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The Rio
Grande Southern was a narrow gauge mountain railroad (3ft gauge) in
southwestern Colorado running from Durango to Ridgway, a distance of
163 track-miles through the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains. It
has been initiated in 1889 by Otto Mears, who also built several of the
railroads serving Silverton mining district. Its construction was
completed in 1891, creating a rail-link to the then booming mining
communities of Placerville, Ophir, Rico and Telluride. The Rio Grande
Southern was connected to the Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge
system at its ends in Durango and Ridgway.
The prosperity of the railroad lasted only a
few years and it was soon placed in receivership under the control of
the mighty Denver & Rio Grande. Nevertheless, the railroad survived
as a subsidiary of the Denver & Rio Grande, with very limited
means, using mostly second hand or leased equipment and with
maintenance of the physical plant kept to a minimum. At the 1929
financial crisis, the Rio Grande Southern was again placed in
receivership and the Denver & Rio Grande Western lost its control.
Conventional steam passenger trains, too costly and losing money, were
discontinued and replaced by light mixed trains operated with novel
equipment built by the Rio Grande Southern, hybrids between a truck and
a bus fitted to run on railroad tracks. These unique and original
railbuses, officially called Motors by the railroad, were
quickly nicknamed Galloping Goose and greatly contributed to
the fame of the Rio Grande Southern among railfans.
The
use of the Goose allowed the railroad to run the few trains still
needed to cover the fainting traffic with the lowest possible expenses
and the company managed to survive until World War II. After the war,
the last sources or revenue (ore, lumber, livestock) dried-up and it
became clear that the Rio Grande Southern wasn't going to last very
long. More and more services were transfered to trucks, the mail
contract was lost and at the end of the fourties, the railroad had lost
virtually all traffic and was losing a lot of money. The last attempt
to use the Galloping Goose for excursion trains by advertizing the
wonderfull scenery along the line didn't change the financial situation
of the railroad and all operations cessed by the end of 1951. The year
after, the line was abandoned and scrapped right away.
Today only a few traces of the Rio Grande
Southern remain, scattered along the old right-of-way in this remote
area of Colorado. Some of the rolling stock has been preserved,
particularly at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. It is worth to
mention that most of the Galloping Goose have survived today, almost
all of them still operational.
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