Part 9: Leadville to Climax                           Railway Pages Index

The rush to get railways to Leadville in 1879 – 1880 pitted the Denver and Rio Grande against the Denver, South Park and Pacific. The D&RG won the race, but a joint trackage agreement allowed DSP&P to enter Leadville until they finished their own track in 1884. It took this long because of financial problems and the Alpine Tunnel construction.

The D&RG route to Leadville was more than 275 miles from Denver; the DSP&P was only 150, but the steep terrain meant that trains were only marginally faster in arriving at the Cloud City. The DSP&P was purchased by the Union Pacific and the railway was re-named the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison. A few years and a few mergers later, it became the Colorado and Southern. The last narrow gauge train to Denver on the C&S “High Line” was in 1937. In 1943, this line was converted to standard gauge and became part of the CB&Q/C&S complex serving mines in the area. The last molybdenum mine near Climax closed in 1982 and so did this portion of the C&S.

The Leadville, Colorado and Southern Railroad is privately owned by Stephanie and Kenneth Olsen, who set up this tourist train in 1987. It runs home-built excursion cars from Leadville to Talus Slope (nearly to Climax) using a 50 year old GP-9 to push the train up the hill on the old DSP&P right of way. It then leads the train quietly back down the hill to Leadville depot. It’s hard to believe that these sexy looking GP-9’s are actually antiques.

This tourist line is unique in Colorado in that it is still connected to mainline track and could become a common carrier if the mines re-open. The trip is over in less than 3 hours so there is time to get to Georgetown for an afternoon run. Photos are from 2004.

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

Websites of Interest
http://www.leadville-train.com/
http://www.railway-eng.com/dspp/
http://www.narrowgauge.org/ncmap/ted/dspp2_leadville.html

Continue to Part Ten

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

E. R. (Ross) Crain, P.Eng. is a Consulting Petrophysicist and a Professional Engineer with over 40 years of experience in reservoir description, petrophysical analysis, and management. He has been a specialist in the integration of well log analysis and petrophysics with geophysical, geological, engineering, and simulation phases of oil and gas exploration and exploitation, with widespread Canadian and Overseas experience.

"I am a life-long model railroader and have modeled in O27, HO, HOn3, and N Scales. Failing eyesight brought me to G Scale. My father started me in model railroading as a tiny tot in 1944 - he scratch built his first locomotive in 1940, the year I was born, and I still have this loco on my mantle-piece. I am a Life Member (#517) of NMRA, a member of the Rocky Mountain Garden Railroaders (Calgary, Alberta), and have toured a lot of model railways, railway shows, and garden railways. I have never seen a model railway I didn’t like. An extensive library of railway magazines and books, covering topics that appeal to me, sit behind my office desk, ready to be put to use at a moments notice. I hope these pages can communicate to you some of my accumulated experience, my successes and failures, and my love of model railways."