The daily sentinel., 1906-09-17
TO SHORTEN
Line OVER
FIFTY MILES
FROM HERE TO PEUBLO
Reported That the Denver and Rio
Gfande Will Tunnel Marshall
Piss-WiII Be Shortest Line Be.
tween Denver and Salt Lake.

The announcement comes from
Denver that the Denver & Rio
Grande railway company is plann-
ing to shorten its line between Den
yer and Salt Lake city by tunnel
ling Marshall Pass and Cerro Sum
nit and broad guaging the narrow
guage road between Salida and Mont
rose for the purpose of sending it's
fast trains by way of the Black Can
on in preference to the canon of the
Grand river used at present.
1t is stated that by boring the two
tunnels and standardizing the mar
row guage road, fifty miles will be
cut off between Pueblo and Grand
Junction and the running time be-
tween Denver and Salt Lake City will
be cut down almost 81 miles
From reliable sources the story is
given out that the Denver and Rio
Grande has also closed a contract
with the Moffat road to use its tracks
Denver, a 35 mile line to be built by
the Denver and Rio Grande from
Dotsoro near Glenwood Springs to
a connection with the Moffat road at
Gore canon. 1t has been long rum
ored that such an arrangement would
be made. and maps in the United
States land Office show that right
of way has been obtained between
Dotsero and Gore canon and there is
hardly any doubt that such line
will be built
The object of the Denver and Rio
Grande in having a short route be
tween Pueblo and Grand Junction is
to give the Missouri Pacific trains
quick service between Pueblo and
Salt Lake City, as the terminus of
the Missouri Pacific. another Gould
road, is in Pueblo. For that reason
the Marshall pass tunnel and other
improvements have been suggested.
The report sent out from Denver
states that General Manager A. C.
:agway has been planning for more
that a year to shorten the southern
route to Salt Lake City and worked
out the scheme of using the narrow
guage between Salida and Montrose.
The plan is said to have been APPROX
President e T. Jeffrey and George
j. Gould. The proposed work will
cost several millions of dollars.
The tunnel under Marshall pass
will be two miles. but he one
near here will almost parallel the
tunnel of the United reclamation
service and will come out in the I'm
compahgre valley. The present route
of the narrow guage near Montrose
will have to be changed slightly to
carry out the plan. The tunnel will
be built at a point five miles below
Cimarron creek, where the ridge
will be bored
The road between Montrose and
Grand Junction was changed to broad
guage in June, and only $50 miles of
track more would have to be changed
to carry out the plan of the Denver
and Rio Grande officials. The bust
ness of the lower route OF the d. &
r. G. has grown so much that the ne
cessity of standard guage is becom-
ing more apparent every day.
The arrangement with the Moffat
road will give the d. &. r. G. the
shortest railroad route between Den
yer and Salt Lake City, and the Mar
shall pass tunnel would make an al
most equally short route from Pu-
eblo to Salt Lake city.
The Moffat road and the Denver &
Rio Grande officials deny any binding
arrangements have been made for
the use of the Moffat tracks between
Denver and Gore Canon. But as the !
companies which are preparing to
open tn coal mines in Routt county |
expect to sell much of their coal in |
the west, it is apparent that they will
have to have a close connection with |
some road touching Salt Lake City |
and Ogden pending the completion of
the Moffat road to Salt Lake City.
The most feasible connection for that
coal traffic is with the D. & r. G. at
Dotsero.