Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad was built through the Rocky Mountains, not around them. A tenacious rebel, Rio Grande survived for more than a century as an independent railroad in a land of giants. At the end of the 20th century, the enduring memory of Rio Grande is one of black and gold diesels thundering through smoky tunnels on a right-of-way blasted out of solid rock by construction engineers who didn’t know the meaning of the word impossible. With 223 full-color photographs and nine lavishly illustrated maps, this volume presents a retrospective of a railroad where words of description always fall short. In the pages of "Scenic Line of the World" may be found all of the elements that made Rio Grande the scenic wonder it was. The evergreen mountains of La Veta Pass, the bare rock of the Royal Gorge, the golden aspen on Tennessee Pass, the multi-colored sandstone of Ruby and Bootlegger Canyons, the moonscape of the Utah desert, the majestic Wasatch Range, and the sheer ruggedness of the entire Moffat Road- all are here in one amazing volume. Through acquisitions and mergers, Rio Grande slowly lost its personality to that of Southern Pacific, and later, Union Pacific. The images in this book help preserve the memory of the last years of the Rio Grande and perhaps provide some justification for the railroad’s bold claim of being the Scenic Line of the World.

Contents:

1 FOREWORD

2 PALMER DIVIDE

3 LA VETA PASS

4 ROYAL GORGE ROUTE

5 MESA COUNTRY

6 DESERT CROSSING

7 SOLDIER SUMMIT

8 MOFFAT ROAD

9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS