Cheyenne Railroad Historian Rushing To Save Abandoned Rail Line Before It Disappears

 

Cheyenne Railroad Historian Rushing To Save Abandoned Rail Line Before It Disappears

The Nightcrawler. The train from Denver, Colorado, to Billings, Montana.

 

I had no idea that this is what this train was called.  Thanks go out to MKTH for letting me know!

I've been looking into local passenger train travel as part of my efforts with a novel.  What I found is that I knew very little about it.  Probably more than your average bear, but that's about it.  I'd long assumed that a person could board a train in Casper in 1916 and take the train to Douglas or Cheyenne, and then return that evening, but the more I looked into it, that was just an assumption.

I'm not the one who figured out how it really worked. That goes to MKTH.  the result is fascinating.

It turns out I was right sort of. The Burlington Northern ran a train from Denver Colorado, to Billings Montana, and vice versa, daily.  This article takes a look at it.

What I imagined, for novel purposes, was boarding in Casper, and traveling to Douglas.  I may, as I work at it, make it Cheyenne.

Union Station, Denver Colorado

Union Station, Denver Colorado

Union Station as viewed from in front of Denver's Oxford Hotel.

 

 

Anyhow, this is a really interesting article and give a really good look at what traveling on the Denver to Billings night train was like, complete with stops for food, which is something I hadn't considered.  It also picked up mail, and my source indicates, cream, something I also hadn't figured, but that may explain why the creamery my family owned was just one block from the Burlington Northern.  In fact it probably does.

Jersey Creamery Inc.

The trip took 19 hours.  It take 8 hours today by car, assuming good weather conditions, and not figuring in stops for food, etc.  The train moved about 34 miles an hour.

We'll look at the return trip first.  The train having come up from Cheyenne boarded there at 12:49 in the morning.  Uff.

It got to Casper at 6:20 in the morning, having made a couple of stops along the way.

Burlington Northern Depot, Casper Wyoming

What I imagined?  

Not really.  And I also had no idea that there was a major cafe right off the railroad.  This article deals with the early 1960s, but I can see that some variant of it was there decades prior.  That makes piles of sense, really.  Of course there would be.  How else would people eat if they were making the long journey?  

It simply hadn't occurred to me.

In my imaginary trip., that'd be it.  If I stuck with the Douglas variant of this, my protagonist would be boarding the train in the early, early morning hours and get in a couple of fitful hours of sleep, probably interrupted by a stop in little Glenrock.  Indeed, this train stopped everywhere to pick up mail, and a few passengers.

What about the other way around?

Well that was a day trip, but as we can see, the 19 hours the train traveled in total meat that it took a good 6.5 hours to travel just from Cheyenne to Casper.  Going the other way would mean the same thing, and likely a bit in reverse.  The 6.5 hour trip from Cheyenne to Casper was the second major leg of the trip (it'd still stop in numerous small towns in between), the first being Denver to Cheyenne.  Going the other way around meant that the Cheyenne to Denver leg was about five hours.  The article notes that the train actually arrived from Billings 40 minutes before its 7:00 p.m. departure.  So it arrived, more or less, at 6:00 p.m. and changed crews.  That would have meant that it left Cheyenne, on the way to Denver, at about 1:00 p.m. or so, which makes sense.  Passengers traveling all the way to Denver would have eaten lunch there.

By extension, however, that meant that the train left Casper at about 6;00 in the morning, approximately.

These times are almost unimaginable now.  When we had good air travel to Denver I'd frequently board United Express here about 6;00 a.m. and be in Denver about 8:30, and take the train downtown and be to work by 9.  I'd be back in Casper on the redeye about 10:00, or if I was lucky, 6:00.

And when I go to Cheyenne, I drive.  Normally that takes me a little under three hours.  I haven't stayed overnight in Cheyenne for years, although I recently had an instance which should really cause me to.

Anyhow, if I'm looking at 1916, why not just drive?

Well, in 1916 most Americans, including most Wyomingites, didn't own automobiles, and those who did, didn't normally make long trips with them.  They frankly weren't that reliable, even though they were simple.  Roads also tended to be primitive, and not really maintained for weather.  Could a person have driven from Casper to Cheyenne in a Model T, the most likely car they would have had?  Yes, but it wouldn't have been any faster.  It may well have been slower, quite frankly, as well as much riskier.

Blog Mirror: Casper City Council OKs mayor’s letter supporting Cheyenne’s effort to secure passenger rail service in Wyoming

 

Casper City Council OKs mayor’s letter supporting Cheyenne’s effort to secure passenger rail service in Wyoming

Industrial History: BNSF coal train derailment north of Pueblo, CO, ki...

Industrial History: BNSF coal train derailment north of Pueblo, CO, ki...: ( Satellite ) I quit documenting derailments because they are too frequent. But this one is special for two reasons: it had a fatality (truc...

New pedestrian overpass, North Denver, Colorado.

 

Amtrak Expansion. Cheyenne to Denver, and beyond!?

I have real problems, I'll admit, with the scope of the proposed infrastructure spending proposals that President Biden is looking at, but if they go forward, I really hope we do see rail service restored (and that's what it would be) between Cheyenne and Denver.

The plan proposes to invest $80B in Amtrak.  Yes, $80B.  Most of that will go to repairs, believe it or not, as the Amtrak has never been a favorite of the Republican Party, which in its heard of hearts feels that the quasi public rail line is simply a way of preserving an obsolete mode of transportation at the Government's expense.  But rail has been receiving a lot of attention recently for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that in a now carbon conscious era, it's the greenest mode of transportation taht we have, something the commercial rail lines have been emphasizing.

Indeed, if the American public wasn't afraid of a nuclear power the same way that four year olds are afraid of monsters that live under their beds, it could be greener yet, and there's some talk of now supporting nuclear power among serious informed environmentalists.  A campaign to push that, called the Solutionary Rail, is now active.  We'll deal with that some other time.

Here we're noting that we're hopeful that if this does go through, and as noted we have real reservations about this level of expenditure, that Amtrak does put in a passenger line from Cheyenne to Pueblo.  

A line connecting Ft. Collins to Denver has been a proposal in Colorado for quite a while and has some backing there.  The same line of thought has already included Cheyenne.  This has a lot to do with trying to ease the burgeoning traffic problem this area experiences due to the massive population growth in Colorado.  Wyomingites, I suppose, should therefore approach this with some caution as it would tie us into the Front Range communities in a way that we might not want to be.  Still, it's an interesting idea.

It's one that for some reason I think will fall through, and I also suspect it'll receive no support in Wyoming. Still, it's interesting.

The Denver Tramway Power Company Building.

This very large structure was built by the Denver Tramway Power Company, a subsidiary of the Denver Tramway, to supply electricity to its network of electric trams in Denver. The giant building was constructed in 1901.

We don't often think of the physical plant that trolley cars of any kid require, but this structure gives us a pretty good example. The building was used as a power generating facility for fifty years, at which time the railway stopped operating (it has since been replaced by a new rail system operated by Denver's RTC).

After the Denver Tramway quit using it, it was used by International Harvester for a time.  Today, however, the giant open building is occupied by the Denver outlet for the recreational equipment co-op REI, replacing a smaller store that occupied a former grocery store in Aurora.

The rail lines still exist and are still in operating condition.  There's presently an effort to secure train service locally near REI, adding to Denver's extensive rail network.

 Storm drain outlet which a graffiti artist had made resemble a cat's head.

Aerodrome: Denver Airport A Train Station

Aerodrome:  Denver Airport A Train Station.

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Trail. Abstract murals

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Trail. Abstract murals

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. Is it art, or graffiti?

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. Is it art, or graffiti?

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. "Love this City".

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. "Love this City".: Mural on business along Denver's A Train.

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. Murals

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. Murals: Some sort of decorated building in Denver, as photographed from the moving A Train.

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. Sugar Warehouse, Denver ...

Painted Bricks: Scenes from the A Train. Sugar Warehouse, Denver ...: Old sugar warehouse as taken from a moving train, the Denver RTD A Line.

Union Pacific Railroad Depot, Greeley Colorado.

This is the former Union Pacific Railroad Depot in Greeley, Colorado.  The depot was built in 1930.  While the Union Pacific still runs behind the depot, it's now the Greeley Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Union Pacific Building, Denver Colorado.

This is a Union Pacific building in downtown Denver.  I don't know anything about this building.  It's not far from Union Station so presumably it wasn't a depot.

Union Station, Denver Colorado

Union Station as viewed from in front of Denver's Oxford Hotel.

 

This is Denver's Union Station.  This large railroad station was built in 1914 and was called Union Station as a predecessor station connected  the Union Pacific, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the Denver, South Park & Pacific, and the Colorado Central.  This 1914 terminal connected the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe, the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific, the Colorado & Southern, the Union Pacific, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western.  The new 1914 station incorporated part of the previous 1881 depot.  Today the station serves Amtrak and Denver's local RTD area commuter rail.

Construction is ongoing at the terminal as RTD is expanding and a substantial hotel is being added to the terminal.

I recently was in downtown Denver and had the opportunity to take some additional photographs of the now rebuilt station.  It's pretty impressive.

 

Quite impressive and very well done.

Denver RTD University of Colorado A Line

 Escalator at the Denver International Airport to the terminal.

 Union Station, downtown Denver.

The Denver RTD University of Colorado A Line has started operating, and provides passenger service from the airport to downtown Denver.  The tickets cost only $9.00 and the run last 35 minutes, even though it makes several stops in route.  It is, simply, great.

The Denver City Cable Rail Way Buidling, Denver Colorado.

This is a birdseye view of the Denver City Cable Rail Way Building in downtown Denver Colorado.  The 1889 vintage building now houses a restaurant and businesses.  This particular building originally housed the power generation system for the cable railway and a maintenance facility.

Specialized steam engine, PIke's Peak Colorado

I don't know anything about this small engine, other than that it was on display in 1958 at Pike's Peak, Colorado.  It was obviously built at an angle anticipating being used on steep grades.  This is a cog wheel engine, which basically uses a geared wheel to climb a steep grade.