Denver & Rio Grande The Early Years 1877-1910

This quite exceptional book covers the early years of America's longest narrow gauge railway - the Denver & Rio Grande as it spread in Colorado, to New Mexico and Utah; by 1883 its 3' gauge mainline stretched 771 miles from Denver, to Salt Lake City and onward to Ogden where it connected with the transcontinental Union Pacific. Over its 3' gauge, the D&RG ran trains with Pullman sleepers and named parlour cars  over two major mountain passes needing trains to be double or sometimes, triple, headed.

Luckily the construction of the line and its early days were documented by numerous photographers, both professional and amateur, using heavy glass-plate cameras, the results of which adorn the pages of this book  in considerable numbers, as do paintings and coloured side elevations of many of the balloon stacked 4-4-0s, 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s. Bit parts in this cornucopia of delights are played by Kit Carson, Bat Masterson and Butch Cassidy, stetsons are never seen, and very few men are carrying firearms - here is life in the real mountain country of the 'Wild West'!

328 large format (305mm x 230mm) landscape format pages, used to display the photographs to maximum effect. Hardbound.

Recommended - as you might guess.