Brief by Central Staff
Transportation – September 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Two places that big railroads fought over 125 years ago have become places that they don’t seem to care much about today.
The best-known struggle was in the late 1870s between the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé and the Denver & Rio Grande for control of the Royal Gorge. The Rio Grande won, but in 1996 it merged into the Union Pacific, which has halted service on the route. UP doesn’t run west of Cañon City, although there are still trains through the Royal Gorge.
The Royal Gorge War was related to another conflict between the Santa Fé and Rio Grande, though. The Santa Fé started building west from Kansas, wanting to reach its namesake city. And the Rio Grande built south from Denver in order to reach its namesake river — en route to its planned terminus at El Paso, Texas. But the two plans collided at Trinidad in 1878.
Both companies sent men south to start construction over Raton Pass, but the Santa Fé got there half an hour earlier, and it also made a deal with frontiersman Dick Wooten for use of his toll road.
The struggle between the two railroads over the two routes was eventually settled, with the Rio Grande getting the Royal Gorge and the Santa Fé getting Raton Pass.
Raton Pass has some steep grades, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fé — the Santa Fé merged in 1995 to become part of the BNSF — now has another route between Kansas and Albuquerque, via Amarillo, Texas rather than Raton Pass.
So there’s some talk that BNSF will sell the Raton Pass line, and the Amtrak Super Chief will move to the gentler southern route.
Railroads fought to enter the mountains in the 19th century, and now they work to find ways not to operate in the mountains.