RGS Technical Page

My Rio Grande Southern Memories

William A. Graves

During the last week of August, 1951, I spotted an interesting ad in the Rocky Mountain News. The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club had scheduled an excursion on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad over the coming 3-day Labor Day weekend. The ad gave a telephone number to call for information.

I knew almost nothing about southwest Colorado or the Rio Grande Southern Railroad but it sounded like fun, so I called the number shown in the ad and talked to a Mr. Herb O'Hanlon, who I believe was Secretary for the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club at that time. O'Hanlon said that the train would be powered by a steam locomotive and would stay overnight in Telluride. He was pretty sure that this excursion would be the last one on the RGS because the railroad was scheduled for scrapping. Tickets for the excursion were $10, which seemed like quite a bit of money at that time, but I decided to go. O'Hanlon suggested that since the excursion was only a few days away, there might not be enough time to mail a ticket, so I should look him up at Ridgway on the first day of the excursion and buy my ticket then. It was a very casual, low-key procedure.

Saturday, August 31 was spent driving from Boulder to Montrose via US 285 through South Park and US 50 through Gunnison. The road was mostly a 2-lane blacktop road, without passing lanes. A comfortable driving speed most of the way was about 40 mph but faster through South Park. My car was a 1939 Plymouth coupe, which handled easily in the mountains. I probably knew from O'Hanlon that there were no overnight accommodations at Ridgway, so I spent the night in a rather old hotel on the main street of Montrose.

The excursion train was scheduled to leave Ridgway at 9 a.m. Sunday, September, 1. I had very little interest at that time in seeing what the RGS had at Ridgway so I rather casually arrived about 8:40 a.m., looked up O'Hanlon, bought my ticket, and climbed into one of the gondola cars. White portable steel ladders made it easier to get in and out of the gons. My ticket (which I still have) was #119. I don't believe that many more tickets were sold after mine, so I think that is a pretty accurate estimate of the number of fans on the trip. I believe that a large percentage of the fans on this excursion were from Colorado as compared to later excursions that I was on.

The train faced south while the fans climbed aboard. The train consisted of RGS 2-8-0 locomotive #74 followed in order by RGS cabooses #0400 and #0401, three D&RGW gons, and the beautiful business car 'Edna' bringing up the rear. I think that there were about 40 or 50 fans in each of the gondolas, and the other fans gladly rode in the cabooses or the Edna.

I think that the train backed away from the station about 9:10 a.m. It was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in sight. Engine #74 pushed the train back up the wye, which led to Montrose and then headed forward, out of town on the RGS mainline. It seemed as though the 74 had a hard pull when it hit the heavy grades west of Ridgway. Fans in the gons were liberally sprinkled with hot cinders, and the standard dress soon became that of buttoned up collars and pulled out shirttails. Since I was not at all familiar with the RGS, we were half way across Bridge 9A before I realized that we were on a trestle and it was too late for a picture. I don't believe that we stopped at Valley View tank for water, but we did stop at Dallas Divide (Peak) for what I assume was a brake check. However, the passengers were not allowed to get off the train. The train went on down to Brown and made quite a long stop taking water from the tank. Most of the passengers got off for a stretch and a picture. There was no shortage of cameras on this trip. There must have been twice as many cameras as people. The next stop was at Placerville. If I remember right, Placerville had a rather perilous swinging footbridge across the San Miguel River to privies on the far side the river.

The trip along the San Miguel River was pleasant and uneventful. The train pulled up Keystone Hill and arrived in Telluride with little daylight remaining. The word was that the only overnight accommodations were at the Sheridan Hotel and that they had room for only 38 people. I felt very lucky to get a small upstairs room with a rollaway bed. Since about 120 people needed beds, some gladly chose to sleep on the train. Others went knocking on residents' doors and I believe that the local hospital was opened for additional beds.

While the patrons scurried for cover, the train crew turned #74 on the wye at the west edge of town and got it ready for the next morning. Telluride at sunset was an overwhelming sight. The peaks, which close off the east end of the San Miguel canyon, were in the full glory of the red sun's evening rays.

I really wanted to see as much of the Telluride area as I had time for before the train departed. I was in pretty good shape from having climbed five of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks that summer, so I got up at 5 o'clock skipped breakfast and took off at a good running pace for Pandora and points beyond. I climbed the lower part of Ajax Peak. From there I had the view that I wanted -- looking down on the Idarado Mill and the whole San Miguel valley. I had to watch my time very closely because I sure didn't want to miss the train and the rest of the excursion.

I think that the train was scheduled to leave Telluride at 9 a.m. and I believe that it did. Engine #74 had been turned the night before but the rest of the train wasn't. As a result the trip down Keystone Hill had #74 coupled to the Edna and the train in reverse order. The train was restored to an orderly fashion when #74 was turned at the Illium wye. I think that we took on coal from the chutes at Vance Junction. During this stop I became acquainted with a friendly old time rail fan named Wayne Lincoln. He had been chasing the train, and he offered me a ride to Ophir where we could get good pictures of the train on Bridge 45A as it came into Ophir. This location is the most photographed place on the RGS and everybody wanted a shot here. But there were no photo run-byes. In fact I believe that the idea of photo run byes did not become common until some years later. As the train approached Ophir the area became very crowded. Cars that had been chasing the train filled the area. Although I had my "color" camera (a Kodak Bantam 828) right next to me, it got stepped on. From here on pictures of this excursion would be black and white taken with a Voightlander 120 camera. After the train crossed 45A, it stopped at the Ophir depot and I was able to reboard.

The trip over the Ophir High Line was spectacular to say the least, especially when one has no idea of what is coming next. The train was on a narrow rocky ledge and you had the choice of looking almost straight up on one side or almost straight down on the other side. It was another beautiful day in the Colorado high country. The train stopped at Trout Lake tank, which was perfect place for lunch -- if you remembered to bring any. Everybody photographed Trout Lake from all directions. After a very leisurely lunch stop the train continued on its climb to Lizard Head Pass. At Lizard Head Pass, the long tailtrack at the wye was used to turn the entire train. The train was then backed about two miles down the track to where William Jackson made his famous picture of Head Peak. This was a major picture stop and almost everyone got off the train to take pictures here.

The train began its return trip from this location. It was a long way (about 55 miles) to Ridgway, and the afternoon was already half over.

Although there were no photo run byes on the excursion, a unique opportunity for photography was set up at Ophir. The train stopped at or near the double-ended siding. Photographers had the opportunity to climb out of the cars and go to a spot that had a very good view of Bridge 45A. Then #74 brought the train down past the Ophir station. We took our pictures as it came across 45A. When the train cleared 45A, it stopped and the photographers scrambled down quite a steep embankment and boarded the train. By using this neat plan the photographers did not have to walk across Bridges 45A or 45B and so they never had to cross Howard's Fork of the San Miguel.

When the train got past Butterfly trestle (Bridge 44A), it passed under the Ames cliffs in deep shadows. At this point I was struck by the change in mood of my fellow passengers. Where the mood had been a happy one of joy earlier in the day, it was all different now. It seemed like nobody said a word. They just sat quietly absorbing the finality of this last excursion. The deep shadowed environment was that of a funeral.

At that time I made the decision that if I ever built a model railroad, it would be an RGS layout. That would be my way of remembering this experience for a lifetime. The layout would be built around three things -- a narrow gauge railroad, a lot of mountains (the mainline of the RGS is 162 miles long but had only three miles of level track), and a lot of mining.

Sunshine along the San Miguel River helped some to lift our spirits. The train stopped at Placerville to let three of the Galloping Geese use the wye to maneuver around our train. As the train followed along Leopard Creek up to Dallas Divide, the lack of sunlight made it too dark for good photography. In spite of the lack of light, several cameras set on tripods greeted us as we approached Ridgway and the end of our amazing two-day excursion. It seemed like we were returning to a different world. It was time to return to our workaday commitments. For many of us, that meant an almost all night drive to get ready for work the next morning.

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE FOR A $10 TICKET.