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

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

created from what was the

Colorado Central Railroad The Colorado Central Railroad was a United States, 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 fr ...

in 1890. It operated lines from

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

through

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Wyoming, most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the county seat of Laramie County, Wyoming, Laramie County, with 65,132 reside ...

to Wendover, Wyoming and a route from Denver to

Golden, Colorado Golden is a home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States census. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. It also had a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

(36") line from Golden up Clear Creek to

Central City, Colorado Central City is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Gilpin County, Colorado, Gilpin and Clear Creek County, Colorado, Clear Creek counties, Colorado, United States. Central City is the c ...

and

Silver Plume, Colorado Silver Plume is a Colorado municipalities#Statutory town, Statutory Town located in Clear Creek County, Colorado, Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Silver Plume is a former silver mining camp along Clear Creek (Colorado), Clear Creek ...

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

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

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 Railroad classes#Class I, 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 ...

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