Colorado and Southern Railway
The Colorado and Southern Railway (C&S) was a railroad company in the United States . The Denver-based company operated railroads in Wyoming , Colorado and Texas .
History and lines
The Colorado and Southern Railway was created on December 20, 1898 by taking over the railway lines of the Union Pacific Railroad subsidiaries Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway and the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway, which had been under bankruptcy since 1893 . The railway line from Julesburg to La Salle came to the Union Pacific. The route network extended from Wendover in the north via Denver, Pueblo to Dalhart and from Denver in the Rocky Mountains to Georgetown and Leadville. In addition, the newly formed company owned the majority of the shares in the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway (FW&DC) with a railway line from Dalhart to Dallas .
The company intended to build a railway line to Cripple Creek in order to participate in the mining boom. For this purpose, the C&S in 1900 acquired the Colorado Midland Railway together with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad . In 1905 she took control of the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway (CS & CCD). After the mining activity subsided, the shares in Colorado Midland were sold and the CS & CCD shut down in 1922.
At the same time the subsidiary Denver and Interurban Railroad was founded. This built an interurban railway line between Denver and Boulder and a tram system in Fort Collins .
The C&S acquired control of the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad in 1905 and thus had access to the port of Galveston . The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , controlled by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway , saw the C&S as a useful addition to its own network. On December 21, 1908, CB&Q acquired 2/3 of the shares. C&S and its subsidiary FW&DC remained largely independent.
In the following years, most of the routes to the mining areas in the Rocky Mountains were shut down due to insufficient transport. The line between Cheyenne and Fort Collins was reopened in 1911. Together with the two-lane section operated between Pueblo and Walsenburg together with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , a continuous high-performance route between the Midwest and the Gulf of Mexico was created.
When the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy merged to form Burlington Northern Railroad in 1970 , C&S remained an independent subsidiary. In 1981, BN owned over 92% of the shares in Colorado and Southern. With effect from December 31, 1981, the company was merged with Burlington Northern.
literature
- George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads . 2nd Edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
