Passenger Trains > Denver Station

=15.6pxSorry for asking this for those in the know.  Why, being a middle of the road rail-line thru Denver is there such a crazy back-in terminal and not a straight shot like most other terminals ?  It seems such a waste of energy and time to have to back into a non-terminating facility. Who designed this mess.
Thanks -
GG
 

It's not that unusual.  LA, Boston [both], New Orleans, and others I can't think of are all stub-end terminals.  Concerning Denver, though, a run-through station would facilitate a proposed Caprock Express.

As built, it was a through terminal.

The simple answer is that at the time the station was built, virtually all passenger trains terminated or originated in Denver.  The only exception would have likely been a random through Union Pacific train running via Denver from Kansas City to Cheyenne.  It was years later that you had the Exposition Flyer, then the California Zephyr, some through cars for Colorado Springs off the Denver Zephyr and the various UP City trains (and the Portland Rose?).  In all of those cases save the Denver Zephyr cars, those trains pulled in/backed in/reversed direction in Denver.

Circumstances change and now the only intercity passenger service is a through train that backs in and pulls out.  For the hundreds of commuter trains that will populate the station in coming years, Union Station will be an origination/termination point.

niagara484

GGIBSON Wrote:
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> =15.6pxSorry for asking this for those in the
> know.  Why, being a middle of the road rail-line
> thru Denver is there such a crazy back-in terminal
> and not a straight shot like most other terminals
> ?  It seems such a waste of energy and time to
> have to back into a non-terminating facility. Who
> designed this mess.
> Thanks -
> GG
>  

And prior to 1934 (when the Dotsero Cutoff was completed) any train routed to the west over the Rio Grande would have gone south to Pueblo and then over Tennessee Pass.

Until the mid-late 1980's it WAS a through station.

The_Chief_Way Wrote:
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> As built, it was a through terminal.

Only if you were going south.  If you were going west or north, not so much run through. 

The thru dz crs were the only non baggage cars that ran through , pulled in from north and departed to the south, past burnham..that I' m aware of.  Or did the royal gorge have any thru cars?

as opposed to arr&departing from the north

Prior to the 1940 era Exposition Flyer on the Moffat Line, almost all non Union Pacific trains originated or terminated in Denver.   Pullman sleepers ran through, but changed trains, going west on the Rio Grande's Scenic Limited or Panoramic Limited.  The CB&Q, D&RG and WP routing of these sleepers was a forecast of the Flyer and the CZ.  

According to my 1926 Official Guide, UP ran 3 westbound and 4 eastbound trains from Salt Lake City, through Cheyenne, Denver, and Kansas City to or from St. Louis.  However, since they too, did not go south out of DUS, they had to execute the same backup move that the CZ always has to do as well. 

sums007 Wrote:
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> It's not that unusual.  LA, Boston , New Orleans,
> and others I can't think of are all stub-end
> terminals. 
Tampa is like that too.  Trains to/from Miami turn on a slow-speed wye before backing into the station.  It is how the terminal tracks are configured, and yes it adds time.

Kristiansand, Norway is also a stub-end station, but none of the theough trains use a wye. If you arrive from either direction facing forward, you will be facing backward for the ongoing portion of your journey.

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