The rest of the story

July 22, 1963.

Cumbres pass in the 60's. A group of railfans occasional stenciled boxcars sitting at Cumbres with various road names, such as RGS, FCC and others.

September 1964. Approaching Gato eastbound.

September 1961. Approaching Cresco from the crossing with the old highway. This was a badly faded Ektachrome that was very difficult to color correct, so I converted it to B&W.

May 28, 1968. The remains at Monero, a coal mining area. In the foreground are the ruins of what looks to be a facility for loading railcars on the siding. The railroad had a seperate coaling facility there that was often used to coal eastbound trains, that I believe was around the corner on the single track ahead of the engine in this picture. The loco refueling facility was used up until the last years of operation.

Here is an interesting slice of operations during the last years of the DRGW ng. This summarizes the situation that last time the rotary was used to open the line during the winter. It is interesting that this kind of detail was sent to the President of the railroad (Gus Aydelott), which is a good example of how railroads tended to micromanage themselves in those days. This was scanned and posted by Jimmy Blouch on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Board.

September 1960. 473 switches on the old loop track. The track to the left is the old RGS mainline into Durango (via rights over the DRGW), and the track to the right is the loop. In the background is the Graden Flour Mill.

A long eastbound train loops around the big curve at Los Pinos.

September 1964. Windy Point.