The History Behind The Palmer Room
Palmer, William Jackson- Palmer a veteran of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and a subordinate official of the Kansas Pacific management, devised a great railroad of his own connecting Denver with Mexico City. This line, organized in 1870, was the first important railroad to use the narrow track gauge of three feet, most railroads having accepted a standard track width of four feet, eight and a half inches. Palmer's narrow gauge proved economical in construction, especially in mountainous areas; cuts and fills would be narrower, thus smaller, and more cost efficient. Locomotives and cars would also be smaller, and cheaper. Curves could be sharper, thus allowing a narrow gauge railroad to overcome the twisting mountain canyons with greater ease than a standard guage.
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