DENVER,
SOUTH PARK & Pacific Railroad
Introduction to the DSP&P
The
Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, known to friends and
fans as "The South Park Line", is my favourite narrow
gauge railway, partly because of the scenery, the difficulty,
and the underdog status of the road. Another reason is that the
South Park was the largest user of
Mason Bogies, my favourite locomotive. They
were the most artistically finished locomotives of any era, with
pin-striping, glorious colour schemes, and curvaceous fittings
where rectangular would have sufficed. And there were all those
wonderfully unique Nesmith
and Congdon style
smokestacks. Few railroads had so many distinctive identifying
characteristics.
This page contains a brief history
and
route map. Other pages contain rolling stock rosters and histories,
plans and drawings, and representative photos of prototype
and model locomotives and rolling stock. See "Site Navigation" at
bottom of this page for a complete list of topics.
Life
and Times of the "South Park"
The
first DSP&P locomotive was a Dawson and Bailey 2-6-0 built in
1874, named "Fairplay". The second was a D&B 4-4-0 named "Platte
Canyon". Five boxcars, five coal cars, thirty flat cars, one baggage
and one passenger car were built in 1874 by Hallack and Brothers in
Denver -- a small beginning for a railroad with big dreams for
conquering the fearsome mountains of Colorado.
DSP&P 2-6-0 #1 "Fairplay", drawing by Phil Ronfor DSP&P 4-4-0 #2 "Platte Canyon" built in 1874
Not much equipment was
acquired during the slow period between 1874 and 1878. Then new
money and the prospect of profits from shipping silver ore brought
14 brand new 2-6-6T Mason Bogie locomotives in 1878. These were
numbered 3 through 16, and had names assigned that disappeared in
later years. Nine passenger cars
from Barney and Smith (6 built by DSP&P at Denver) arrived in
1878 and early 1879.
Accucraft 1:20 scale Mason
Bogies DSP&P #4 and #6, "San Juan" and "Ten Mile"
Three second hand D&B
2-6-0 Moguls, numbered 17, 18, and 19, built in 1875 arrived in 1879, followed by 5 more
2-6-6T’s, numbered 20 - 24, and four 2-8-6T’s in 1880,
numbered 25 - 28.
Twenty seven more passenger
cars (including baggage, mail, and combines) and six Pullman
sleepers arrived between 1879 and 1884. Several hundred freight
cars, mostly 26 to 27 foot, 10 to 14 ton capacity, were delivered
between 1880 and 1884. Some 1883 and 1884 cars had a
capacity of 20
tons.
During 1883 and 1884, a
large group of Brooks and Cooke 2-6-0 Moguls and 2-8-0
Consolidations joined the fleet, bringing the locomotive roster to
74 at the time of the UP takeover in 1885. Many of these survived
to become C&S locomotives in 1899. Only one of the Mason Bogies
made it into the C&S era.
Cooke Mogul DSP&P #71
At itx peak, the South Park boasted 74 locomotives, more than
1300 freight cars, and nearly 50 passenger cars spread over 260
miles of mainline tracks.
DSP&P
Corporate History
The Denver, South Park, and
Pacific Railroad was a 3-foot gauge railway that served the mining
boom of the late 1800’s in the mountains of Colorado. Construction
began in 1873. The line from Denver to Leadville via Como was
completed in 1880, and to Gunnison through the Alpine Tunnel in
1882.
In 1885, the Union
Pacific Railroad purchased a majority interest in the DSP&P,
resulting in a re-numbering of all locomotives and rolling stock to
match the UP family system. The DSP&P was reorganized
in 1889 by UP as the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railroad.
In
1894, the DL&G went into receivership and successfully emerged in
1899 as a profitable enterprise. The Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railroad,
previously the Colorado Central, running over the Georgetown Loop to
Silver Plume, also came out of receivership in late 1898. The DL&G and UPD&G were then merged to
become the Colorado and Southern Railway.
The UP mismanagement was
now gone and the C&S was profitable, at least for a while. The
C&S re-numbered all locomotives and rolling stock in 1899 and again
in 1911 -- some cars carried four different road
numbers in their relatively short lifespans.
By 1908, the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy (later Burlington Northern) controlled the C&S and
developed some new standard gauge lines to compete with other
mainline roads southward from Denver. Narrow gauge nuts like me tend
to ignore this phase of C&S history.
C&S continued to run
the narrow gauge to Gunnison until 1910, and to Leadville until
1937. Portions of the Gunnison branch were leased to the D&RGW, some
of which ran until 1954.
Abandonment began in earnest in 1937 and
continued until 1943 with the last narrow gauge train from Climax to
Leadville, ending the narrow gauge rule over
the South Park Lines. Standard gauge traffic fed molybdenum over
this 14 mile route for the war effort, and off-and-on after that into the
1970's.
Today, that section of the
old DSP&P Highline between Leadville and Climax is operated as a
standard gauge tourist railroad, called the Leadville, Colorado and Southern
Railroad.
DSP&P Route
The first track laid ran from Denver south to Sheridan, then west to
Morrison. Later the line was known as the Morrison Branch.
The South Park mainline ran from Union Station in Denver, through
Sheridan, up the valley of the
South Platte River to the town of South Platte, then followed the
North Fork of the South Platte through Buffalo Creek and Baileys.
West of Baileys, the route ran along North Fork and through the north
end of the Tarryall Mountains, through Webster, across Kenosha Pass,
to Jefferson and Como, a distance of 88.2 miles by
rail.
From Como, the mainline traversed South Park to Garos, where a spur went northward to
Fairplay and Alma (also known as London Mills).
The mainline continued
south from Garos, over Trout Creek Pass to Schwanders where a small spur connected to Buena Vista.
Continuing southwest through Nathrop, St. Elmo, and Hancock, over the southern
end of the Sawatch Range, the mainline travelled through the Alpine Tunnel to Pitkin, then
west to Gunnison at milepost 208 (measured from Denver).
A short branch line connected to mines at Baldwin, north of Gunnison.
Back at Como, the principal branch line,
known as the Highline,
went north over Boreas Pass to Breckenridge, Dillon,
and Keystone, then turned south to Frisco, Climax, and finally Leadville at milepost 151.3.
It crossed the Continental Divide twice, once northbound over Boreas
Pass en route to Breckenridge and again southbound on Freemont Pass
en route to Climax and Leadville.
Scheduled passenger trains took 8 hours to travel Denver to
Leadville. The time-freight took 12 hours and a way freight could
take two days.
Route map of the Denver, South
Park and Pacific Railway from Denver to Gunnison with the important
side trip to Leadville. The DSP&P was reorganized into the Denver,
Leadville and Gunnison in 1889. The line straight west from Denver
to Georgetown and Silver Plume was the Colorado Central Railway. The
CC was reorganized in 1889 to become the Union Pacific, Denver
and Gulf (although the line never aimed for the Gulf of Mexico). The
DL&G and UPD&G were merged in 1899 to form the Colorado and Southern.
DSP&P
Construction
Grading began in August 1873 from Denver to Morrison. The first
rails were laid on 18 May 1874. On 20 June 1874, the tracks reached
Morrison, and on 03 July 1874, scheduled service began between
Denver and Morrison with two round-trip mixed trains per day.
From
1874 until 1878, the company progressed slowly on its mainline,
using a series of different construction companies as it struggled
to remain solvent. The tracks finally reached the mouth of the
Platte Canyon on 04 May 1878, 20 miles from Denver, and by 02 June
1878, the tracks reached 12 miles up the canyon. The tracks reached
Buffalo Creek on 17 June 1878. The following year, on 19 May 1879,
the tracks reached to the summit of Kenosha Pass and on 27 June 1879
they reached Como.
In November 1879, with
the tracks only as far as South Park, the company contracted for the
initial construction of the Alpine Tunnel, with an expected
completion date of 01 July 1880. The following month, the tracks
reached to the summit of Trout Creek Pass. That same year, work
began on the branch line, the "High Line", to Leadville, and on 02
July 1880, the first train arrived in Leadville.
The
Alpine Tunnel broke through on 26 July 1881, a full year later than
planned. The mainline reached Gunnison the following year in 1882.
The Colorado and Southern
started dismantling in 1910, with the closure of the Alpine Tunnel.
In 1930, the C&S attempted to shut down the mainline through the
Platte Canyon, due to a decrease in revenue and traffic. The last
freight and passenger trains between Denver and Leadville operated
in April 1937, and on 10 April 1937, the South Park Line officially
closed. The last regular freight train operated between Denver and
Como on 25 April 1937.
The last narrow gauge
section, between Leadville and Climax, was converted to standard
gauge on 25 August 1943, connecting a number of mines to the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the then owners of the C&S.
Follow the links below to see
more of this historic narrow gauge railway.
