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Railroads in the West

This gallery accompanies this description of our Western History Railroading Collection which provides an overview of the substantial materials useful to railroaders and historians in general.

railroad history

View of a Denver and Rio Grande Railroad train at Maysville (Chaffee County), Colorado. Shows locomotive number 52 and box cars on the bridge at the North Fork of the South Arkansas River. Men in work clothes stand on and near the train, snow covered mountains are in the distance.

View of Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho shows a Northern Pacific train near the shore with a boat and boathouse nearby. Mountains are in the distance.

View of Argentine Central Railway narrow gauge track with push car near timberline, Argentine Pass, Clear Creek County, Colorado. Waldorf Mine distant center; Rocky Mountains with snowfields; man on push car with derby hat.

View of a steel Bingham & Garfield Railroad trestle over Markham Gulch in Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. A Bingham & Garfield 0-8-8-0 locomotive number "101" hauls copper ore on the trestle. Shows wooden Utah Copper Company (later Kennecott Copper Corporation) buildings, probably tramway cables and a tower. The Oquirrh Mountains are in the distance.

View of a Colorado Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf Railroad freight train on the narrow gauge High Bridge trestle near "The Loop," a route over Clear Creek near Georgetown (Clear Creek County), Colorado, men stand on top of the freight cars. A passenger train is on a rock rail embankment below the bridge, passengers and rail workers stand on rocks near the creek; snow-covered mountains are in the distance.

Three-quarter view of left side of engine, from front end, close view; at water tank; smoke, steam, snow; shops in background. Photographed: Ridgway, Colorado, November 18, 1951.

Left side view of motor car, close view; Galloping Goose, with C.A. Rhodes in doorway. Photographed: Peak, Colorado, May 23, 1951.

View of a Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway locomotive and passenger car at the summit of Pikes Peak in El Paso, County, Colorado. People wait in a boulder field outside the stone Army Signal Station; a pack burro is in the foreground.

Train First #24, Grand Canyon Limited; 8 cars, 40 MPH; fine smoke effect. Photographed: leaving Belen, N.M., January 12, 1947.

Left side view of engine; on wye; smoke; snow. Photographed: Ridgway, Colorado, November 18, 1951.

Three-quarter view of left side of engine, from front end; on trestle, with helper engine 452; smoke; snow. Photographed: Wade, Colorado, November 19, 1951.

View of a Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad passenger train at Hanging Bridge, Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River, Fremont County, Colorado.

Train #610, passenger train; smoke and steam effect. Photographed: leaving Lincoln, Nebr., February 21, 1932.

Moffat Road Terminals, Denver

View of Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway (later called Denver & Salt Lake) engine number 100 & passenger train approaching Rollins Pass, Colorado; group of people standing beside standard gauge track & train, snowfields; Moffat Road, Continental Divide; Rocky Mountains, background left .

View of large group of men, women & children holding bouquets of wildflowers posed behind Colorado Midland Railway passenger train, somewhere in Colorado; observation car number 111 preserved at Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado; wildflower excursion train; copy glass plate attributed to L.C.McClure.

View of an automobile modified to be a rail car at the Sunnyside mine, Eureka (San Juan County), Colorado.

View of Colorado and Southern Railway locomotive 900; type 2-10- 2; Baldwin construction number 42082, at Denver, Colorado.

Mount McClellan's summit (14,007 feet) via Argentine Central Railway, Colorado; shows engine and passenger cars parked with large group of sightseers at summit and in cars, passenger cars retouched to reflect name of "Gray's Peak Route," narrow gauge track, and Rocky Mountains in background.

Train #173, The Federal; 12 cars. Photographed: at Washington, D.C., August 3, 1939.

Train #4, passenger train; 4 cars, 10 MPH. Photographed: San Diego, Cal., April 23, 1933.

Westbound freight train, fine smoke effect; 51 cars, 35 MPH. Photographed: near Riview, Wyo., November 29, 1941.

Train #22, El Capitan; 12 cars. Photographed: above Morley, Colo., March 26, 1950.

Denver and Rio Grande Western engine #601 pulls the California Zephyr westbound at the east switch in the Grand Valley, in Mesa County, Colorado.

Freight, eastbound; 15 cars, 50 MPH, good smoke, with brilliant sunlight reflecting off the tender. Photographed: east of Hudson, Colo., February 15, 1937.