The Utah Central Railway is a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

serving

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

and surrounding areas. It interchanges with the

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 ...

(UP), as well as with

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

trains running over the UP via

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may con ...

. The company began operations in 1992 as a private switching railroad, and became a

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

in 1995. It expanded operations in 2001 and 2004, and the

Patriot Rail Corporation Patriot Rail Company LLC (Patriot Rail) is a holding company for a number of shortline railroads across the United States. In June 2012, Patriot Rail was acquired by SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners (SteelRiver). On August 8, 2022 Patriot Rai ...

gained control in January 2008.

History

UCRY's first operations, which began in September 1992, were under contract to

Westinghouse Electric The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

, switching cars at the Western Zirconium Plant west of Ogden for interchange with UP and the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...

(by then operating as a subsidiary of the

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

). In October 1995 it began common carrier service on industrial trackage in Ogden, which it acquired from the city. Here too it interchanged with both the UP and Southern Pacific, the former on its old line next to Midland Drive.Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide, 5th Edition,

Kalmbach Publishing Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) is an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. History The company's first publication was ''The Model Railroader'', which be ...

, 1996, p. 319 In 2001, UCRY leased a number of Ogden-area branch lines from the UP, which had absorbed the Southern Pacific; this included the remnants of the old UP and Rio Grande main lines west of downtown Ogden. Finally, in 2004, UCRY acquired the trackage serving Business Depot Ogden from a UP connection. At one point the UCRY leased a 44-ton GE diesel and class CA-11 caboose from the

Utah State Railroad Museum Union Station, also known as Ogden Union Station, is a train station in Ogden, Utah, at the west end of Historic 25th Street, just south of the Ogden Intermodal Transit Center. Formerly the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Rai ...

in Ogden, Utah. Both the locomotive and caboose were repainted in UCRY colors. When returned to the museum, the locomotive sat idle for several years. For many years, the Business Depot was served by an ex-Air Force

Fairbanks-Morse Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, fee ...

H-12-44. In July 2010, the UCRY repainted their ex-Rarus Railway GP9 black with a large "Utah Central" in gold across the engine compartment, and moved it to BDO to replace the FM locomotive. Reason for this replacement is unknown; according to a Utah Central employee, the H-12-44 had only 100 running hours in 2009. In September 2010, two GP-15 diesel locomotives 1418 and 1401, refurbished from LTEX were delivered to the UCRY's headquarters at the old sugar factory. They are painted in the distinctive Patriot Rail corporate scheme (red overall with a blue stripe highlighted by gold pin stripes down the middle with an eagle on the nose).Lee Witten

accessed September 2010

Locomotives

The Utah Central was once known for its eclectic mix of second-hand locomotives. For a time no two were painted alike (excepting nos. 1418 and 1401). Some notable former examples of this are an ex- Kennecott Utah Copper, Kennecott High-Clearance GP-39 locomotive originally used in the Bingham Canyon copper pit (RARW 1010) and an ex-Rarus Railway chop-nose GP9 (UCRY 201). Currently most of the Utah Central locomotive fleet is painted in the colors of its parent Patriot Rail. File:UCRY201.JPG, Utah Central 201, ex-Rarus Railway 201, at Business Depot Ogden, Ogden, Utah File:UCRY1010GP39.JPG, Utah Central 1010, ex-Kennecott Copper, ex-Rarus Railway GP39 at the former D&RGW yard in Ogden, Utah File:UCRY8501.JPG, Utah Central 8501, ex-LMX on 23rd Street, Ogden, Utah File:UCRY1237.JPG, Utah Central 1237, ex-U.S. Air Force 44-ton locomotive at the Utah State Railroad Museum, Ogden, Utah. It is currently nonoperational.

References

External links

Utah Central Railway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utah Central Railway 1992 Utah railroads Railway companies established in 1992 Patriot Rail Company