The Colorado Midland Cocktail Fork
I love riding on a train. Pre-boarding bustle turns to anticipation as the powerful machine pulls away from the station. In the wake of goodbye waves, a melancholy whistle partners with the clickety-clack of steel riding rails—and a new adventure begins! In the following hours, the passenger is treated to fast-moving scenery, a friendly chat with neighbors, and perhaps a delightful meal in the diner car.
Recently, I bought an antique cocktail fork that I believe has railroad ties to Grand Junction. The elegant silver-plated utensil attracted me because it had “Midland” etched on the handle. The Colorado Midland Railway (CMR) had, from 1890 to 1918, shared tracks at our depot with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG RR). Could this fork have been used on a Midland dining car? I had to know.
Tugging file boxes from my crowded closet, I found my thick folder on local railroad information. Among articles of dry facts, train wrecks, and employee accidents, were early newspaper accounts of the CMR laying track to the Grand Valley. Although D&RG RR’s narrow gauge train was established here November 21, 1882, the CMR—incorporated in 1883 but not running until 1887—was standard gauge. Its welcomed presence made Grand Junction a stopping point between Denver and Salt Lake City. On November 14,1890, a Midland train finally embarked from Union Depot. It didn’t look, though, like a dining car was a part of the queue.
Grand
Junction’s Depot 1909
Grand Junction office of CMR at depot
The first official railroad dining car was created by George M. Pullman in 1867. Early dining cars were fancy affairs with plush curtains, varnished mahogany seats, and stained glass windowpanes in the roof. Flowers donned tables decked with pristine linen. The larger trains served gourmet meals on china (with companion flatware) made exclusively for them.
According to the National Railway Museum, the Midland had dining cars from its inception, though this is discounted by Mel McFarland, author of Midland Route: A Colorado Midland Guide and Data Book. He believes the CMR began running its four dining cars around 1907. Grand Junction’s route featured Diner Number 248, built in 1906, which supports his idea,
CMR at GJ yards, courtesy Dan Abbott
Close up of CMR Dining Car at GJ yards, courtesy Dan Abbott
Number 248 was composed of three sections. The parlor had eight comfortable chairs for lounging while smoking a cigar or sipping brandy. The ladies’ latrine and the coal-fueled heater were nearby. The dining section sported six tables seating four patrons apiece. Next to that was the kitchen, a tidy but tight area where meal preparation was conducted. The chef and his staff were careful cooks as the train’s swaying and unexpected stops created danger, especially if one wielded a carving knife.
CMR Dining Car Kitchen Layout, courtesy Dan Abbott
Many railroads had signature dishes, and the CMR was no exception. According to McFarland, their specialty was pan-fried rainbow trout caught in the Frying Pan River south of Glenwood Springs. They also integrated local fruits and vegetables into the menu, including Palisade peaches and the valley’s giant strawberries.
Victorian train menus, with professional artwork adorning their covers, contained a plethora of delicacies to choose from. I wanted to know what other dishes the CMR offered, and spent an afternoon speaking to several museums and railroad experts. I learned how rare a Midland menu was as only Joe Moore, of Brass Whistle Railroad Antiques, was able to provide a cover picture. Mel McFarland did say the fare was comparable to what area restaurants served then.
Meals were offered three times a day. Typically, breakfast was served from 7am to 10am, lunch from 11:30am to 2pm, and dinner from 5pm to 7pm.
CMR Dining Menu 1905-1910, courtesy Joe Moore 1911 Denver & Rio Grande RR menu, typical of the day
The dining experience began when passengers entered the inviting compartment led by a uniformed waiter and beckoned by savory aromas. Patrons passed hidden closets storing quality wines and individual bottles of whiskey, expensive table linens, and pantries full of fine food ingredients. A daily supply included thirty loaves of bread, twenty quarts of milk, seventy-five pounds of high-grade beef and pork, as well as large quantities of fruits, eggs, and sugar.
Typical dining car 1895 Queen of Baltimore & Ohio RR
As each meal was served and cleared, the table was swiftly reassembled to accommodate the next group. When the last satisfied patron departed, personnel cleaned the car with the precision and timing of an Indy 500 pit crew.
After the final crumb was disposed of and counters gleamed, the staff retired. Breaking down tables to form berths, they strung drapes for privacy. Bedding was withdrawn from linen closets or from under the floor. Sometime in the night, their car was unhitched on a siding to await another train, where the new day’s provisions appeared by the 4:30am wakeup call.
With all this research I was no closer to knowing what part my fork played in the Colorado Midland dining tradition. The very earliest CMR china was simple and cheap. Mel McFarland stated in his book two later patterns were used. One was “Cascade” and the other “Manitou.” The companion silverware had vague similarities to my fork, but not an exact match. Dan Abbott’s book, Colorado Midland, Daylight Through The Divide, had a picture and detailed diagram of Diner #248, but little information on it.
When I contacted Tim Stuy, whose organization, Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society, is restoring two original dining cars to operating condition, I happily learned the provenance of my fork.
Tim had a rare reference book on railroad china and silver compiled by Arthur Dominy. Tim emailed me after my inquiry: “I can confirm that this is from the Colorado Midland. The pattern is “Le Louvre” and it was produced by Reed & Barton in 1888. The Colorado Midland introduced a newer pattern in 1894 so it would appear to have been used for only six years…It is exceedingly rare.”
This raises the question of when the Midland actually began pulling dining cars. If they didn’t until 1907-8, as believed, then why is this 1888-1893 utensil marked with the Midland name? Is it possible the silver was “stock” gathering dust at Reed & Barton, and sold to the fledgling railroad years after it was forged? Maybe. I had found similar pieces with no engraving on the Internet. Yet, Dominy’s book claims the CMR had diners in its early stage. Moore and McFarland agree they had three eateries, possibly Harvey houses, serving meals in Cascade, Leadville, and Basalt. Was my fork used in those rather than on a train?
The answer is still unknown, but I’ll keep looking! In the meantime, my highly collectible piece of Colorado Midland Railway history will bring me great enjoyment.
Early CMR tablecloth with Midland icon, courtesy Joe Moore Early CMR china, courtesy Joe Moore
Early CMR silverware, courtesy Joe Moore
Colorado Midland Railway History (taken from Wikipedia)
John J. Hagerman gained control of the Colorado Midland Railway Company in June 1885. Hagerman sold the railroad to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) in September 1890; ATSF operated the railroad as a subsidiary and changed the name to the Colorado Midland Railroad.
The Hagerman Tunnel was completed through the divide in 1887. In 1891 it was replaced by the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel which was at a lower altitude. This shortened the line and made the grade easier.
For a short time the railroad was consolidated with the Aspen Short Line (1893-1897) and, with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, owned the Rio Grande Junction Railway. After the company was sold through the bankruptcy court on May 4, 1897, a new company known as the Colorado Midland Railway took over operation of the railroad.
The Colorado Midland Railway, came first under the control of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1890, later the Colorado & Southern Railway and the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1900. It again declared bankruptcy April 21, 1917, and was sold at auction to Albert E. Carlton of Colorado Springs. Carlton attempted to revive the railroad's fortunes, but his stewardship of the road coincided with the entry of the United States into the First World War. After the inauguration of the US Railroad Administration in late 1917, the government managers redirected much of the trans-Colorado traffic that was previously carried by other railroads onto the Midland, which was ill-equipped to deal with the sudden upturn in business. The traffic overwhelmed the railroad, and when it became apparent that the Midland was incapable of dealing with the volume of business, the government redirected all of it elsewhere. Business dropped off precipitately, and Carleton was forced to apply for permission to abandon operations. He received it, and the Colorado Midland Railway ceased operations in 1918. Segments of the railroad were then sold to the Midland Terminal Railway; the rest of the line, mostly west of the Midland Terminal connection at Divide, was abandoned. The line was scrapped in the early 1920s.
The Midland (as it was colloquially known) was an extraordinarily difficult railroad to operate, in large part because it had very little level track. In crossing Colorado, the line made three summits - at Hayden Divide, west of Colorado Springs, at Trout Creek Pass, and at Hagerman Pass on the Continental Divide. The approaches to these summits were severe: eastbound trains faced an ascent of about twenty miles of three percent grades in the climb from Basalt to the western portal of the tunnel at Ivanhoe; westbound trains climbing out of the Arkansas River Valley faced a shorter but still difficult climb of 3.24%. The portion of the line from Leadville to Hagerman Pass provided the setting for some of the finest railroad imagery ever taken. Especially noteworthy was the work of W. H. Jackson, particularly the photos circa 1890 showing the rise over five levels and the massive wood trestle leading to the final tier. Even after the boring of the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel, much of this trackage was above nine thousand feet, in a district of Colorado where the snow often does not melt entirely until June. The railroad was difficult to operate at the best of times, and in winter it was often nearly impossible: the 1899 blizzard closed the line over Hagerman Pass for 77 days and cost the company more than $73,000. The ascent from Colorado Springs to Divide was also severe, with several stretches of 4% grade and significant curvature.
As great a problem as topography was, the route and terminals posed a still greater one. The line was originally projected to connect Colorado Springs, Leadville, and Salt Lake City, Utah, but it eventually stopped at Grand Junction, Colorado. If the line had been extended to Salt Lake City it would have had access to connections with the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific at Ogden, but at Grand Junction, it connected only with the Denver & Rio Grande, its principal competitor for traffic at Leadville and Colorado Springs. While the Midland had no choice but to turn over westbound traffic to the D&RGW at Grand Junction, the competing line had no such incentive; it could move eastbound traffic over its own line to any spot the Midland served. When A.E. Carleton bought the CM, he planned to remedy this situation by extending the railroad across Utah to Salt Lake City, but he was unable to do so, relying instead on his business connections to obtain cars consigned for shipment east at Grand Junction. Ironically, the situation reversed itself abruptly after the government took control of the railroads, and the USRA decided to route all trans-Colorado traffic onto the Midland. The railroad suddenly found itself handling a swelling volume of interchange traffic at Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. The line had neither the motive power nor the physical facilities to deal with this sudden change, and yards and even on-line sidings rapidly filled with cars waiting movement to one of the terminals. After an investigation, the government reversed its decision, redirecting through traffic to neighboring lines that were more capable of handling it; this was a wise decision, but the business generated by the road's on-line customers was not sufficient to keep it profitable without through traffic, and Carleton was compelled to seek permission from a court to abandon service in the summer of 1918.
At the time of its construction, the Midland was among the best-appointed roads in the United States. Ten of the locomotives it purchased in 1886 and 1887 (the Class 115 2-8-0s) were among the largest and most powerful of their type in the United States. Unfortunately, the Midland's cash situation militated against capital replacement, and most of the locomotives purchased in the road's first decade were still on the property when it closed in 1918. The Midland purchased its last locomotives, the Class 175 2-8-0s, in 1907; after that, the purchase of new power fell behind ordinary operations and maintenance expenses on the company's priority list, and was postponed in part because of concerns about the ability of the roadbed and track to support heavier equipment. At the outbreak of the First World War, the road's chief mechanical officer proposed the immediate construction of a new class of engines to handle the surging traffic, but the state of the road's physical plant (which urgently needed both maintenance and upgrading) was such that he limited his proposal to a copy of the D&RGW's C-48 class locomotives, a design that was thirteen years old and approaching obsolescence.
• Colorado Midland Railway: Dan Abbott, 1989, Sundance Books, Denver CO, 376 pages, ISBN 0-9130582-45-X.
Map of the CMR's route
The CMR had several logos, and their colorful brochures are highly collectible. A Ute Indian was a symbol, probably because the CMR traversed Ute Pass.
A CMR
post card, one of many...
The CMR was famous for its wildflower and scenic expeditions.
Midland
Observation Car #111
Number
7, 1907, Gesberg Collection