Re: Denver Circle RR?

There doesn't seem to have been much written about this railroad. Hilton's "American Narrow Gauge Railroads" has a few paragraphs, summerized as follows:

Began revenue service 1882. It was intended to be a terminal switching line for all the narrow gauge roads that entered Denver, but was not completed as such. Instead it became essentially a passenger-hauling street railway operating on the South side of Denver. In the beginning the only freight equipment was two boxcars. In 1885 freight revenue was $500 whereas passenger reciepts were $22000. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe purchased the line in 1887 (when the name was changed to Denver & Santa Fe) to gain entry into the center of Denver, but the city council refused AT&SF permission to convert the gauge and use it for this purpose. AT&SF continued to operate the narrow gauge until 1898 when it was closed due to competition from nearby electric and cable street railways. The Denver Circle RR had about 9 1/2 miles of track and owned seven locomotives, four of which were 4-6-0s. Hilton states that these four went on to serve on other narrow gauge common carriers, but does not say where.

I found a couple of on-line references to the Denver Circle RR;
A brief history here:
[www.atsfry.com]

and a rather dry case-law study here: (begins on page 344)
[books.google.com]

Hilton lists as further reference; "Steam Tramways of Denver" by Morris Cafky, published by the Rocky Mountain RR Club ca. 1950



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2009 08:16PM by Jeff A..