Grand Junction Utility Building

This is one of the Rio Grande original facilities remained along its route in Colorado; the Utility Building at Grand Junction.


Grand Junction was one of the strategic points among D&RGW route between Denver and Salt Lake City. Accordingly, many facilities were built.

This structure housed dispatcher’s office, bridges & buildings (B&B) headquarters, engineering office, yardmaster’s office, etc[1]. The office of division superintendent and control room of train dispatchers occupied the upstairs, while locker room for train crews, the office of west yardmaster and crew of night carmen occupied the downstairs.

According to the City of Grand Junction Business Map, the structure was built in 1950[2]. But the year 1944, when the CTC system was introduced to the vicinity, maybe the exact built date. Other two CTC system control panels at Green River, UT and Glenwood Springs, CO were moved to and hooked up at Grand Junction in 1954[3].

Hipped roof, eaves, and open-air stairs are later addition. There used to be a pedestrian overpass flying over the tracks, platforms, and yard west of this structure.

All photos are taken on Sep. 11, 2017

[1] Sandrin, James (1998) Rio Grande in Color Volume 2: Utah, Morning Sun Books
[2] City of Grand Junction Business Map;
[3] Sep. 8, 1955 Green River Journal;
* 1948 photo of the structure and the pedestrian overpass by Bob Grant found at Facebook web page;
* 2015 photo of yardmaster sign found at RR Picture Archives website;

: CTC panel moved from Green River to Grand Junction. Sep. 8, 1955 Green River Journal


旧D&RGW沿線に今も遺るRio Grandeの遺物を紹介している。

この建物は、元Rio GrandeのGrand Junction事業所である。1940年代竣工の組積造二階建てで、現在はオフィス・ビルとして用いられているようだ。CTCの導入に合わせ建設されたと考えられる。事業所時代には運転司令所や各部門の事務所、更衣室などが入居していた。線路側出入り口上には、当時の看板がまだ遺っている。勾配屋根や庇などは近年の補追。