Robert G. Athearn (1914–1983)

Most railroad books are full of dramatic pictures of equipment; this one’s different. It’s more of an economic and political history the D&RGW. It’s somewhat dated (1962); but then again most of the interesting parts of the D&RGW’s history happened before then. The original intent was to run a narrow gauge railroad south from Denver all the way to Mexico City but lost out to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe; AT&SF agents beat the D&RG to Raton Pass (it wasn’t the D&RGW until show more later). Then the D&RG had to compete with the might Union Pacific in getting a route through the Rocky Mountains to Salt Lake City; this nearly evolved into a shooting war, as both sides built fortifications and issued weapons to their work crews building through the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River (while track layers were nervously oiling Winchesters, lawyers for both sides were oiling Congress and the courts). To further complicate matters, the D&RG was in competition with its own subsidiary, the Denver and Rio Grande Western coming east out of Salt Lake City. Utah law meant the directors of the line had to be Utah residents, and these had somewhat different ideas than the Denver office. Difficult finances led to poor maintenance, leading to the nickname “Dangerous and Rapidly Growing Worse” for the D&RGW. However, eventually the railroad got its act together and became profitable. (Since this book stops in 1962, the subsequent history of the D&RGW isn’t covered; it consolidated with the Southern Pacific and eventually merged with its archrival, the Union Pacific. The UP still operates some equipment painted in D&RGW colors to preserve the image, and the narrow gauge tourist railroads Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton still operate over former sections of D&RGW line with mostly narrow-gauge former D&RGW equipment, including the two remaining Leslie rotary snowplows on the Cumbres and Toltec. These still operate on special winter excursions, allowing historic rail enthusiasts to experience both pelting with red hot coal cinders and huge chunks of snow and ice).
Good maps of the stages of D&RGW construction. Plates sections with appropriate pictures. Bibliography, and an excellent index. show less

"Around the bend came a D&RG passenger train, and without so much as the blast of a whistle, it tunneled through the wooden structure with what was described as “an awful crash.”

The growth of the railroad industry, and in this case the Denver and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad, parallels the growth of the West. This history book fascinates the reader with the dirty work and progress from 1870 to 1960. The author has written other Colorado history books including a similar account of show more the Union Pacific Railroad Company. show less

Excellent resource for children.

A collection of 16 books outlining the history of the United States from Columbus to Kennedy.