Utah Railway
Martin Utah USA
N39.701907  W110.868216

Located southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a relatively unknown American railroad, at least to Canadians, the Utah Railway. This railroad hauled about 3 million tons of coal per year from the aptly named Carbon County to an interchange with the Union Pacific Railroad for trans-shipment to a coal-fired electricity generating plant at Delta, Utah, south of Salt Lake City. It interchanged an additional 3 million tons with UP for furtherance to other destinations such as Moapa, Nevada, for Nevada Power's coal-fired power plant, cement plants in the Western United States, and to a Los Angeles Export Terminal (LAXT) for shipment to Pacific Rim countries. It interchanges with BNSF at Grand Junction, Colorado.

During early 1880 the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, while locating a route from Denver to Salt Lake City, discovered the vast coal lands of Carbon County. There are 62 billion tons of coal in southern Utah's Kaiparowits Plateau which could provide enough coal to keep Utah power plants burning for another 380 years.

The Utah Railway Company was incorporated on 24 Jan 1912, with the name of Utah Coal Railway, that changed to Utah Railway in May of the same year. The company was founded to haul coal from the mines to Provo, Utah. 2-8-8-0 Mallet locomotives with automatic stokers, a new invention at the time, arrived on the property in 1918. By 1920 the most modern engines, large Baldwin 2-10-2 Santa Fe locomotives using 200 pounds of super heated steam turning 63 inch drivers were in service. The Utah Railway's freight car roster consisted of fifteen flat cars and about 2,000 drop-bottom gondolas jointly owned with the San Pedro Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, lettered "Utah Coal Route" displaying UCR reporting marks. These gondolas were known to the railroad's employees as "Battleships".

The company was one of the earliest coal hauling railroads to employ diesel locomotives receiving its first diesel from the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) numbering it 300 in 1952. A total of six locomotives were delivered between January and August 1952, numbered 300-305. The railway was eventually all EMD powered with the exception of the Morrison Knudson units. The railway utilized GP38-2, GP40, F45, SD35, SD40, SD45, SD45-2, and SD50S locomotive models. Later six Morrison Knudson MK5000C units were added to the roster. Loaded coal trains were pulled by as many as 4 leading units with 7 mid-train slaves and were impressive working all that horsepower. In addition to 105 car coal unit trains the railway served over a hundred shippers of various sizes as switching agent for BNSF along the Wasatch Front.

In 2002 the railway was taken over by Genesee & Wyoming Incorporated, a large railroad holding company. Today's Utah Railway operates over 423 miles of track between Grand Junction, Colorado, and Provo, Utah, of which 45 miles are owned, and the remainder operated under agreements with BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. Beginning in January 2017 the company stopped hauling coal. The BNSF currently keeps the railway alive with local car load traffic.

What makes this railroad interesting for the Railfan is it's route over Soldier Summit. On the west side of this summit, elevation 7,440 feet, is a double switchback used to gain altitude yet keep the grade to 2.25 percent. On the east side of the summit the track follows the dry twisting canyons downgrade to the railway's main shops located at Martin, immediately next to Helper, Utah. About 5 miles past Helper, Andalex Resources Incorporated operated a coal load-out named Wildcat where Utah Railway trains were loaded for the journey west or east as required.

There is easy access for photographs from Highway 6 along the entire route. Loaded coal trains crawl upgrade at extremely slow speeds which allows plenty of time to position yourself for photographs. The country is virtually treeless and dotted with sagebrush and cacti. Located in high desert, situated in a semi-arid zone that has low humidity and mild winters. Summers have cool nights, hot days, and lots of sunshine. The twisting canyons east of the summit offer many "S" curves, bridges, and even two pairs of tunnels. The line is double tracked over Soldier Summit between Helper and Provo.

There were once 16 steam and 67 diesel locomotives on the Utah Railway roster:

Steam Locomotives

Type   Name          Number  Builder     Built Scrapped
----   ----          ------  -------     ----- --------
2-8-0  Consolidation 1       Lima        1909  1939
2-8-0  Consolidation 2       Lima        1910  1939
2-8-0  Consolidation 3       Lima        1912  1947
2-8-0  Consolidation 3       Schenectady 1910  1956

2-10-2 Santa Fe      100-105 Baldwin     1917  1952-1957
2-10-2 Santa Fe      106-107 Baldwin     1920  1953-1954
2-10-2 Santa Fe      108     Baldwin     1923  1955

2-8-8-0 Mallet       200-202 Baldwin     1918  1954-1957

Diesel Locomotives

Model   Number    Builder In-Service
-----   ------    ------  ----------
RSD-4   300-305   Alco    1952-1982
RSD-5   306       Alco    1955-1982
RSD-4   307       Alco    1971-1982
RSD-15  400-403   Alco    1975-1982
RSD-12  600-601   Alco    1974-1982
GP38-2  2000-2009 EMD     1998-????
SD35    2959      EMD     1998-2000
SD35    3108      EMD     1998-2000
GP40    3000-3002 EMD     2001-????
MK5000C 5001-5006 MK      2001-????
SD50S   6060-6064 EMD     2001-????
F45     6606-6613 EMD     1985 2001
SD40    9001-9011 EMD     1991 2001
SD45-2  9012      EMD     1996 2001
F45     9013      EMD     1995 2001
SD45    9140-9150 EMD     1985 1991

Utah Railway trains drag coal loads near Helper and on Soldier Summit during 28-29 Apr 2014.

6 Jan 2006 - Salt Lake Sheep Killed as Train Collides with Semi-Trailer

9 Apr 2010 - Choo-Choo No Match for Plucky Utah Shih Tzu

1 May 2012 - Train Derails in Southeast Provo

18 Sep 2013 - 7 Accused of Stealing Train Tracks in Carbon County

28 Oct 2014 - BNSF Honours Utah Railway as Shortline of the Year

24 Dec 2016 - Freight Train Derails Disrupts Nearby TRAX Red Line Services

12 Apr 2019 - Helper City Utah

Utah Railway

UtahRails.net  (EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about the Utah Railway !)

UC Rail Roster

Utah Railway Logo T-Shirt

HO Scale SD40 Utah Railway 9009 (Link fails 18 Apr 2023)

HO Scale F45 Utah Railway 9013 (Link fails 18 Apr 2023)

HO Scale F45 Utah Railway 6606 (green) (Link fails 18 Apr 2023)

Rails Around HelperMartell, Sue Ann2007Arcadia Publishing Library Editions.Hardcover.130 pages 6.7 x 9.6 inches $28.99 (Amazon)In 1880 the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was hard-pressed to find a suitable rail route from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City. With the coal deposits of eastern Utah luring them on, railroad officials chose a difficult route over Soldier Summit. The railroad established the town where helper engines were attached to the heavy trains, and Helper grew into a division point with branch operations that reached into the nearby canyons to serve the blossoming coal industry. Numerous smaller towns sprang up to service the railroad, and in 1912, the newly incorporated Utah Railway laid tracks to share the right-of-way with the Denver & Rio Grande. The town of Helper is still a mecca for rail fans, and the story of its past lives on. My Life on Mountain RailroadsGould, William R. (Editor)1995Utah State University.Hardcover.264 pages 16.5 x 24.1 cetimetres $75.75 (Amazon)William John Gilbert Gould grew up with a driving ambition to be an engineer. In 1908 he was hired by the Denver & Rio Grande as an underage fireman. In 1917 he achieved his dream and began running engines, first for the D&RG and later for the Utah Railway. He pursued this occupation until the 1950s experiencing the last days of steam and the first of diesel. After retirement, at his son's urging, began writing vignettes and longer stories that focused on his trade, his peers, and the adventures he had or observed. He was a natural storyteller and his recollections are saturated with occupational lore and reveal much about the history of the western railroads.

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