The Route of the Rio Grande Southern

Once in a while, I come across a resource or an item so well-done, I can't help but share it. RGSrr.com is an old school site in terms of its layout and design, but one I'm very glad to count on. It has been going for years and has very handy details on the underdog narrow gauge railroad. Their work retracing route is at the end of this article.

If you have never been to see the remnants of the Rio Grande Southern, make every effort to see it sooner than later! The RGS has been abandoned for 70 years now and despite all efforts of fans and whole organizations, the San Juan mountains persist in reclaiming what Otto Mears and his partners built. Winters in Colorado are serious, but the San Juans get the most snow. The canyons are deeper, locking the snows deep late into spring and yes, even summer. One Fourth of July weekend, I was not surprised so much as impressed to find a snow and ice dam still straddling the Uncompahgre River above Ouray. Winter arrives early, stays late and works hard to break rock, timber and whatever else is in its way.

The Rio Grande Southern is not well known to many even in its home state of Colorado. By all rights, it shouldn't have existed. Born November 5, 1889, less than 3 years 8 months before the Silver Panic of 1893, it was barely off and running before it fell into receivership and out of the hands of its founder, the Pathfinder of the San Juan. It went where its namesake, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, had not dared to climb, beyond Ridgway to Telluride, Ophir, Rico, down to Dolores and Mancos and east into Durango, connecting two very distant points of the Rio Grande narrow gauge empire. 

How the little narrow gauge persisted for another 60 years is a story recounted in many books, but the miracle was thankfully preserved not just in text but on film, even into the last days of dismantling by faithful friends of the railroad that connected most of the western San Juans. The spindly-legged trestles and light, narrow gauge rails made riders quail and even refuse to travel the return trip. It was built to get ore from the mines to the mills in Durango and Denver and it did, barely. 

In this cropped view taken from the Denver Public Library, it's easy to see how the Ophir Loop used trestle and curve, cut and fill to shoehorn a railroad through the deep canyons, climbing the San Juans of Colorado
Photo: Thomas McKee

Below, we find RGSrr.com's Route of the Rio Grande Southern. It shows with remarkable clarity, exactly where the railroad ran, how it worked with valleys and loops completed by curved trestles, fighting for every foot of altitude! It has a key that shows which trestles went where and which there are pictures for. It is an incredible resource for the narrow gauge modeler and railroad historian! ⚒

Understanding Railroads - Railcars Explained in 15 Minutes

If you explore the rails in Colorado for any amount of time, you've likely found a railcar you've not paid any attention to before. Ever wonder why some boxcars have a generator on one end? What is a rotary dump gondola? Why can you feel heat coming off this tank car? By far, the most common question I still get from folks outside the railfan community is, "What happened to the caboose?" All of this is covered in YouTube channel Practical Engineering's video below.

While this video is not directly related to Colorado, nearly every railcar described I have seen in Colorado at one time or another, even the specialized "Schnabel" car. She is a brute, too! You never know what's going to wander down the rails these days. You might even see a 737 "fly" under a bridge!

A BNSF train passes under the new pedestrian bridge at Palmer Lake, Colorado on its way north on Father's Day 2023 carrying a number of narrow-body 737 fuselages for final assembly at Boeing
Photo: Karen Walden

I appreciate Practical Engineering putting out this video. His announcement of a deep dive into railroad engineering by a railfan certainly sounds promising.⚒

Rocky Mountaineer - Rockies to the Red Rocks of Moab

Something that railroads do much better than roads or airways is taking many people to a common destination while letting them see the country in which they're traveling. It combines the rugged beauty of driving with the ability to get up and stretch one's legs, interact with and meet more people than you would normally. We've lost touch with that. Luckily, the Rocky Mountaineer is giving those who can afford it a chance to travel from Denver to... wait, Moab? Let the RM make its case.

; 

Jeb Brooks takes you on a 30 minute tour 

I won't say this is a renewal of the Rio Grande Zephyr by any stretch. The RGZ was more old school passenger train than this train crew ever dreams about. Nonetheless, it is inspiring to see the Rocky Mountaineer opening up the western slope to those minds looking for something more than the next Ibiza or Parksville.⚒

Thoughts On Don Phillips' Loss of Mobility

Pagosa Springs in October is pretty, but can you live there? // Milan Suvajac

For over 12 years now, I have been plowing my way through Trains Magazine's Complete Collection*, taking notes on American railroading from 1940 - 2010. I have made it all the way to 1993, reinforcing the old notions that slow and steady wins the race, and eating an elephant is accomplished one bite at a time. My collection of notes numbers in the thousands for this magazine's articles and advertisements alone. 

There, in July's issue, sandwiched between an ad for Erie Lackawanna VHS cassettes and an ad for FastTrack, a video magazine subscription that predated vlogging by a mere 20 years, was a column that could have been written yesterday. Don Phillips, for all his east coast swagger, nailed down a plight. This plight is both near to my heart and yet so far from a possible solution that will likely never see a resolution to my satisfaction. It is the plight of everyone who lives in Colorado's rural counties and towns. 

"What?" say the rural denizens of Colorado. "We're okay." Yeah? Hand me your drivers license. Still ok? No, and why not? Because your four wheels (or sometimes two) are your ticket to American freedom. If you handed over your precious Colorado drivers licenses, you would be cut off from work, from home, from your leisure activities and your grocery store, pharmacy and your doctor when you are sick. Any trip in America and especially Colorado nearly always begins with the private vehicles we own.

We own vehicles? Not all of us. But let's consider: Cars are the required luxury. The essential option. The one thing everyone is free to decline at the peril of losing everything. If you have made it past 60, you know that your insurance premiums are rising and will rise until you eventually cannot afford them or you voluntarily surrender your life on four wheels. You either die before you reach that age or you must surrender your freedom. Oh, that will never happen to you. 

Others have never driven a car, but most of us don't know them, couldn't relate to them, or actually ignore them. These are the people who know bus schedules, rely on programs and family members to care enough to meet their transportation needs. But try living near Springfield, Craig, Sterling, or Cortez without a license to live drive. What if next week or next year something happens and you're forced to join their ranks? You're just one heartbeat, one blackout, one prescription away, but best not to think about how thin your lifeline really is.

As we found out in 2020, being stuck at home is no fun. Telecommuting, even if you have great internet service, has its limitations. Even the American workplace, for good or for ill, is beginning to require attendance from their employees again. In fact, it's hardly a secret that most of rural America has been languishing since the 1950s. Even in periods of massive growth, such as the teens, multiple Colorado counties have experienced double-digit loss percentages. Why? I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that losing the local train has something to do with it.

The local train? Local train, as in not intercity, not hub-and-spoke, not long-distance. I won't re-say what Mr. Phillips skillfully wrote nearly 30 years ago now, but let me say that I sincerely believe he is right in this case. Please click or tap to view the article.

So, what do we do? Do we just click our tongues and click our mouses (or swipe or scroll) on to the next story? Or do we start thinking about the idea of making things local again? Do we make a point of shopping locally if we can. Heck, what about just trying to remember our neighbors' faces and names? What about remembering the checkout person at the store, or the cleaning person emptying the trash for us? Connecting locally can change everything, especially our living patterns.

I don't have an easy, ready-made solution in the offing for the small town shrink-down, but it all starts with a mindset. Just because it isn't "our problem" doesn't mean it's not worth our time and effort to fix. It needs our attention before the price of groceries goes any higher.  Or did you think these problems weren't linked to yours? ⚒

* The collection is now obsolete, superseded by a deluxe subscription to the magazine, which allows online access to the entire back catalog of the magazine including the last 12+ years.