UTAH RAILROADS
This page was last updated on April 7, 2008.
Listings of Railroads of Utah — An index page that includes an alphabetical list of the railroads of Utah. Also included is information about Utah's railroads as they were regulated by the Utah State Public Service Commission, along with information from the records of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission.
Railroads in Utah — An article I wrote in 1994 for the Utah History Encyclopedia about the history of Utah's railroads.
Utah's Railroad Locomotives — Locomotive rosters (steam and diesel) for railroads that operate (operated) solely within Utah, including Bamberger Railroad.
Utah's Industrial Rails — Locomotive rosters and information about rail-served industries in Utah that have their own locomotives, including U. S. Steel's Geneva plant.
Utah State Railroad Museum — Locomotive and equipment rosters of Ogden Union Station.
Heber Creeper and Heber Valley Historic Railroad — A compilation of notes and source data about the Heber Creeper (1970 to 1993) and Heber Valley Historic Railroad (1993 to today) tourist railroad that operates between Heber and in Utah's Provo Canyon.
Utah Railroads and Utah Rails Locations
(listed alphabetically by subject or company name)
Amtrak In Utah — Information about the operations and facilities of National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) in Utah.
Bamberger Railroad — Information about the Bamberger Railroad (1939-1959), and its predecessor companies; Bamberger Electric Railroad (1971-1939), Salt Lake & Ogden Railway (1896-1917), and the Great Salt Lake & Hot Springs Railway (1891-1896).
Bamberger's Alco/EMD RS-1m — An edited version of the original text used for an article published as "Bamberger 570/Union Pacific 1270" in Railroad Model Craftsman, Volume 57, Number 6, November 1988.
Carbon County Railway — An index page for the Carbon County Railway, a coal-hauling industrial line in eastern Utah. Also included is a photo album that shows the line's early Baldwin locomotives.
Central Utah Rail Project — A proposed 43 mile rail line from Levan to Salina to haul coal.
Copper Belt Railway — Information about the Copper Belt Railway, a Shay-operated railroad located in Bingham Canyon, in service from 1901 to 1908, then as D&RGW branches until 1926. This page also includes a roster listing of the Copper Belt's five Shay locomotives.
Deep Creek Railroad — Information about the Deep Creek Railroad that operated south from Wendover, Nev., for 45 miles to Gold Hill, Utah, hauling copper and gold ores from 1917 to 1939.
Deseret Western — Information about the Deseret Western Railway, a privately owned electrified railroad that operates between the Deserado coal mine in western Colorado, and the Deseret coal-fired power plant in eastern Utah.
Emigration Canyon Railroad — Information about the Emigration Canyon Railroad, which ran between Salt Lake City and its namesake canyon east of the city. Organized in 1907 and abandoned in 1917.
Eureka Hill Railroad — Information about the Eureka Hill Railroad, a narrow gauge railroad in Utah's Tintic Mining District that used Shay locomotives exclusively. Included is a timeline of the road's history, and a full roster of their locomotives. Many thanks go to George Pitchard, Sam Bass, and Stan Jennings for sharing their research on this company.
Grant Tower — Information about the former interchange trackage and control interlocking tower that was centrally located in Salt Lake City, and which today serves the combined operations of Union Pacific and Utah Transit Authority.
Heber Creeper and Heber Valley Historic Railroad — A compilation of notes and source data about the Heber Creeper (1970 to 1993) and Heber Valley Historic Railroad (1993 to today) tourist railroad that operates between Heber and in Utah's Provo Canyon.
Kenilworth & Helper Railway — Information about the Kenilworth & Helper Railway, a line built in 1907 to bring coal from the mines of Independent Coal & Coke's Kenilworth mine. The line was six miles long and was replaced in 1926 by D&RGW's newly constructed Kenilworth Branch.
Little Cottonwood Railroads — Information about the railroads that were built into Little Cottonwood Canyon, to ship both the mining ores from the Alta district, and granite from the quarries at the mouth of the canyon.
Little Cottonwood Transportation Co. — Information about Little Cottonwood Transportation Co. that leased D&RGW's narrow gauge line from Granite (Wasatch) to Alta, from 1913 to 1925.
Ogden Rails — A history of railroads in Ogden, Utah, from 1869 to today. Originally published as a 96-page soft cover book in 1997 in association with the Golden Spike Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Ogden, Utah. The original publication is sold out, and is out of print.
Ogden Union Station — Locomotive and equipment rosters of Ogden Union Station, and the Utah State Railroad Museum.
New East Tintic Railway — Information about New East Tintic Railway, builder of UP's Mammoth Branch in the Tintic Mining District, and the original operator of Union Pacific's only Shay locomotives.
Promontory — Selected web pages from the KUED web site for their new Promontory documentary. KUED is the local Salt Lake City PBS affiliate, and this new program answers the question, "Why wasn't Brigham Young at the Golden Spike driving ceremony?" Don Strack was interviewed by program producer Ken Verdoia, and these web pages include the program transcript, and the transcript of the full interview with Mr. Strack.
Rio Grande In Utah — An index page for the construction and operation of D&RG, RGW, and D&RGW in Utah, from 1871 to October 1989, when the D&RGW officially became part of SP's Central Region.
Salt Lake & Alta — Information about Salt Lake & Alta Railroad (including locomotive roster) that leased D&RGW standard gauge branch between Midvale and Granite (Wasatch), from 1913 to 1917.
Salt Lake & Fort Douglas — Information about the Salt Lake & Fort Douglas Railway, which operated in Salt Lake City and its eastern benches.
Salt Lake & Mercur — An index page for the Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad, which operated in the southern Oquirrh Mountains.
Salt Lake & Utah — Information about the electric railroad that operated between Salt Lake City and Payson, until its abandonment in 1947.
Salt Lake City Southern — Information about Salt Lake City Southern Railroad, a shortline that operated in Salt Lake City from April 1993 to August 1999, when it was sold to Utah Railway. The line operates the freight rights on Utah Transit Authority's light rail line in Salt Lake City, on the former UP Provo Subdivision.
Salt Lake, Garfield & Western Railway — Information about "The Saltair Route", which was first a steam road, then an electric interurban road, then a local Salt Lake City shortline with diesel locomotives.
Sandy — An article about how Sandy, Utah, got its name. Used as a source for Lynn Arave's article in Deseret Morning News, August 17, 2007.
San Pete Valley Railway — An index page for the railroads of the San Pete Valley in central Utah.
Savage Bingham & Garfield — Information about the Savage Bingham & Garfield Railroad that in October 2007 took over the freight operations along UP's former D&RGW Bingham Branch between Midvale and the Bagley Industrial Park, and the former D&RGW Garfield Branch between Welby (on the Bingham Branch) and Magna.
Southern Pacific in Utah — An index page for Southern Pacific (and Central Pacific) in Utah. (See also SP in Ogden.)
Southern Utah Railroad — Information about the Southern Utah Railroad and its line between Price and Hiawatha, taken over by Utah Railway in 1917.
Streetcars — An index page for the streetcars of Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan, and Provo, along with information about the bus systems in Utah (Salt Lake City Lines, UTA, etc.).
St. John & Ophir Railroad — Information about the standard gauge St. John & Ophir Railroad that was in service between 1912 and 1928, between St. John on the LA&SL, and the mines in Ophir Canyon.
Summit County Railroads — Information about the railroads in Summit County (Echo to Park City, along with Coalville and Grass Creek Canyon).
Summit County Coal Mines — Information about the railroads and coal mines in Coalville and Grass Creek Canyon.
Summit County Courthouse — Information about the railroads and coal mines in Summit County, from the Summit County courthouse.
Syracuse Area — A web page of information about the railroads and rail-served industry in the area around Syracuse in north Davis County, and Hooper and Roy in south Weber County.
Tooele Valley Railway — Information about Tooele Valley Railway, a nine-mile shortline between a connection with UP and WP at Warner, Utah, east through Tooele to the copper smelter of Anaconda's International Smelting Company.
Union Pacific In Utah — A chronological history of the construction and operation of all of Union Pacific's lines in Utah, including descriptions and abandonments of its many branchline in the state. (large file, 178k)
Union Pacific In Utah (Research Notes) — Research notes of the construction and operations of all of Union Pacific's lines in Utah.
Union Pacific's Tintic Branches and Shay Locomotives — The original, unedited text used for an article published as "UP's Tintic Subdivision" in The Streamliner, Volume 19, Number 3, Summer 2005.
U. S. Steel Geneva Works — Information and locomotive rosters for U. S. Steel's Geneva Works, later operated by the independent Geneva Steel Corporation.
U. S. Steel Columbia Ironton Works — Information and locomotive rosters for Columbia Steel's iron works at Ironton.
U. S. Steel Wellington Coal Wash plant — Information and locomotive roster for U. S. Steel's coal washing plant near Wellington, Utah.
Utah Railway — An index page for information about Utah Railway, a coal-hauling railroad in eastern Utah, including information about the road's steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, and some of the coal mines it served.
Utah Central Railway (of 1992) — Information about the current Utah Central Railway, a small railroad that operates out of Ogden providing switching and local services to BNSF (Utah Railway) and Union Pacific.
Utah Eastern Railroad — Information about the Utah Eastern Railroad that competed with UP's Summit County Railway between Coalville and Park City. Controlled and shut down by UP in 1883, torn up in 1887.
Utah Idaho Central Railroad — Information about the Utah Idaho Central Railroad that ran north from Ogden to Preston, Idaho, including predecessor roads Ogden Rapid Transit and Logan Rapid Transit.
Utah State Railroad Museum — Locomotive and equipment rosters of Ogden Union Station.
Western Pacific in Utah — An index page for information about Western Pacific in Utah.
OTHER SOURCES
Railroad-Related Industries — A separate index page for railroad-related industries in Utah, including canning, sugar beets, steel, metal smelting, and oil.
Railroad-Related Mining — A separate index page for railroad-related mining in Utah, including coal, copper, smelting, iron, and granite.
Adkins — Marlowe C. Adkins' A HISTORY OF JOHN W. YOUNG's UTAH RAILROADS, 1884-1894, completed in 1978.
Bancroft, Chapter 28 — An early history of Utah railroads scanned from Bancroft's 1889 History of Utah.
Court Cases — A very brief set of research notes from Third District court cases in 1879-1882.
Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Utah Railroads — A 1967 history of Utah railroads published by Daughters of Utah Pioneers as part of their on-going histories; this one is from Our Pioneer Heritage, Volume 10 — mostly pioneer stuff, to about 1900 — but all of the early roads are in here. It's a bit long (25 pages in print), but the article contains lots of original material, such as newspaper accounts and diary entries. (large file, 162k)
Johnson — David F. Johnson's THE HISTORY AND ECONOMICS OF UTAH RAILROADS, completed in 1947.
Newspaper Indexes — Research notes from various newspapers in 1927, 1955-1956, 1964, 1966-1967, 1970. (These notes will be expanded as additional research is completed.)
Pitchard — George E. Pitchard's UTAH RAILROADS SCRAPBOOK, completed in 1987, including the companion NEWSPAPER NOTES PROJECT, dated August 1987. (Removed at author's request) [#]
Reeder — Clarence A. Reeder's THE HISTORY OF UTAH's RAILROADS, 1869 - 1883, completed in 1970.
Together with Leonard Arrington's Great Basin Kingdom, this work by Clarence Reeder was the seed that started my interest in Utah railroads.
Tullidge, Chapter 82 — An early history of Utah railroads scanned from Tullidge's 1886 History of Salt Lake City.
OTHER HISTORY
Parleys Canyon — A research paper I wrote in 1983 for a Geography of Utah class while attending the University of Utah.
"The Sins of Steven Ambrose" — Commentary on Stephen E. Ambrose's recent book, "Nothing Like It In The World," about the building of the transcontinental railroad.
RECOMMENDED READING
- Crossroads Of The West, by Blair Kooistra, Jim Belmont, and Dave Gayer (Pentrex, 1998)
- Ogden Rails, by Don Strack (Union Pacific Historical Society, 2005)
- Utah Ghost Rails, by Stephen L. Carr and Robert W. Edwards (Western Epics, 1989)
- Utah History Encyclopedia. Edited by Allan Kent Powell (University of Utah Press, 1994)
Utah Rails Bibliography — A bibliography listing of sources I have used.
