Hello all,
Does anyone know of sources of information on the Western Pacific and Rio Grande interchange(s) in Utah? I’ve searched these archives, as well as google, without much luck.
Many thanks in advance,
Michael
Salt Lake City, Grant Tower.
Hi Mark,
I am looking for a source of info on trackage and train movements in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Did the two roads turn locomotives, and if so, did they use a wye? Did locomotives continue on with certain trains?, etc. I would like to find information for both freight activity, and the CZ (at least when it ran.)
Thanks,
Michael
I believe that locomotives never ran through on passenger trains. Not on the Exposition Flyer or the California Zephyr, which were the only two through trains in my memory. This was true both for steam and diesel eras.
Freight diesels may be anothe rmatter.
Where was Grant Tower located? Not too far away from the Union Pacific station in Salt Lake City, on its west side, sits a boarded up tower. There used to be one track running north and south that led down to the Rio Grande station, plus a couple of tracks forming a wye behind it. One track eventually leads off south to Roper Yard, and the other heads out west. Is this Grant Tower, or is it a different tower? Incedently, the tower still stands, but the tracks around it underwent some changes a few years ago, due to the redevelopment of the area around the UP station for the Gateway Center, and for freeway reconstruction. The tower got repainted and surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire.
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill
Here’s what I know:
WP never had an independent presence in Salt Lake City, as it was the Pacific Coast extension of the Gould empire, which owned the Rio Grande. Thus it was a tenant in the facilities of the Rio Grande, first in its downtown Salt Lake City yard and engine facility, and later in Roper Yard south of the city when it was built in the 1940s. Rio Grande employees did the servicing and switching, as WP had few of its own employees in Salt Lake City.
After the Great Depression, WP and Rio Grande were split from each other and WP started doing what made sense for it, which was give a sizeable percentage of its traffic to the UP, which had better connections and transit times than the Rio Grande. So WP freight trains began running into UP’s North Yard as well as Rio Grande’s Roper Yard.
For an idea of the traffic split, in 1962 the WP delivered to the Rio Grande in Salt Lake City 26,432 carloads and received from Rio Grande 47,895 carloads, and delivered to UP 19,544 carloads and received 19,400 carloads. That’s a grand total of 310 carloads a day, rather sad by today’s standards, and why the WP could only manage three trains each way on the average day. After it merged with UP that shot up to eight to ten a day each way, but now UP is favoring the SP out of Ogden because it’s shorter and doesn’t have to claw its way through Salt Lake City, and the WP is, guess what, back to three trains each way a day again. What goes around, comes around.
WP and Rio Grande passenger trains used Salt Lake City Union Depot – UP had its own union depot a couple of blocks away. (Huh, you’re saying? Union? Yes – it dates to when the Oregon Short Line and the Los Angeles & Salt Lake were separate railroads. Until 1921, UP owned only 50% of the LA&SL.) In the CZ era, WP power would run light down to Roper Yard for servicing, and return in time to pick up the next train. The CZ cars ran through, and