San Luis Central Railroad - System Index Map

The Colorado Pacific San Luis Railroad is a railroad company based in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. In 1913 its predecessor, the San Luis Central Railroad , was founded in 1913 to haul

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

s from grower to processor. The railroad operates freight traffic through a connection with the

Colorado Pacific Rio Grande Railroad The Colorado Pacific Rio Grande Railroad (formerly the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad) is a class III railroad operating in south-central Colorado. It runs on of former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks on three lines radiating from ...

hauling mainly grain, potatoes and fertilizer. SLC was also a railcar owner, mostly refrigerator cars and boxcars. On August 23rd, 2024, a filing with the

Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is an independent federal agency that serves as an adjudicatory board. The board was created in 1996 following the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and absorbed regula ...

revealed that the Soloviev Group, who already owns the Colorado Pacific Rio Grande, was purchasing the San Luis Central, which would then be renamed to Colorado Pacific San Luis Railroad. The railroad is long, located between Sugar Junction (east of

Monte Vista, Colorado The City of Monte Vista is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Rio Grande County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 4,247 at the 2020 Census. History Monte Vista was laid out in 1884. The site ...

) and

Center, Colorado Center is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory town, statutory town located in Saguache County, Colorado, Saguache and Rio Grande County, Colorado, Rio Grande List of counties in Colorado, counties, Colorado, United States. The town's p ...

. At the time of sale in 2024, the railroad owned two locomotives: Electro Motive Division SW8 number 70 and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

70 ton locomotive number 71. Prior to its purchase by Colorado Pacific San Luis, the company was owned by Rail World, Inc., which is controlled by

Ed Burkhardt Edward Arnold Burkhardt is a railroad executive, the founder and current chairman of Rail World Inc. Career After gaining a B.S. with honors in Industrial Administration from Yale University and studying Rail Transportation at Yale's graduate s ...

References

Colorado railroads Railway companies established in 1913 1913 establishments in Colorado Sugar industry of the United States Sugar mill railways {{Colorado-transport-stub