Silverton Mixed Train

HE MOUNTAIN WONDERLAND of the San Juan Country of southwestern Colorado, in addition to its mighty peaks with perpetual snow and the scenic grandeur of the entire area, possesses an American heirloom, the Silverton Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.

Here, nestled in a crevice on the roof of the continent, is a railroad uniquethe last narrow gauge passenger common carrier in the United States. Time was when narrow gauge tracks extended 16,000 miles throughout the country and interlaced 42 different states, but that was back in the 19th century. Times and conditions changed and as they did slim gauge, as railroaders sometimes called it, was either altered to standard width or abandoned altogether.

Happily, though, a remnant continues to exist and because of its presence it is still possible for people to sample the most glorious single day's trip in the nation. Not alone are the alpine heights, the pine-clad slopes and the rushing streams the chief attractions; there is the spell of the narrow gauge train. In this diesel age here is oldtime railroading, vintage of the 1880's and 1890's, faithfully projected into this mid-20th century.

Who among us is not a railroader at heart? An editorial writer not long ago had this to say: "Among all the mechanical devices with which our generations have surrounded themselves and built the nation, the steam locomotive is the only one to have captured an almost universal affection." That affection is deep-seated and, perhaps, explains why the Silverton Branch carries thousands of passengers each summer season.

At any rate, the narrow gauge trip awakens fond memories for o generation while at the same time providing a graphic page from the past for today's youth. That vanishing breed, the steam locomotive, performs at its best, the aroma of coal smoke perfumes the atmosphere, the diminutive open-platform wooden coaches remind of an age long gone.

John B. Hungerford / Narrow Gauge to Silverton / Fourth Edition / 1958

by the 1920s Rio Grande had only two narrow gauge routes: from Salida west to Montrose via Marshall Pass, the original main line, then south to Ridgway and a connection with the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, which D&RG had controlled since 1893; and from Alamosa west to Durango. At Antonito the "Chili Line" branched south to Santa Fe, N. M.; at Durango branches headed for Farmington, N. M., and Silverton, and there was a second connection with the Rio Grande Southern. A narrow gauge line between Salida and Alamosa connected the two routes. It was possible to ride a complete circle on narrow gauge lines until a bus replaced the passenger trains on the Salida-Alamosa branch in the mid-1920s. The Chili Line was abandoned in 1942 for lack of traffic, and the narrow gauge circle was broken at Cerro Summit on the Marshall Pass route in 1949. The pace of narrow gauge abandonments accelerated (a few short segments were standard-gauged), so that by the mid-1950s only the Alamosa-Durango-Farmington-Silverton line was left, and it remained operational until 1967. Two segments of that route, from Antonito to Chama, NM, and from Durango to Silverton, survive as tourist lines.

The Historical Guide to North American Railroads - Second Edition

Mining the San Juans

Large-scale mining began in the San Juan Mountains after the 1873 Brunot Agreement removed the Ute Indians from the area. The remote and rugged region had rich ores but limited transportation access, making the shipment of those ores slow and expensive. To tap this potentially lucrative market, in 1880 William Jackson Palmer’s Denver & Rio Grande Railway started to build the narrow gauge San Juan Extension west from the San Luis Valley. At the time, narrow gauge lines were relatively common in the Colorado mountains because they had rails that were only three feet apart, allowing for tighter curves, cheaper construction, and more efficient operation than the standard gauge of four feet, eight and a half inches. The railroad forged a route over Cumbres Pass to Chama, New Mexico, and then west through the Southern Ute Reservation to reach the Animas River, with the ultimate goal of reaching Silverton.

Originally the Denver & Rio Grande planned to have a station in Animas City, a small farming and ranching town that served as a supply depot for San Juan miners. When the railroad was approaching Animas City in 1880, however, the town rejected the railroad’s requests. Following a pattern that it had used elsewhere, the railroad decided to establish its own town, called Durango, two miles south of Animas City, and locate its station there. The town site was surveyed in September 1880. By the end of the year Durango had 2,000 residents—more than six times as many as Animas City, which became a small suburb of the booming railroad town until the two finally merged in 1948.

Colorado Encyclopedia

ot a ghost town, Silverton is still substantial enough to afford the visitor an idea of its former importance. It survives as an incorporated town and the county seat of San Juan County, a section so rugged that not an acre of farm land exists within its boundaries. Elegant homes once lined some of the streets that today are empty, but the main business street remains largely intact. It could well be a movie set from the 1880 era. When the boom was on, the Silverton district was a roarin' camp of 10,000 population, but the number has dwindled to fewer than 1500 today. For a score of years Silverton was a major railroad center, with three other short lines stretching out to the north. Two, the Silverton Railroad and the Silverton Northern, were built by Mears and the third, the Silverton, Gladstone & Northerly, eventually came under his ownership. All three at one time maintained passenger service,although the longest railroad never exceeded 17 miles. Even so, they were vital adjuncts to the mines. The year the Denver & Rio Grande built into Silverton — 1882 — $20 million in gold and silver came from the nearby mines, it is said.

John B. Hungerford / Narrow Gauge to Silverton / 1958