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According to D&RGW traffic people I’ve talked with, D&RGW was the lumber broker’s preferred routing through the Ogden gateway prior to 1980, more so than UP, because D&RGW gave them more routing options en route — lumber could be diverted to either Denver or Pueblo, and to five railroad connections at Denver or three at Pueblo. As long as the lumber didn’t go backward (west), the rate was identical. (WP had much smaller lumber volumes than SP; it’s lumber originations similarly tended to prefer D&RGW interchange.)
Eastward carload (i.e., non-unit train) traffic on the Royal Gorge Route through Pueblo was consistently dominated by lumber and plywood (car types XM, XML, RBL, FMS, FM) until the line’s closure, followed by canned goods (RBL), bulk tomato products (RBL), and rice (LO). MP received most of the D&RGW carloads at Pueblo.
Mark Hemphill
