Colorado Central

Company History: The CC was established in the 1870s by William Loveland as a 3’ gauge network of lines serving the mines along Clear Creek Canyon with mills in Golden, Colorado. A standard gauge route would then connect Golden with Union Pacific’s transcontinental mainline to the north. The standard gauge line was built first and Union Pacific invested heavily in the project. A dual gauge line was later built into Denver. The narrow gauge route included the famous Georgetown Loop which quickly swelled CC’s passenger trains with tourists. Loveland wanted to push the narrow gauge over Loveland Pass to Leadville, creating the shortest route between Denver and the silver-rich Leadville area. The route required a long tunnel and Union Pacific balked. Instead, UP backed a branch of the Denver South Park & Pacific (whom they also controlled) to reach Leadville. In 1890, UP combined the Colorado Central and the Denver South Park & Pacific to create the new Union Pacific Denver & Gulf. Less than a decade later, most of the CC routes became part of the Colorado & Southern.

Successor/Parent History: C&S was formed in 1898 with the consolidation of the Union Pacific Denver & Gulf and the Denver Leadville & Gunnison, both of whom had been under the control of Union Pacific prior to falling into receivership. C&S was best known for their 3’ gauge lines built westward from Denver by the Colorado Central (the so called “Clear Creek Lines” to Black Hawk, Central City, and Georgetown including the famous Georgetown Loop) and the Denver South Park & Pacific (southwest to Como, Climax, Leadville and for a short time, Gunnison.) However, the narrow gauge portion was a small fraction of the Colorado & Southern system.

The standard gauge portion started from a point north of Wendover, Wyoming south through Cheyenne, Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Trinidad and on to Texline on the New Mexico – Texas border. There they connected with their subsidiary Fort Worth & Denver City Railway to Fort Worth and other Texas cities. C&S also controlled the Trinity & Brazos Valley which gave them friendly connections all the way to the port of Galveston. (We’ll cover the FW&D, T&BV and other C&S subsidiaries on future RRotD’s.) The mainline also included the famous “joint line” used by C&S, Santa Fe, and Rio Grande between Denver and Pueblo.

In 1908, Chicago Burlington & Quincy (who connected with C&S in Denver, Cheyenne and Wendover) bought about two thirds of C&S shares and took control. CB&Q was jointly controlled by Great Northern and Northern Pacific and the goal was to secure a through route from the Pacific Northwest to the Gulf of Mexico. C&S adopted CB&Q practices for steam locomotive designs and before long the “Burlington Route” shield appeared on tenders but with C&S lettering on the cabs. Other than that, C&S and FW&D were left to manage their own affairs to a large extent.

In 1937, the old South Park narrow gauge mainline was abandoned leaving only a short stub between Climax and Leadville to connect a molybdenum mine to a standard gauge Rio Grande branch. Four years later, the Clear Creek lines were abandoned and the Climax branch was standard gauged bringing an end to all C&S narrow gauge operations. The Climax branch would go on to host the last regular standard gauge freight service with a steam locomotive by a Class 1 railroad. 2-8-0 #641 would last drop its fire on October 11, 1962.

C&S pressed on through the diesel era with locomotives in CB&Q and later successor Burlington Northern paint but sub-lettered for C&S. Colorado & Southern was finally merged into Burlington Northern on the last day of 1981.

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.