A rail-fan favorite, Colorado Narrow Gauge pictures the trains of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Established in 1870, the Rio Grande eventually operated 2,783 miles of track connecting Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Serving mountain communities, farms, and mines from the 1800s into the mid-1900s, the Rio Grande ran trains through mountain gorges, and across the highest rail mainline in America to deliver on the D&RG’s early motto, “Through the Rockies, not around them.”
This 2024 monthly wall calendar features: Large blocks for notes | Superb printing quality | Heavy 100-pound paper | Deluxe 11- by 14-inch size
Narrow gauge trains featured in this edition include:
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 476 and 478 have stopped at Needleton, CO, to take on water. It is June 1, 1957, the second day of a three-day excursion on the Rio Grande narrow gauge.
• Denver and Rio Grande 487 is on the point of a southbound freight on the Farmington Branch about five miles south of Cedar Hill, NM, on October 30, 1963. At this time, the San Juan Basin Oil Boom was slowing down and most weeks would only see one train on the Farmington Branch.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 499 is on the point of an east-bound livestock train in October 1963. This one is loaded with sheep. There is a helper on the rear end.
• Rio Grande Southern 42 is leading a westbound scrapping train through Wildcat Canyon, about eight miles west of Durango, CO, on September 11, 1952.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 493, a Class K-37 2-8-2, is at the coal dock at Alamosa, being prepared for a west-bound train out of Alamosa, CO, in May 1955. This coal dock was a big one, servicing both narrow-gauge and standard-gauge locomotives, even their large Class L-131 2-8-8-2’s.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 482 is on the point and 486 is a rear-end helper (both are Class K-36 Mikado 2-8-2’s.) on an 11 car east bound Cumbres Turn coming through the east end of the Narrows, a little more than a mile west of Lobato, NM, on June 3, 1957.
• Here is a view of Galloping Goose #4 as originally built, sitting in front of the Ridgway roundhouse on June 29, 1944. Its appearance would completely change during the winter of 1945.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 480 is leading an eastbound excursion special on the “Old Line” through Arboles, CO, on June 8, 1960. Arboles is located at Milepost 408.8, almost 43 miles east of Durango.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 490, a Class K-37 Mikado 2-8-2, has a southbound Farmington Turn just starting out of Durango Yard in August 1958.
• Fall colors are at their peak as Denver and Rio Grande Western 498 leads an east-bound freight across the Lobato Trestle four miles east of Chama, NM, in October 1956. The consist is a string of empty flat cars and pipe gondolas being returned to Alamosa for loading more pipe.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 464, a Class K-27 Mudhen is leading a Silverton mixed train northbound at Rockwood, CO, on September 12, 1956. This is one of an order of 15 locomotives purchased from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1903.
• Denver and Rio Grande Western 473 is making what will be the last ever water stop at Gato, CO, on December 6, 1968. In 1968, the third rail from Alamosa to Antonito was abandoned, as was the line from Chama, NM, to Durango.
Published by Tide-mark Press © 2023
