Representative of three decades of change on Soldier Summit is this conceptual scene at Helper. With Train Simulator’s new Soldier Summit route and available DLC, you can create and enjoy D&RGW, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and BNSF operations!
Railroading atop Soldier Summit has constantly changed in
recent decades. As Gary Dolzall reports, with Train Simulator you
can recreate the railroad’s remarkable evolution
For many train enthusiasts and railroaders, “Soldier Summit” will always be synonymous with the railroad named “Denver & Rio Grande Western.” After all, it was the D&RGW (and its predecessors) that laid down the original steel rails over the legendary pass, and it was Rio Grande that battled the Wasatch Range for more than a century. But, to borrow from Benjamin Disraeli, “Change is inevitable.”
For much of the twentieth century, “change” on Soldier Summit meant bigger motive power and longer, heavier trains; it meant the coming of the Utah Railway in 1913; it meant the transition first from steam power to first-generation diesels, then to the high-horsepower locomotives of dieseldom’s second generation. It meant the coming of a famed domeliner, the California Zephyr, in 1949, then that classic passenger train’s sad demise in 1970; it meant the brief shooting star named the Rio Grande Zephyr and then the coming of Amtrak and a “reborn,” Superliner-equipped California Zephyr in 1983. But through that all, there was one constant: The D&RGW.
By the mid-1980s, however, the Rio Grande – even though it was itself a 2,200-mile railroad – was increasingly at risk of being hemmed in by giants such as Union Pacific. In 1984, Denver businessman and industrialist Philip Anschutz purchased controlling interest of the D&RGW. Four years later, Anschutz also acquired control of the Southern Pacific (a long-time key interchange partner with Rio Grande), and D&RGW and Southern Pacific became one property on August 9, 1988. The combined railroad retaining the Southern Pacific name, and “D&RGW” became a “fallen flag.” Albeit with SP’s alpha train symbols replacing D&RGW’s more traditional train numbers, and with a steady influx of Southern Pacific-liveried power, the early years of SP’s tenure on Soldier Summit had a familiar feel to what had existed before. But against the long time-clock of railroad history, the SP era on Soldier Summit proved short indeed.
It was during the 1980s and early 1990s that were spawned today’s U. S. mega-railroads (CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, and a vastly expanded Union Pacific). In the face of such competition, even the “bigger” Southern Pacific which had resulted from its marriage with D&RGW was no competitive match. And so it was that SP, in turn, would be merged into Union Pacific on September 11, 1996, only eight years after SP and absorbed D&RGW.
Southern Pacific’s merger into Union Pacific brought to Soldier Summit the classic yellow-and-gray diesels of the UP, but is also brought more. A negotiated condition of the UP-SP merger was that the then newly-formed BNSF (created in 1995) would be granted trackage rights over the ex-D&RGW. BNSF has, ever since, exercised those rights, including scheduling regular manifest freights between Denver and Provo. Union Pacific, for its part, has tended, along with its long-time collaborator, the Utah Railway, to focus much of its attention on the route’s long-time staple of coal-hauling.
Perhaps with slight irony, one of the most constant aspects of railroading on Soldier Summit in the past three decades has been the regular passage of Amtrak’s Superliner-equipped California Zephyr. Aside from trading the EMD F40PHs that were its regular power in the 1980s and early 1990s for today’s General Electric “Genesis’ P42DC diesels, Amtrak Trains 5 (westbound) and 6 (eastbound) have very much provided the same fascinating face to Solider Summit since the early 1980s.
The newly released Train Simulator Soldier Summit route recreates the era of the mid-1980s, when the crossing of the Wasatch Range remained a bustling component of the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Utah Division, when tonnage was hauled primarily by husky D&RGW EMD SD40T-2s, and when Amtrak’s “CZ” rode behind EMD F40PHs.
But thanks to the range of additional locomotives and equipment available for TS as DLC (and included with other popular routes), it is possible to recreate much of the intrigue, aura, and challenges of not only the D&RGW era on Solider Summit, but also those of Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. There’s surely no doubt that this availability and diversity of equipment will keep those who create scenarios for Steam Workshop – and those who enjoy the free scenario – busy for a long time to come! – Gary Dolzall
It would be hard to imagine a single image more reflective of the D&RGW in its latter years than a brace of SD40T-2s lugging coal tonnage (above) on the Gilluly Loops. Amid the “hollows and narrows,” veteran D&RGW GP9s (below) tote a westbound local and meet eastbound tonnage behind SD40T-2 5385. All screenshots by Gary Dolzall.
Ever since 1913, the Utah Railway has been a part of the Soldier Summit scene. The Utah Railway in the late 1980s and early 1990s called on ex-Burlington Northern EMD F45s. Available for TS as DLC, F45s lug coal out of the Utah Railway’s Martin Yard.
The Southern Pacific era on Soldier Summit began in 1988 and often witnessed D&RGW and SP-liveried power working side-by-side. On a winter eve at Helper, SP symbol freight DVROM (Denver to Roper Yard in Salt Lake City) begins its pull behind a trio of DTM SP SD45s (above), then grinds up the east slope (below) of the rugged Wasatch.
Union Pacific replaced Southern Pacific on Soldier Summit in 1996. A coal train coming off the Pleasant Valley branch with UP SD70Ms as power meets an eastbound manifest at Colton (above), and later twists its way through the “hollows and narrows” (below) en route to Provo. The depicted Union Pacific stock is included in TS’s Sherman Hill route.
BNSF was granted trackage rights over the ex-D&RGW main line as a condition of the SP-UP merger, and thus it is that BNSF diesels can regularly be found battling the Wasatch. At Castle Gate (above), a trio of BNSF GE ES44DC diesels lift the tonnage of symbol freight QDVPVJ (Denver-Provo) westward and later the train snakes through Lynn (below) on the TS Soldier Summit route. Depicted BNSF equipment is from the Marias Pass route.
The element of Soldier Summit railroading that is perhaps least changed in the past three decades is the regular passage of the California Zephyr, which in the 1980s called upon F40PHs as standard power (above) and today relies upon GE P42DC diesels. With Genesis diesels and Phase IV Superliner stock available in the Amtrak P42/Empire Builder DLC, the Zephyr (below) makes a dawn departure eastbound from Provo station.
