In this
entry in the Heritage Series, Then & Now, we look at the narrow-gauge lines
of the Denver, Rio Grande & Western from the second World War to today’s
operations on the Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge
railroads.
Our
look begins with black & white film footage shot in the forties and
fifties. These films look at freight
operations, the San Juan passenger train, and a ride on The Silverton when it
was operated as a mixed train.
Next we move to color films
in the sixties, shot during Rocky Mountain Railroad Club three-day excursions
that covered the line from Alamosa to Silverton and return. Photographer Jim Adams was a steam-loving
railroad employee from Illinois, and rode these excursions four times with his
movie camera and reel-to-reel recorder. His
original sound recordings accompany his films.
Then
we see several scenes as we chase a 1962 Illini Railroad Club excursion between
Alamosa and Cumbres Pass, before moving on to freight operations in the waning
years of the Rio Grande’s narrow-gauge operations.
Then it’s onto the seventies
and scenes of Rio Grande trains on the Silverton Branch, which was disconnected
from the rest of the railroad after the removal of the rails between Durango
and Chama, along with the Farmington Branch.
In 1981, the Silverton Branch was sold to become the Durango &
Silverton and we see scenes on the D&S between 1992 and the early 21st
Century.
Next we move to Chama, New
Mexico, where the states of Colorado and New Mexico teamed up to preserve the
64 miles of track between Chama and Antonito, Colorado. Video footage between 1992 and the early 21st
Century present day-to-day operations on the C&T, including doubleheaders
and even a tripleheader. This section
closes out Disc One.
Disc Two begins with special
operations on the Cumbres & Toltec in the first decades of the 21st
Century, beginning with scenes of Rio Grande Southern “Galloping Goose” #5 in
operation, before moving on to a number of photo freights filmed over the
years.
The final two-thirds of Disc
Two present the Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton as they were
in September of 2023. We spent eight
days filming the two railroads, filming the daily operations on these
well-traveled lines. Highlights of our
visit included a Saturday doubleheader on Cumbres Pass and a steam-powered work
train on the Durango & Silverton. As
always, we took extra care to capture the awesome sounds of steam in the
mountains along with the sights.
It's
nearly four hours of action on some of America’s most famous locations.
