Last Stop on the Narrow Gauge
by Joe Schofield
Title
Last Stop on the Narrow Gauge
Artist
Joe Schofield
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
This engine, #492, sits at its final rest at the narrow gauge train station yard in Chama, New Mexico.
"And a train rolls out of the station
That was really somethin' in its day
Picking up speed on the straight prairie rails
As it carries the passengers away...
It's gone
It's only a dream
And it's fading now
Fading away
Only a dream
Just a memory without anywhere to stay..." Neil Young. Only a Dream
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad was originally constructed in 1880 as part of the Rio Grande’s San Juan Extension, which served the silver mining district of the San Juan mountains in southwestern Colorado. Like all of the Rio Grande at the time, it was built to a gauge of 3 feet between the rails, instead of the more common 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches that became standard in the United States. The inability to interchange cars with other railroads led the Rio Grande to begin converting its tracks to standard gauge in 1890.
With the repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893 and its devastating effect on the silver mining industry, traffic over the San Juan Extension failed to warrant conversion to standard gauge. Over the ensuing decades it became an isolated anachronism, receiving its last major upgrades in equipment and infrastructure in the 1920s. A post-World War II natural gas boom brought a brief period of prosperity to the line, but operations dwindled to a trickle in the 1960s. Finally, in 1969 the Interstate Commerce Commission granted the Rio Grande’s request to abandon its remaining narrow gauge main line trackage, thereby ending the last use of steam locomotives in general freight service in the United States.
For more of the history, copy this link:
https://cumbrestoltec.com/history/
Uploaded
July 15th, 2023
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