The Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway was a subsidiary of

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

created from what was the

Colorado Central Railroad The Colorado Central Railroad was a U.S. railroad company that operated in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming in the late 19th century. It was founded in the Colorado Territory in the wake of the Colorado Gold Rush to ship gold from the mountains ...

in 1890. It operated lines from

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

through

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistical ...

to Wendover, Wyoming and a route from Denver to

Golden, Colorado Golden is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States Censu ...

. It also had a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

(36") line from Golden up Clear Creek to

Central City, Colorado The historic City of Central, commonly known as Central City, is a home rule municipality located in Gilpin and Clear Creek counties, Colorado, United States. Central City is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Gilpin County. ...

and

Silver Plume, Colorado Silver Plume is a Statutory Town located in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Silver Plume is a former silver mining camp along Clear Creek in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The federally designated Georgetown-Silver Plume ...

. Creation of the company resulted from

Charles Francis Adams, Jr. Charles Francis Adams Jr. (May 27, 1835 – March 20, 1915) was an American author, historian, and railroad and park commissioner who served as the president of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890. He served as a colonel in the Union Arm ...

's desire to operate in the

Texas Panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

area, which would give Union Pacific control over the shipping of cargoes from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

seaports to the North. In May 1889 Union Pacific and Denver, Texas and Fort Worth Railroad signed an "offensive and defensive union". Union Pacific received access to the panhandle routes in exchange for letting DTFWR handle freight moving from New York to the Northwest. However, in November 1889 Union Pacific changed their tactics and instead directly purchased controlling stock of the smaller railways in Panhandle area, including the DTFWR. These assets were pooled together into a new entity named Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway. It lasted until 1898 when it was merged with other companies to become the

Colorado and Southern Railway The Colorado and Southern Railway was an American Class I railroad in the western United States that operated independently from 1898 to 1908, then as part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad until it was absorbed into the Burli ...

References

* Julius Grodinsky (1962).
Transcontinental railway strategy, 1869-1893: a study of businessmen
'. Beard Books. . pp. 385-386 {{US-rail-company-stub Railway companies established in 1890 Railway companies disestablished in 1893 Colorado and Southern Railway Defunct Colorado railroads Defunct Wyoming railroads Spin-offs of the Union Pacific Railroad 1893 mergers and acquisitions