Western Railroad Discussion > Could UP build a new line to connect ex Rio Grande?

Could UP connect the old Rio Grande Craig branch in Colorado to it's mainline in southern Wyoming? Would save money with all the maintanence on the Moffat Sub.

I'm no expert on this area, but I seem to recall reading about a proposal to do this a number of years back. Other than cost, I am not sure if there were any other obstacles.

There was study done on this in the 80s, when the oil boom was on in Western Colorado. Oil combined with coal had UP thinking of dropping into the Craig area. That boom died and UP must have quietly shelved the idea. It would have cost $150M at least back then. Would they do it now, I doubt it. They need the capital in other areas and they have a perfectly good line into the area. Even if it does have a pinch point (Moffat Tunnel), its far cheaper to operate than building a $200M+ new line to serve two active coal mines. Yes, there is some oil/gas business now, but it isn't anything like, say, the PRB. So, could they do it, yes. Will they, no.

KK

It's been discussed in the past, and I believe it would be technically possible (the terrain between Craig and Wamsutter/Rawlins isn't that challenging), but I wouldn't look for it to happen any time soon. Sure, that would relieve the Craig Branch traffic from the eastern Moffat, but it wouldn't really do anything good for the North Fork trains. They'd have to come into Bond, reverse, and then head north and west again. Also, UP would never get permission to abandon everything east of Bond - they likely don't want the Zephyr on the Wyoming main, BNSF has trackage rights and would snap it up in an instant, and UP has at least one manifest each way over the line.

I'd say we'll see coal going west over Soldier before we see a Craig-Wyoming connector. You can pay a lot of helper crews for the $200 mil or so it would likely cost to construct the ~100 mile connector. Just my opinion, though.

Nathan
http://www.drgw.net

How about that old UP line to Walden, Colorado and then over to Steamboat Springs?

Yes, that very idea of going past Walden, and Hebron, and Coalmont, or going straight out of Northgate was bandied about before UP gained access to the Powder River Basin. It is certainly technologically feasible, but now UP's ace-in-the-hole for coal is the PRB, and secondarily the old Rio Grande, thirdly the Hanna and Black Buttes coal. Interest in whatever the North Park Line had to offer waned after UP gained access to the PRB so much that UP dumped it off to be scrapped to Durbano Iron and Metal, which saw the great shape UP had left it in after relaying the entire line with 133lb jointed rail and many new ties, and decided to operate it through their Western RailRoad Builders subsidiary as the Wyoming/Colorado (WYCO) railroad. According to Railroad Retirement, it was always considered a construction company and never a railroad! Anyway, WYCO tried to secure off-line coal contracts but UP set the interchange rate so high at Laramie that it never happened. WYCO's only coal contract was to the Laramie cement plant. Of course WYCO ran a nice passenger tour train, also, but patronage was always a challenge at relatively-remote Laramie, WY. Long story short, the tracks are now completely torn out now, so very unlikely to happen. With modern railroad building techniques, some of the shortfalls of the North Park/WYCO line could be worked around, indeed the way the curves at Albany were laid out, on the steep downhill grade loaded coal trains of more than 30-35 cars would start popping off around the outside of the curves, so that a full-length coal train would have to be assembled in pieces and marshalled together in the Laramie yards to compose one full-length coal train, too labor-intensive. So if a new line were to be proposed, perhaps the line through Albany would be regraded on the other side of the canyon anyway, but I'll bet ecological/environmental concerns would kill the idea before it ever left the paper it was written on, and it has never made it past that point to date. It is too bad the WYCO was torn out, the coal at Walden is of very good quality, low moisture and low sand content, high BTU output, almost a metallurgical-quality coal. If it is ever to be recovered now, you're probably looking at a truck-to-loadout operation like is done at the Utah Railway, or maybe even a conveyor, but any further rail service seems remote at best. --- --- - --- JLH

At the time the Walden line was in operation, they said it was the curviest coal route the in the country, with significant wear to flanges on locomotives and cars. I remember hearing someplace that locomotive wheels were worn at a comparitively expensive rate and had to be changed often. That being said, as JLH mentioned, the line is gone and there are other more economical alternatives.

NDHolmes Wrote:
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> I'd say we'll see coal going west over Soldier
> before we see a Craig-Wyoming connector.

This already happens with a few trains from the Grand Junction area depending on destination and fluidity of the other rail lines to the east of GJ.

Paul Birkholz
Sheridan, WY

Two medium sized mines would hardly be worth the expenditure. While I heard rumors of a very expensive Walden connection over Rabiit Ears Pass, the real connetor I heard was straight north of Craig. Fairl gentle grades no real rock work. Fairly cheap by mountain standards, but not for just two mines...

There is a lot of sentiment for a western extension into the Vernal basin especially since the transload off the area is
at Parachute and served by the BNSF. The phosphate resources in the basin could easily support a line from Craig
once they're fully developed.