San Juan Express
   HOME
*





San Juan Express
The ''San Juan Express'' (also known as simply the ''San Juan'') was a narrow gauge train that ran on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) route from Durango, Colorado via Chama, New Mexico; Cumbres Pass; and Antonito, Colorado to Alamosa, Colorado. The train ran from February 11, 1937 until January 31, 1951 as train numbers 115 and 116, though towards the end of the passenger service it took on the number 215 and 216. The railroad line was closed by the D&RGW in 1968 and much of the narrow gauge trackage has since been abandoned. A surviving portion of the narrow gauge track in the route is the long Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad between Antonito and Chama which calls its westbound train the ''Colorado Limited'' and its eastbound train the ''New Mexico Express''. The line from Antonito to Alamosa is now standard gauge only and belongs to the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad. Normally, from Alamosa to Chama, a D&RGW K-36 (Or K-37) class locomotive, either 482, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alamosa, Colorado
Alamosa is a home rule municipality and the county seat of Alamosa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 9,806 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is the commercial center of the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado, and is the home of Adams State University. History Alamosa was established in May 1878 by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and quickly became an important rail center. Alamosa was the terminus of the D&RG until 1881, when the line was extended to Monte Vista. The railroad had an extensive construction, repair and shipping facility in Alamosa for many years and headquartered its remaining narrow gauge service here with trackage reaching many points throughout southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico. Alamosa is now a notable tourist town with many nearby attractions, including the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado Gators Reptile Park and the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad. The town hosts "Summer Fest on the Rio" whic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Railway Post Office
In Canada and the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the train. In the UK and Ireland, the equivalent term was travelling post office (TPO). From the middle of the 19th century, many American railroads earned substantial revenues through contracts with the U.S. Post Office Department (USPOD) to carry mail aboard high-speed passenger trains; and the Railway Mail Service enforced various standardized designs on RPOs. In fact, a number of companies maintained passenger routes where the financial losses from moving people were more than offset by transporting the mail. History The world's first official carriage of mail by rail was by the United Kingdom's General Post Office in November 1830, using adapted rail ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Passenger Trains Of The Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad
A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, buses, passenger trains, airliners, ships, ferryboats, and other methods of transportation. Crew members (if any), as well as the driver or pilot of the vehicle, are usually not considered to be passengers. For example, a flight attendant on an airline would not be considered a passenger while on duty and the same with those working in the kitchen or restaurant on board a ship as well as cleaning staff, but an employee riding in a company car being driven by another person would be considered a passenger, even if the car was being driven on company business. Railways In railway parlance, passenger, as well as being the end user of a service, is also a categorisation of the type of rolling stock used.Simmons, J ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1951 Disestablishments In The United States
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment. * January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. * January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province. * January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's novel '' Journey Through the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1937 Establishments In The United States
Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into February, leaving 1 million people homeless and 385 people dead. * January 15 – Spanish Civil War: Second Battle of the Corunna Road ends inconclusively. * January 20 – Second inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first time that the United States presidential inauguration occurs on this date; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution. * January 23 – Moscow Trials: Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center – In the Soviet Union 17 leading Communists go on trial, accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime, and assassinat ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


List Of Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad Lines
The following rail lines have been owned or operated by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad or its predecessors. ; Denver-Pueblo Joint Line: Denver (Union Station) to Pueblo * Fort Logan Branch: Englewood ( Military Junction) to Fort Logan * Lehigh Branch: Louviers ( Lehigh Junction) to Lehigh Mine * Castle Rock Branch: Castle Rock to Hathaway ** O'Brien's Quarry Spur: Hathaway to O'Brien's Quarry * Douglas Quarry Spur: Douglas to Madge Quarry * Manitou Branch: Colorado Springs ( Manitou Junction) to Manitou ; Royal Gorge Line: Pueblo to Salida via Royal Gorge * Coal Creek Branch: Florence to Coal Creek * Oak Creek Branch: Florence ( Oak Creek Junction) to Oak Creek * Chandler Creek Branch: Chandler Junction to Chandler Mine ** Fremont Branch: Fremont Junction to Fremont Mine * Grape Creek Branch: Cañon City ( Grape Creek Junction) to Westcliffe * Westcliffe Branch: Texas Creek to Westcliffe * Howard Branch: Howard's Quarry Junction to Calcite ;Tennessee P ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Union Depot (Pueblo, Colorado)
Pueblo Union Depot is the historic railroad station in Pueblo, Colorado. It was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1889–1890 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It is located within the Union Avenue Historic Commercial District. History Initially the station was served by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Colorado & Southern Railway (which was acquired by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1908), the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. Today the Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railroad share use of the tracks, and the depot is privately owned. Regular passenger train service no longer exists, though there are proposals such as Front Range Passenger Rail, which would provide service to Denver Union Station, Denver and Colorado Springs. In addition, the depot has been proposed to operate on Amtrak's ''Southwest Chief''. Presidents Th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Sublette, New Mexico
Sublette is a railroad town in northern Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States, built as a section station in 1880. It is located north-east of Chama, just south of the Colorado state line and at milepost 306.1 of the former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. When the Denver and Rio Grande abandoned its narrow gauge lines in the late 1960s, two parts of the system were preserved independently: the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad from Antonito to Chama, including Sublette itself, and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Sublette sits at an elevation of 9,281 feet in the southeastern San Juan Mountains. History The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad established Sublette in 1880 as a construction camp on its narrow gauge San Juan Branch. Once the line was completed, the camp served as a section crew station town, a base for the crew that maintained the track for the railroad. Structures included a section house for the foreman and his family, two bunkhouses ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally-designated National Historic Landmark and was also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1968. The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG narrow-gauge line from Antonito, Colorado to Durango. The last train to operate into Durango from the east was on December 6, 1968. The states of New Mexico and Colorado purchased 64 miles of track between Antonito and Chama, New Mexico in 1970, which is operated today as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR). Trackage between Chama and Durango was removed by 1971 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


D&RGW 315
Denver and Rio Grande Western No. 315 is a class "C-18" "Consolidation" type narrow-gauge steam locomotive that was originally built for the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1895. It was purchased by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) in 1917 and later became known as No. 315. It was retired in 1949 and had been on display at two City of Durango parks until thDurango Railroad Historical Societyrestored the locomotive from 2001 to August 2007. It was operational from then until September 2021. As of November 2021 it is receiving its Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) mandated 1,472-day inspection. Most "sister" locomotives to No. 315 were scrapped, but two others survive today such as is D&RGW No. 318 and F&CC No. 10. No. 318 is on display at the Colorado Railroad Museum and F&CC No. 10 is currently in storage at the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum. History On the F&CC it was numbered 3 and named ''"Elkton"''. After the demise of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

D&RGW C-18
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado, in 1870. It served mainly as a transcontinental bridge line between Denver, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Rio Grande was also a major origin of coal and mineral traffic. The Rio Grande was the epitome of mountain railroading, with a motto of ''Through the Rockies, not around them'' and later ''Main line through the Rockies'', both referring to the Rocky Mountains. The D&RGW operated the highest mainline rail line in the United States, over the Tennessee Pass in Colorado, and the famed routes through the Moffat Tunnel and the Royal Gorge. At its height, in 1889, the D&RGW had the largest narrow-gauge railroad network in North America with of track interconnecting the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Known for it ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

D&RGW K-37
The Denver and Rio Grande Western K-37 is a class of "Mikado" type narrow-gauge steam locomotives built for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. They were all new steam locomotives rebuilt in the D&RGW Burnham Shops as a cheaper option to new Baldwin K-36s but were in fact more expensive. Burnham Shops was assisted in the construction of the class by the Stearn-Rogers Manufacturing Company. The class recycled components from Baldwin Locomotive Works built Class 19 (later C-41) 2-8-0 locomotives used on the Rio Grande's standard gauge; re-using the boiler, tender and other components salvaged from the C-41's. The engine components; particularly the frames, valve gear, wheels and counter weights , were constructed new for the locomotive class. Design The locomotives are of outside-frame design, with the driving wheels placed between the two chassis frames which support the boiler, but with the cylinders, driving rods, counterweights and valve gear on the outside. This ge ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]