Utah Railway HO Scale Models

The Utah Railway was incorporated on January 24, 1912, under the original name Utah Coal Railway, a designation that was shortened to Utah Railway by May of that same year. The line was established primarily to move coal out of company-owned mines to Provo, Utah, its operational and administrative headquarters. Its founders created the railroad largely out of frustration with the service and routing offered by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, which operated nearby and was considered inadequate for the volume and efficiency of coal transport the company required. From its earliest years, Utah Railway distinguished itself through a commitment to modern technology, equipping its steam locomotive fleet, which included large Santa Fe type and Mallet type engines, with automatic stokers at a time when the device was a recent innovation. This made the railroad an attractive employer, and in 1917 when the line opened, it drew firemen away from the Denver and Rio Grande's Utah Division with the promise of that labor-saving convenience. Utah Railway continued its tradition of technical innovation beyond the steam era. The railroad was among the earliest coal-hauling lines to transition to diesel motive power and was a pioneer in adopting automation measures, including the use of flashing rear-end devices in place of traditional cabooses. The railroad also distinguished itself in its brake systems, becoming one of the first carriers to equip its air brakes with fourteen-pound tension springs rather than the industry-standard seven-pound springs. Its freight car fleet included approximately two thousand drop-bottom gondolas jointly owned with the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, painted with Utah Coal Route lettering and UCR reporting marks. These cars became known informally among railroad employees as Battleships. For much of the twentieth century, Utah Railway operated as a focused regional carrier centered on coal transport in the Intermountain West. The railroad eventually came under the ownership of Mueller Industries, a manufacturer of copper products, which held the property until 2002, when it was sold to Genesee and Wyoming Inc., the Connecticut-based railroad holding company that has grown into one of the largest short line and regional railroad operators in North America. Under Genesee and Wyoming, Utah Railway continued operating under its original name and reporting mark UTAH, with the parent company adapting the railroad's corporate identity to align with its own branding while retaining the beehive symbol that had become associated with the property. Today Utah Railway functions as a Class III carrier operating over approximately 423 miles of track between Grand Junction, Colorado, and Provo, Utah, of which roughly 59 miles are company-owned and the remainder operated under trackage rights agreements with BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. The railroad also owns the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad, a subsidiary serving more than thirty customers along more than 25 miles of track between Salt Lake City and Draper, Utah, and provides switching services in Ogden and other locations. As of January 2017, Utah Railway no longer hauls coal, reflecting the broader decline of coal traffic across western railroads, and the carrier has shifted its operational focus accordingly while continuing to serve as a regional link in the larger North American freight network.