The Denver & Rio Grande Railway, later the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW), was incorporated on October 27, 1870 by General William Jackson Palmer, a Cibil War veteran. It was originally planned that the new railroad would proceed south from Denver and travel to El Paso via Pueblo, westward along the Arkansas River, and southward through the San Luis Valley of Colorado toward the Rio Grande. The original terminus was projected to be Mexico City.
The first rails were laid heading south from Denver in July 1871. A narrow gauge of 3 feet was chosen over standard gauge (4 feet, 8 ½ inches) because of lower costs and faster construction, particularly in mountainous terrain. The D&RG fought a pitched battle with the Santa Fe Railroad for control of the Royal Gorge route on the Arkansas River. Ultimately, a court granted this route to the Rio Grande and the Santa Fe was granted the route over Raton Pass into New Mexico. Largely because of this, the railroad changed its plans for a route to El Paso and instead turned its sights westward toward the rich mines in the San Juan Mountains. The Rio Grande eventually constructed over 1,000 miles of narrow gauge track throughout Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, including its original mainline to Salt Lake City. Much of this was rapidly converted to standard gauge,
In 1877, the Rio Grande started building the San Juan Extension west from Walsenburg over La Veta Pass, reaching the new town of Alamosa in 1877 and then Antonito, also a new town created by the railroad, in 1878. The goal was to reach the rich gold and silver mines around Silverton, CO. Although the San Juan Extension was built to haul the fruits of mining, other cargoes, mainly lumber, oil, sheep and cattle, farm products, coal, and general merchandise, were a much larger source of freight revenue. In the Spring of 1880, the railroad began building west over 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass in the high San Juans, arriving in Chama, NM on New Year’s Eve 1880 and the new town of Durango, CO in August 1881. A branch to Pagosa Springs was completed in 1900 from Pagosa Junction (later called Gato). This line was abandoned in 1935. A branch from Carbon Junction, just south of Durango, to Farmington, NM was built in 1905. Oddly, this line was originally built as standard gauge, partly because the railroad expected that all of the narrow-gauge lines would eventually be converted to standard gauge, which, of course, never happened. In 1923, that branch was converted to narrow gauge.
By the late 1940s, traffic on most of the Rio Grande’s narrow-gauge lines had fallen off dramatically. The regular daily passenger train from Alamosa to Durango, the famed “San Juan,” was terminated in January 1951. The Rio Grande began to abandon many narrow-gauge lines. Fortunately, oil and gas were discovered in the Farmington, NM area around 1950. Because of the vast quantities of material needed to develop this new field, including pipe and drilling equipment, it was cheaper to haul this freight over the mountains by rail than by truck. So, this new source of revenue saved the line from Alamosa to Durango and south to Farmington. However, by the early 1960s, this traffic began to dry up, so the Rio Grande again desired to abandon the route. All freight operations ended by 1967 and the line from Antonito to Durango and Farmington was abandoned in 1969. The States of Colorado and New Mexico purchased the section from Antonito to Chama, which is today’s Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.
One side note – in 1958, construction began on Navajo Dam on the San Juan River. The reservoir created by the dam would submerge miles of the Rio Grande line, along with the town of Los Arboles. The Federal Government paid to construct a new 12-mile section of railroad with several bridges. The Rio Grande began using the new line in August 1962. Ironically, this new line would only be used for another 6 years. Much of the old grade and the railroad bridge over the Piedra River can still be seen from the Byway.