Colorado Narrow Gauge Calendar 2021 Wall

Book Synopsis: A rail-fan favorite, Colorado Narrow Gauge pictures the trains of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Established in 1870, the Rio Grande eventually operated 2,783 miles of track connecting Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Serving mountain communities, farms, and mines from the 1800s into the mid-1900s, the Rio Grande ran trains through mountain gorges, and across the highest rail mainline in America to deliver on the D&RG s early motto, Through the Rockies, not around them. About the 2021 narrow gauge action featured: Denver and Rio Grande Western 489 is backing a cut of empty flat-bottom gondolas up the 4.5% grade of the middle leg of the Garfield Switchback, on route to the limestone deposits located at the Monarch Mine, a little more than twenty miles west of Salida, Colorado. It is December 3, 1950 and winter has so far barely been felt here. Denver and Rio Grande Western 480 is on the point of a westbound passenger special emerging from Toltec Tunnel also known as The Rock Tunnel on June 6, 1960. There are two tunnels on the San Juan Extension. The first one, called the Mud Tunnel, is located about 4.25 miles west of Sublette, New Mexico. It had to be timber-lined because it was dug through unstable earth. It is 342-feet-long. The second tunnel is the 366-foot-long Rock Tunnel. Located about four miles west of the Mud Tunnel, the Rock Tunnel was cut through solid rock, so no supports of any kind were needed. Denver and Rio Grande Western 492 has an eastbound trainload of empty pipe cars headed back to Alamosa to be loaded and sent west again on March 5, 1958. 492 is just south of the highway crossing at Oxford, Colorado and the La Plata Mountains in the background are still covered in winter snow. Denver and Rio Grande Western 478 and 498 are leaving Durango, Colorado with an eastbound freight on May 3, 1956. Rio Grande's three remaining 470s at this time were primarily freight locomotives. The San Juan passenger train ran its last miles in January of 1951, and at this time the Silverton Train was a shadow of what it is today. Denver and Rio Grande Western 478 and 476 are double-headed with a westbound freight approaching Romeo, Colorado, 22 miles south of Alamosa on May 28, 1968. Both locomotives have been put through the back shop and are being returned to Durango for the 1968 Silverton Train operation. Today’s consist is 22 loads of pipe and a caboose destined for Farmington. The decision had been made to run to Durango with this freight in one day. Though, it is June 3, 1957 a touch of winter still remains as Denver and Rio Grande Western 486 and 493, along with 480 shoving on the rear are running an eastbound Cumbres Turn as it approaches the siding at Coxo, Colorado. The 480-489 outside-frame Mikados (2-8-2) were delivered new to the Rio Grande by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925, and eight of the ten are still in service, four each on both the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (480, 481, 482 and 486) and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (484, 487, 488 and 489). Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose #4 has stopped on its northbound trip in the Summer of 1949. It is an excursion special; the entity chartering it and its charter date have both been lost to history. This is just west of the snow shed and depot at the summit of Lizard Head Pass. The Lizard Head Mountain looms up in the background. Denver and Rio Grande Western "mudhen" 464 has drawn a switching assignment at Durango this pleasant August 1956 day. This is also the day that flat car 1293 decided to "give up the ghost". 464 coupled into it, pulled forward and pulled the entire front end, coupler and all, right out of the car. A company truck has come to the rescue, picked the car up and placed it on a larger flat car. Rio Grande Southern 461 is departing Brown, Colorado after stopping.