Hank,
Your What if's are interesting, but you forget that although the CM had the shortest route, it was also the worst for grades and alignment as well as construction.
This was changing during the Carlton era, but the long 4% out of Colorado Springs to Florissant was a big part of the money pit requiring heavy locomotives and short trains.
Another part was the fact that the equipment was not replaced on a regular basis, and where the rest of the country was going to Steel underframe equipment, the CM was still using truss rods.
Item three was that the entire main line needed to be rebuilt. Hagerman built the Midland without tie plates. With the advances in bearing technology and axle loadings, the Midland was destroying itself by hauling revenue. Carlton started a replacement program but not fast enough for the USRA.
The Midland would have to have been operated differently from the beginning to have been a viable outfit and it wasn't.
Colorado Springs made sense as a starting point at that time as it was a direct connection with the UPD&G, AT&SF, D&RG, MP and CRI&P.
Another thing that conspired to kill the CM was the fact that the C&S lost the lawsuit to extend the Nighthawk Branch further. This branch was meant to be a connection to the Midland at Florissant thus providing them direct access to Denver. The Denver line was a much better idea that the courts squashed when the C&S lost the access case.
Unfortunately, it was a doomed project from the time it started and the D&RGW denied them access to the valley for more favorable grade alignment out of Colorado Springs.
It could have survived the USRA Abandonment order by outlasting the USRA, but it would have had a long, hard, row to hoe that probably would have bankrupted Carlton.
That's not how it happened, and like your UP theories, it's all conjecture.
Rick
