Salt Lake & Fort Douglas Railway Memorial

The Salt Lake & Fort Douglas Railway was originally created in 1883. The route followed 800 South in the east from the wye with the D&RG mainline at 700 West, then to 700 East, next it ran along 700 East to 900 South, and then along 900 South to about 1000 East. At 900S and 1000E, the railroad split there, with one line turning hard north and ran along 1000 East (hence why 1000E is so wide today. It wound up the Salt Lake Bench, eventually looping back and entering Fort Douglas. Although a large amount of traffic was from the Fort it continued across it to Red Butte Canyon. A timetable from July 1888 in the Salt Lake Tribune indicates that 5 passenger trains were run in each direction each day.

The Salt Lake & Fort Douglas shared the alignment to downtown with the Salt Lake and Eastern Railroad. At the 900S junction, the SL&FD met with The SL&E. The SL&E roughly followed the current alignment of today's Mcclelland Street and trail (hence why it winds unlike any other street in that neighborhood). After serving Sugar House and the Utah State Penitentiary it continued up Parley's Canyon to Park City. The embankment of the SL&E can still be seen today when driving on I-80.

Trains stopped running on the SL&FD Railway after the 900S junction en route to Fort Douglas and points north in 1895. The Railroad was ordered by the Salt Lake City Council in 1896, revoking the franchise granted to the SL&FD in 1883. The tracks were removed starting in 1897.

The alignment between 900S and Sugar House was replaced in 1901 by new tracks that ran east-west along 2200 South. You can still ride trains along this alignment to this day if you ride the UTA streetcar to Sugarhouse. This track connected to the Union Pacific Roper Yard at 700S and eliminated the need for the line between Sugar House and 900S. Those tracks were removed alongside the ones that ran along 800 South to downtown in 1901.

Although the Salt Lake and Fort Douglas were organized several years earlier, in 1988 after the Salt Lake & Eastern Railway was created, the two operated as one company. They shared operating departments and locomotive rosters. The sharing of the mainline from downtown along 800S and 900S likely made this make great operational sense. From there the SL&FD ran north to serve the Fort and Red Butte and Emigration quarries. The SL&E ran south to Sugar House and then to Park City. The Railroad operated in this fashion from 1888 until 1890 when both were usurped by the Utah Central and the SL&FD was outed as a separate entity. The Salt Lake and Fort Douglas likely continued to operate as a separate railway from 1890 until 1897 when the rails were removed.

Strack, Don. Salt Lake & Fort Douglas Railway (1883-1897), Utahrails.net. March 10th 2021. Accessed May 27th 2021. https://utahrails.net/utahrails/slfd-1883-1897.php.

John W. Young's railroads in the Salt Lake Valley Upper portions based on map of Salt Lake , Google Maps. Accessed May 27th 2021. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1UFboH8suxJO7zXsBPuNaGxuiCjw&ll=40.75189096777308%2C-111.85930510516644&z=15.

“Salt Lake Tribune: 1888-07-31: The Salt Lake and Fort Douglas Railway.” Utah Digital Newspapers. Accessed May 28, 2021. https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=12906953&page=4&q=Salt%2BLake%2Band%2BFort%2BDouglas%2BRailway&sort=rel.