Denver and Salt Lake Railway: History, Roster, Timetable

Published: October 22, 2026

The Denver & Salt Lake was the Moffat Road, David H. Moffat’s standard-gauge railroad west from Colorado’s capital into the Rockies. He incorporated it in 1902 as the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific, aimed at Salt Lake City. The track reached Craig in 1913, and Craig remained the end of the line. The Moffat Tunnel opened on February 26, 1928, in place of the temporary railroad over Rollins Pass. The Dotsero Cutoff, dedicated on June 16, 1934, joined the railroad to the Denver & Rio Grande Western. The two companies merged on April 11, 1947.

On the December 1929 public table, trains 1 and 2 covered Denver to Craig, 232 miles, with cafe-parlor cars. W. R. Freeman was president, and the offices were in Denver. George H. Drury’s steam list is on this page. The quantity column prints 59.

Denver and Salt Lake Railway 2-8-2 No. 403 at Denver, Colorado

Denver & Salt Lake 2-8-2 No. 403 at Denver, Colorado. American-Rails.com collection. Lima, 1915, one of the 400–407 group.

On this page: The Moffat Road · Craig · At a glance · Moffat Tunnel · December 1929 · Dotsero · Steam · The Rio Grande

The Moffat Road

In 1902 David Moffat incorporated the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific to build west from Denver toward Salt Lake City. Construction began almost at once. By 1904 the rails stood on the summit of Rollins Pass, 65 miles from Denver and 6,400 feet higher. That is an average grade of 1.86 percent.

The westbound climb began at the South Platte River bridge in Denver. After a few miles the grade settled at 2 percent and held 2 percent to Ladora, north of Tolland and northeast of the later east portal. At Ladora it rose to 4 percent and stayed there for 13 miles, to the summit at Corona. Eastbound trains faced 16 miles of 4 percent from Vasquez, northwest of present-day Winter Park, up to the same summit. The pass was a temporary crossing, meant to stand until a 3-mile tunnel at 9,900 feet could be built. Winter closed it for weeks or months at a time. More than two miles above sea level, the 4 percent grades were the manageable part of the work. Keeping the line open was the hard part.

Coal from northwestern Colorado kept trains on the railroad, and a bore under the Continental Divide was the other thing the property still needed. Both would matter to the Rio Grande after the merger.

Craig

Moffat died in New York on March 18, 1911, with the tunnel still unbuilt and his fortune in the railroad. After his death the property went into foreclosure. In 1913 it was reorganized as the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad.

The line itself had been moving west through those years. History Colorado’s note on the company collection dates Sulphur Springs to 1905 and Steamboat Springs to 1908, and calls that railroad 214 miles from Denver. The extension to Craig, 40.5 miles, was finished in 1913. The same year the company finished a belt line to the Denver stockyards, 4.87 miles. Craig, in Moffat County, was as far as the track went. The 214 miles are the distance to Steamboat Springs on that earlier railroad. The stockyards belt is 4.87 miles in Denver, apart from the miles out to Craig.

Denver’s passenger station for the railroad was Moffat Station, the 1906 depot at 2101 15th Street. It was the city end of the line over Rollins Pass. Denver Union Station served the other roads into the city.

At a glance

Item	Figure
Headquarters	Denver
Name on the 1929 table	The Denver & Salt Lake Railway Company, “The Moffat Road”
Gauge	4 feet, 8½ inches
Incorporated	1902, as the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific
Denver & Salt Lake Railroad	Reorganized 1913, after foreclosure
Rollins Pass	Summit reached by 1904. 6,400 feet of climb in 65 miles. 4 percent on the summit grades
Steamboat Springs	1908. 214 miles from Denver on the pre-tunnel line
Craig	1913, a 40.5-mile extension. Mile 232 on the December 1929 table
Moffat Tunnel	Turned over to the railroad on February 26, 1928. More than 6 miles, at about 9,200 feet
Dotsero Cutoff	Dedicated June 16, 1934. About 38 miles, Orestod to Dotsero
Trackage rights	Rio Grande, Denver to Orestod, 128 miles
Merger	April 11, 1947, into the Denver & Rio Grande Western
Steam locomotives	59
President, December 1929	W. R. Freeman, Denver

Moffat Tunnel

The pass line stayed in use until the state built the tunnel Moffat had wanted. A special session of the Colorado legislature passed the Moffat Tunnel bill on April 29, 1922. The Moffat Tunnel Commission built the bore. The railroad bore was holed through on July 7, 1927. On February 26, 1928, the finished tunnel was turned over to the railroad, which took it as lessee. By then the company had been reorganized as the Denver & Salt Lake Railway, the name on the December 1929 table.

The tunnel that opened was more than 6 miles long, at about 9,200 feet, and it shortened the railroad by about 23 miles. Moffat’s plan for the crossing had been a 3-mile tunnel at 9,900 feet. The Moffat Tunnel page carries the bore. On the railroad’s own December 1929 table, East Portal is mile 50, elevation 9,198, and West Portal is mile 56, elevation 9,085. When the pass line was abandoned, the older locomotives went into storage, and many of them were scrapped in the late 1930s.

December 1929

The Denver & Salt Lake Railway Company in the January 1930 Official Guide. The table is dated December 1929. Trains 1 and 2, Denver to Craig.

The sheet is headed the Denver & Salt Lake Railway Company, “The Moffat Road,” with W. R. Freeman as president at Denver. Trains 1 and 2 carried cafe-parlor cars. Train 1 left Denver at 8:40 a.m. The sheet marks that departure as a daily train. It arrived at Craig at 7:20 p.m. Train 2 left Craig at 8:05 a.m. and arrived at Denver at 5:45 p.m.

Craig is mile 232. Steamboat Springs is mile 191. That is the post-tunnel distance. The 214 miles to Steamboat Springs belong to the 1908 line, before the bore took about 23 miles out of the trip. Orestod, on the Colorado River, is mile 128. The name is Dotsero spelled backward. In 1929 it was a station on the way to Craig. Five years later it was the junction where the Rio Grande came in from the west.

Dotsero

The Rio Grande built the Dotsero Cutoff, about 38 miles from Orestod down the Colorado River to Dotsero, and dedicated it on June 16, 1934. The New York Times reported the opening that day. The cutoff placed Denver on a direct line west. The Times put the saving at 175 miles between Denver and Salt Lake City, and the cost at $3,850,000, most of it borrowed from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. A Burlington Zephyr ran through for the dedication.

Drury records what the Rio Grande took from the Denver & Salt Lake once that junction was open: trackage rights over more than half the railroad, Denver to Orestod, 128 miles, and a start on buying the stock. In 1934 Wilson McCarthy became president of the Denver & Salt Lake. He went on as an operating trustee of the Rio Grande.

Steam

The railroad’s switchers were Nos. 20 and 21, Schenectady engines of 1903, used while the line was being built. They were scrapped in 1939, after several years in storage.

The first Consolidations came from Schenectady in 1904, and a third followed in 1905. Those three, 100 through 102, had 57-inch drivers, 22-by-28-inch cylinders, piston valves, and Stephenson valve gear. The rest of the 2-8-0s, 103 through 123, had 55-inch drivers and the same cylinder size, with slide valves. Walschaerts valve gear replaced Stephenson on the last ten, built in 1910.

In 1908 the Moffat Road became the fourth railroad in the United States to buy a Mallet. No. 200 looked much like Baltimore & Ohio 2400, with slightly higher domes and stack, high-pressure cylinders an inch larger in diameter, low-pressure cylinders an inch and a half larger, 55-inch drivers, an inch smaller, and a total weight 28,000 pounds greater. Two more 0-6-6-0s came in 1909 and seven in 1910, the group 200 through 209. In 1912 the railroad began fitting the Mallets with lead trucks and mechanical stokers. The next seven, 210 through 216, are the 2-6-6-0s, two delivered in 1913 and five in 1916.

The Mikados waited until the eve of that last Mallet delivery. Eight came from Lima in 1915, Nos. 400 through 407, and two from Schenectady in 1916, Nos. 408 and 409. The Lima engines followed the Harriman 2-8-2 pattern that builder had used for the Southern Pacific, the Illinois Central, and the Central of Georgia. The two Alco engines used the same main dimensions, 26-by-30-inch cylinders and 55-inch drivers. They were a heavy engine for the curves over Rollins Pass, and for their weight, until the tunnel opened. They were later fitted with Coffin feedwater heaters. Their tenders gained brakemen’s cabs taller than the locomotive cab, and side boards that raised the coal capacity. No. 407 was one of the last Lima engines to carry that builder’s old rectangular plate. No. 403, in the photograph above, is one of the 1915 Lima engines.

Passenger power started with a pair of Americans bought in 1904 from the Chesapeake Beach Railway, a 28-mile line from Seat Pleasant, Maryland, to the resort at Chesapeake Beach. Moffat and Otto Mears were among that road’s backers. Pittsburgh had built Nos. 390 and 391 in 1899, with 68-inch drivers. One of them was put on a construction train, reached the foot of the 4 percent, and stalled. Both were rebuilt with 60-inch drivers and then handled light trains, usually the local passenger runs between Denver and Tolland. They were scrapped in 1937.

The Ten-Wheelers were four engines. No. 300 arrived from Schenectady in 1904, with 63-inch drivers, inboard piston valves, and a weight of 186,000 pounds. No. 301, in 1905, also had inboard piston valves, with 57-inch drivers, and weighed about 4,000 pounds less. No. 302, in 1907, had 57-inch drivers, slide valves, and Stephenson gear, and weighed 189,000 pounds. No. 303, in 1910, weighed 215,000 pounds, with 63-inch drivers, slide valves, and Walschaerts gear. Nos. 302 and 303 had extended smokeboxes and a single-stage air pump on the right side.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	51	20, 21	2	Schenectady	1903	1939	—
2-8-0	42	100–102	3	Schenectady	1904–1905	1937–1955	—
2-8-0	44	103–123	21	Schenectady	1906–1910	1948–1956	111–113, 118–123 to D&RGW 1031–1039
2-8-2	63	400–407	8	Lima	1915	1952, 1956	To D&RGW 1220–1227
2-8-2	63	408, 409	2	Schenectady	1916	1947–1952	To D&RGW 1228, 1229
0-6-6-0	76	200–209	10	Schenectady	1908–1910	1949–1951	To D&RGW 3360–3369
2-6-6-0	76	210–216	7	Schenectady	1913, 1916	1947–1951	211–216 to D&RGW 3370–3375
4-4-0	19	390, 391	2	Pittsburgh	1899	1937	Ex-Chesapeake Beach. Bought 1904
4-6-0	30	300	1	Schenectady	1904	1942, 1948	—
4-6-0	33	301, 302	2	Schenectady	1905, 1907	1942, 1948	302 to D&RGW 795
4-6-0	34	303	1	Schenectady	1910	1948	To D&RGW 796

The quantity column totals 59 locomotives. The two Americans were built in 1899. Drury’s chapter includes them with the engines built after 1900 because the Moffat Road bought them in 1904.

The Rio Grande

On April 11, 1947, the Denver & Salt Lake merged into the Denver & Rio Grande Western and lost its separate existence. The Rio Grande owned about 95 percent of the stock. That was the day the reorganized Rio Grande took up its own affairs after twelve years in trusteeship. The Rio Grande added the Mikados, the Mallets, and nine Consolidations. Nine of the class 44 engines, 111 through 113 and 118 through 123, became Rio Grande 1031 through 1039. Mikados 400 through 409 became 1220 through 1229. Mallets 200 through 209 became 3360 through 3369, and 211 through 216 became 3370 through 3375. Ten-Wheelers 302 and 303 were assigned Rio Grande 795 and 796 and were scrapped in July 1948.

The rails stayed in service. Denver to the junction, and the branch on to Craig, became part of the Rio Grande. The railroad’s own Craig passenger train had been trains 1 and 2. The Rio Grande’s later train on the Craig line is the Yampa Valley. Union Pacific operates the line through the Moffat Tunnel.

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, the Denver & Salt Lake chapter, pp. 165–166. Incorporation in 1902. The summit of Rollins Pass by 1904, 65 miles from Denver and 6,400 feet higher, an average of 1.86 percent. The 2 percent to Ladora and the 4 percent grades, 13 miles westbound and 16 miles eastbound from Vasquez. Coal traffic. The tunnel of 1928, more than 6 miles at about 9,200 feet, shortening the line by about 23 miles, and the reorganization as the Denver & Salt Lake Railway. Storage and scrapping of older power after the pass was abandoned. The Dotsero Cutoff in 1934, trackage rights from Denver to Orestod, 128 miles, and the merger in April 1947. The locomotive specifications in the steam section, and the sentence that Ten-Wheelers 302 and 303 received Rio Grande numbers and were scrapped in July 1948. The roster table is that chapter’s grid. The Notes column is aligned to the Rio Grande numbers Drury prints and to the 1947 additions below.
History Colorado, Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway Collection, MSS.830, the collection’s historical note. Organized in 1902 to build from Denver toward Salt Lake City. Sulphur Springs in 1905. Steamboat Springs in 1908, that line 214 miles from Denver. Craig extension of 40.5 miles finished in 1913, and a 4.87-mile belt to the Denver stockyards the same year. Moffat’s death in March 1911, foreclosure, and reorganization in 1913 as the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad Company.
Colorado Encyclopedia, “David H. Moffat.” Death on March 18, 1911, in New York City, with the tunnel unfinished. The line reached Craig in 1913.
History Colorado, National and State Register, Moffat Station, 2101 15th Street, Denver, listed October 22, 1976. The 1906 depot was the Denver terminus of the railroad over Rollins Pass.
Colorado state archives, Moffat Tunnel fact sheet, as preserved on the state site. The Moffat Tunnel bill passed a special session on April 29, 1922. The railroad bore was holed through on July 7, 1927. The finished tunnel was turned over to the lessee on February 26, 1928.
The New York Times, June 17, 1934, “New Line to Coast Opened to Trains,” dateline Denver, June 16. Dedication of the Dotsero Cutoff that afternoon. About 38 miles, connecting the Denver & Salt Lake and the Denver & Rio Grande Western. A saving of 175 miles between Denver and Salt Lake City. Cost $3,850,000, most of it borrowed from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. A Burlington Zephyr ran through the opening.
Robert G. Athearn, “The Independence of the Denver and Rio Grande,” Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1. Wilson McCarthy became president of the Denver & Salt Lake in 1934 and then an operating trustee of the Rio Grande. April 11, 1947, was the day the reorganized Rio Grande’s board first sat, after the Supreme Court upheld the plan in February 1947 and ended twelve years of trusteeship.
Denver & Salt Lake Railway Co. v. Commissioner, Tax Court dockets 43783, 43784, 43785, and 43786. Principal office at Denver. The Rio Grande owned about 95 percent of the stock. The company merged into the Denver & Rio Grande Western on April 11, 1947, and lost its separate existence that day.
Don Strack, Rio Grande motive-power timeline, the 1947 steam additions: nine 2-8-0s numbered 1031–1039, ten 2-8-2s numbered 1220–1229, sixteen 2-6-6-0s numbered 3360–3375, and two 4-6-0s numbered 795 and 796. Those counts are the check on which Denver & Salt Lake numbers received Rio Grande numbers.
The Denver & Salt Lake table in the January 1930 Official Guide, p. 1105, dated December 1929 and reproduced here. The Moffat Road. W. R. Freeman, president, Denver. Trains 1 and 2, cafe-parlor cars. Denver 8:40 a.m., Craig 7:20 p.m., Craig 8:05 a.m., Denver 5:45 p.m. East Portal mile 50, elevation 9,198. West Portal mile 56, elevation 9,085. Orestod mile 128. Steamboat Springs mile 191. Craig mile 232.

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