DM&G Pullman (Early)

Though they started out with older wood passenger cars, the Denver, Mesa & Gunnison was quick to replace them with steel heavyweights like this. Beginning in 1900, the branding "Rocky Air Line" was a mainstay of the DM&G's passenger services--"air line" was a popular term at the time for a flat, straight railroad. Of course no route through a mountain range could be reasonably called an "air line," but the DM&G used it anyway for its connotations of speed and comfort. This is the early red scheme, designed to match their locomotive fleet. In 1916 the red became a dark green, but the scheme itself stayed largely the same.