixteen he left the farm and went to railroading. His mother gave him her last two dollars and he set out for the American Fork Railroad camp. This camp was made up of very rough men who gambled with cards. Every evening he played with the men, whose stakes were drinks, and he won for about a week, but one evening he was loser. To pay the debt, he was forced to use the two dollars his mother had given him, to pay for the drinks. He felt so sorry about it he made a resolution that he was through with that kind of business for life, and he was. From there he went to the Bingham Canyon line and then to the Pleasant Valley. After the Rio Grande acquired all of these railroads, he was then sent to Montana where he worked for some time. He bought a small farm at Bingham Junction, now Midvale, for his mother and the family, and after he paid for the property; he gave his mother the deeds.

The day Jacob returned from Montana, he married my mother, Louisa Eve Free, on December 24, 1881. Their first home was in Provo where Father was yard master mechanic for the Rio Grande while the road was under construction. The tracks were laid north from Provo, and south from Salt Lake City. When the tracks met, Father was the first engineer to drive a train from Provo to Salt Lake City. The train was composed of flat cars for hauling railroad ties, so Father took one of the kitchen chairs and with the help of a few planks and nails, he fastened it to the floor of the first car, and Mother rode on it, thus being the first woman to ever ride on a train from Provo to Salt Lake.

From 1883 to 1887 Father and Uncle Al worked in Colorado for a mining company and built a sawmill for themselves. After returning to Utah, Father began railroading again as an employee of the Utah Central and Union Pacific. -- (End of quote.)

Jacob Nephi Rock was born at Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1854, son of Valentine and Harriet Smith Rock. He died in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 10, 1941.

Railroads of 1884

The driving of the spike at Promontory had been but the beginning of a spider web of rails that would reach into the vast areas of wealth throughout the territory. From rich farming valleys to mountainous mining districts, steam locomotives soon wended their way on narrow or standard gauge tracks to carry the wealth to market. The Gazetteer of 1874 announced that nearly two hundred [p.192] and fifty miles of railroad had been built, and by 1884 Utah's railroad mileage totaled 1,143. Three companies now controlled the lines, as follows:

Denver & Rio Grande: Ogden to Grand Junction, 346 miles; Bingham Junction to Bingham, 16 miles; Pleasant Valley Junction to Coal Mine, 8 miles; Bingham Junction to Alta, 16 miles, total of 386 miles.

Union Pacific: Ogden to Wasatch (Union Pacific), 165 miles; Ogden to Franklin (Utah & Northern) 81 miles; Echo to Park City (Echo & Park City) 32 miles; Utah Eastern, 25 miles; Lehi Junction to Silver City, (S.L. & Western) 57 miles; Utah and Nevada 37 miles; total of 397 miles.

Utah Central: Ogden to Frisco, 280 miles; Nephi to Wales, 30 miles; Ogden to Dividing Line, 105 miles--total 415 miles.

Utah Railroads As of 1914

Ballard and Thompson Railroad Company	5 miles of main track, one mile, side track
Bingham and Garfield Railway Company	19.76 main track miles, 22.32 side track miles
Bingham Central Railway Company	3.41 main track miles
Castle Valley Railroad Company	20.40 main track, 12.25 side track miles
Central Pacific Railroad Company	273.09 main track miles, 59.30 side track
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company	762.67 main track, 236.45 side track miles
Echo and Park City Railroad Company	27.59 main track, 9.07 side track miles
Emigration Canyon Railroad Company	13.50 main track miles, 0.50 side track
Eureka Hill Railway Company	6.91 main track miles, 1.21 side track miles
Kenilworth and Helper Railway Company	3.60 main track miles, 2.50 side track
Ogden Union Railway and Depot Company	3.31 main track, 12.23 side track miles
Oregon Short Line Railroad Company	242.94 main track miles, 144.47 side track
Salt Lake City Union Depot and Railroad Company	4.38 main track miles
Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railway Company	14.36 main track and 2.75 side track miles
Salt Lake and Ogden Railway Company	58.10 main track miles
Salt Lake and Utah Railway Company	23.60 main track and 0.45 side track miles
San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad Company	483.60 main track miles, 109.92 side track miles
Southern Utah Railroad Company
Spring Canyon Branch, Denver and Rio Grande Western	3.98 main track miles, 1.36 side track miles
St. John-Ophir Railroad Company	9.00 main track miles
Tooele Valley Railroad Company	6.27 main track miles, 1.00 side track miles
Uintah Railway Company	17.70 main track and 1.02 side track miles
Union Pacific Railroad Company	75.11 main track, 36.85 side track miles
Utah Railway Company	22.70 main track and 1.30 side track miles
Western Pacific Railroad Company	121.60 main and 12.28 side track miles

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