Utah Railway

Company History: The Utah Railway was completed in 1914 to connect several coal mines south and west of Helper, Utah (on the Rio Grande mainline) with the outside world. The Utah branches connect with the Rio Grande at Utah Railway Junction, just northwest of Helper. The Utah then utilizes trackage rights on the Rio Grande northwest to Thistle. The remainder of the line between Thistle and Provo is on paired track with Rio Grande (later SP then UP.) Total mileage is 95.

In the steam era, the locomotive fleet consisted of a quartet of 2-8-0’s (likely for switching the mines), nine 2-10-2’s for road service, and a trio of 2-8-8-0’s which were probably used as helpers. All seem to have been of Union Pacific design.

The Utah Railway dieselized in 1952 with seven Alco RSD4’s and a bit later an RSD5. As traffic began to build in the modern era, they picked up three RSD15’s and an RSD12. In 1985, they began relying on leased power from Helm and later from MK.

The 1996 merger of Southern Pacific and Union Pacific changed things for the Utah. First, they were contracted by BNSF to handle their haulage trains over a portion of the “Central Corridor” as UP calls the old Rio Grande. Secondly, UP granted Utah trackage rights east from Utah Railway Junction all the way to Grande Junction, Colorado which linked the Utah Railway to several more large coal mines. At this point, Utah hired a number of new people and leased more than a dozen additional diesels for heavy road service. Now stretching from Grande Junction to Provo, Salt Lake City and Ogden, the Utah Railway operates 423 miles of track. In addition to coal, UTAH moves aggregate, brick, building materials, cement, chemicals and petroleum products.

In 1999, Utah purchased the Salt Lake City Southern, a 25 mile shortline in the area from its owner RailTex. Owned by a string of mining companies over the years, the Utah was sold in 2002 to the Genesee & Wyoming shortline group for $54 million. Today's collection of photos takes us from 1975 to 1988.

Successor/Parent History: Known today as the largest of the shortline holding companies, Genesee & Wyoming began as a shortline by that name in 1899 with a 15 mile line between Retsof and Caledonia, New York, just south of Rochester. In 1982, they extended southward to Greigsville by buying a former Lackawanna line from Conrail. In 1985, another purchase extended their reach north to Rochester and southwest to Silver Springs. This brought the mileage up to about 90. The Wyoming in the name is a reference to the Wyoming Valley.

In 1977, the railroad set up Genesee & Wyoming Inc. as a parent company. In 1985, they began to buy other shortlines and launch new ones as various Class One routes came up for sale or lease. Each of these lines operates under their own names but share the orange, yellow and black GNWR paint scheme, variations of which have been used by GNWR for decades. The logos of these related lines also use the GNWR style but with different wording and the occasional personalized element.

As of this writing, the Genesee & Wyoming family includes 121 shortline and regional railroads spread across North America, Europe and Australia. As of 2019, G&W became a subsidiary of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. G&W has also bought other shortline groups, notably Rail Link in 1996, Summit View (the Ohio Central System) in 2008, Rail Management in 2005,.CAGY Industries in 2008, and largest of all RailAmerica in 2012.

Ironically, the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad was merged into the Rochester & Southern in 2003. The GNWR exists as a paper railroad but the logos on the diesels patrolling the old GNWR now say Rochester & Southern or the neighboring Buffalo & Pittsburgh.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.