El Nehi Wrote:
=======================================================
> When originally incorporated in 1870, it was
> D&RGRy.
Palmer was an Anglophile
> Sometime in the 1880s it became D&RGRW.
Nope. 1870 to 1886 Denver & Rio Grande Railway
> Later (before 1900) it became D&RGRR.
Reorganization of July 31, 1886. Now Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company
> There was a lot of turmoil through those early
> years. 1873 was the silver panic with it's
> associated economic depression.
No, the Silver Panic was 1893. The Panic of '73 was touched off by the failure of the Northern Pacific. Didn't actually effect the economy much in Colorado (or other Western territories or states) except that investment funds from back East dried up.
> The battle with
> the AT&SF lasted through the 1870s,
In 1873 the AT&SF had just reached, barely, the Colorado border when they ran out of money. Construction resumed in '75 as follows:
1875 Granada- Rocky Ford (84 mi)
1876 Rocky Ford-Pueblo (55.7 mi)
(At this point Palmer told his stockholders not to worry, AT&SF was just going to be a connection, not competition)
1877 no construction in Colorado
1878 La Junta-Trinidad-Raton Pass (Summit of Raton reached 12/7/78)
*Now* the fight began!
> ending with
> the Treaty of Boston in, I think, 1881.
took effect March 27, 1880
> Control
> of the railroad was pulled away from Palmer while
After, actually. Line to Ogden completed in March of 1883, shareholders revolt (by short-sighted Eastern & European interests) took over the Board of Directors in January of '83, Palmer forced to resign on 8/9/83. Replace by a drooling idiot named Fredrick lovejoy who almost destroyed the D&RG(hence the need for the 1886 reorganization.)
> he went on to build into Utah, spawning the RGW
> and it's associated litigation.
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway, incorporated in Utah Territory 7/21/81, took over Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd, Wasatch & Jordan Valley & (1882) Utah & Pleasant Valley for a total of 94 miles of track. Began construction of lines to link up it's existing track and extend to SLC and Grassy Trail in 1882, finished constrution to Ogden and to the Colorado border in 1883. Leased to D&RG Ry from August 1, 1882 until July 31, 1886. Lovejoy violated terms of lease. Palmer resumed control of D&RGW Ry by taking it into recivership in early 1884, won court case in June of '84, Lovejoy responded by tearing up D&RG track at the border, breakng connection. (D&RG then went inot recievership also)
D&RGW RY became Rio Grande Western Railway on May 16th, 1889. Part of manuvering to raise funds for fat gauging. Palmer sold control of RGW to D&RG, June 1900. RGW merged into new D&RG RR (Consolidated), in 1908.
hank
