To close out our first year of operations, the Western Crossroads Railway museum uploaded the first of three parts of a unique document bundle from the John E. Timberlake Denver & Rio Grande Western Operations Papers collection. One of many files saved by Timberlake, the Rio Grande’s Director of Unit Train Operations, this stack of loose sheets chronicles the first 21 years of the tenuous relationship between the D&RG and the Utah Railway. Containing hundreds of letters, telegrams, maps, newspaper clippings, and financial reports, it provides insight into the politics and panic surrounding competing railroad companies in the years leading up to the Great Depression.
Part 1 of this collection can be read at our archive.org account here: D&RG – Utah Railway Trackage Agreement Papers Part 1 Parts 2 and 3 will be uploaded early 2022. Other files from the Timberlake collection are in the process of digitization and will be made available as soon as complete.
The acquisition and digitization of this document stack was made possible through a generous donation from Mark W. Hemphill. Approximately 14 hours of scanning and 5.5 hours to assemble the pdfs went into this project.