Railroads and mines were integral economic activities in the late nineteenth century. Following the 1859 discovery of gold in Colorado, development of the San Luis Valley escalated. Precious metals, gold and silver found in isolated pockets in the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains attracted prospectors. With the miners came railroads, farms and cattle ranches. By 1878, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad had descended into the valley to Alamosa from La Veta Pass. Subsequent railroad lines linked Alamosa to Española, New Mexico and Antonito to Chama, New Mexico. As a result of the railroad lines built through the end of the nineteenth century, towns such Antonito grew and flourished. The Cumbres & Toltec and Rio Grande scenic railroad in Antonito is a popular visitor attractions that provides a broad experience of the landscape. The arrival of the railroad in the late 1870s was a defining element in shaping the valley’s history. Today these two rail lines are centerpieces of the region’s visitor experience. Railroads were once necessary conduits for trade and travel that connected small towns to each other and to distant cities and trade hubs. Today these trains help visitors take a step back in time and experience the scenic and historic regions of the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area.
Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad
The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, is a narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 64 miles of track between Antonito, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico, and in the Sangre de Cristo National
Heritage Area and the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area. The railroad is named for mountain the mountain pass of Cumbres Pass (10,015 ft) and the Toltec Gorge (600 feet in depth and (800 feet wide). Originally part of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad‘s narrow-gauge network, the line is jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico since 1970.
On February 20, 1880, track crews of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) laid the first rails of the San Juan Extension from Alamosa, Colorado, toward Antonito, Colorado. Narrow gauge of three feet was chosen instead of standard gauge of four feet eight and a half inches as narrow gauge was cheaper to build, and narrow gauge railways can accommodate tighter-radius curves. The line continued west to Chama, New Mexico from Antonito, arriving in Chama on December 31, 1880. The track includes 64 miles (103 km) through two tunnels, over a 10,015-foot (3,053 m) mountain pass, and skirted a 600-foot gorge. The line then continued to Durango, Colorado.
A major issue with the line was Cumbres Pass itself. Cumbres Pass is 10,015 feet (3,053 m) above sea level. The high elevation and various other factors led to many terrible snowstorms. This prompted the railroad to purchase rotary snowplows, Rotary OM and Rotary OY, which were used on the Cumbres Pass line. During the earlier years of the railroad, the winter season would bring as much as 500 inches of snow to Cumbres every five or six years, creating a huge financial burden for the railroad. The largest and worst snowstorm hit in the winter of 1951–1952 when abandonment was considered in the 1960s.
In September 1968, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad filed for abandonment of its narrow-gauge lines. Soon after New Mexico legislation was signed in New Mexico that authorized the state to purchase the track between Chama and Antonito (1969), Colorado passed a similar legislation (1970). Colorado and New Mexico jointly owned the line and, by 1971, the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad was formed.
In 1973, the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and increased its boundaries in 2007, designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1976., and in 2012 was designated a National Historic Landmark, for its engineering, well-preserved infrastructure and equipment and the role of the railroad in the development of the region it served.
Throughout the lifetime of this section of the railroad, the line helped to sustain the ranching and logging activities in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado and formed a link for the transportation of precious metals from the San Juan mining camps to Denver.
The train has been featured in films including “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989), “Bite the Bullet” (1975), “Wyatt Earp” (1994), “A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)” and “Hostiles” (2017). Numerous commercials have also been filmed that include the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic & Historic Railroad.
Currently the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area is a partner in supporting the Engine 168 and Historic Car Project. This initiative will recreate an authentic Denver and Rio Grande passenger train experience as it would have been over 100 years ago.
You can catch a daily ride on the steam engine from late May through mid-October. Keep an eye out for specialty rides that feature food, music, photography, geology and botany among other themes. Also, make sure say “Hi” to Kimmie in the snack car, and Jeremy and Carlos as the engineers of the train!
Learn more about the excursions, history and ongoing projects at https://cumbrestoltec.com
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Railway was incorporated in October 1870 by General William Jackson Palmer. It became the fifth railroad in Colorado, and began as a narrow-gauge route because Palmer believed that it would be cheaper to build and operate to be better suited to the canyon and mountain landscapes. By 1888, the D&RG had over 1650 miles of narrow-gauge track, reaching to Salt Lake City, Utah, and into the northern part of New Mexico, as well as many areas of the Colorado mountains.
Alamosa, originally called Rio Bravo, the town was platted as the Alamosa Town Company in 1878, only two months before the railroad reached its location and has been the center of rail commerce for the San Luis Valley ever since. During its boom years, from 1890 to 1950, the rail line was used to ship in ore, lumber, cattle, sheep and farm products out of the San Luis Valley. They valley began to grow as a powerful agricultural community and in turn, shipping out its agricultural and mining products. After the 1950s, the track was used exclusively for freight.
The current Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Depot in Alamosa was built in 1908 after a fire had destroyed the previous depot in 1907. It served as rail transportation in southwestern Colorado and for its contributions to the continuing economic development in Alamosa and the San Luis Valley from 1908 to 1943. The depot was an important transfer point for passengers, mail and freight. There was a daily passenger train to Alamosa which also hauled huge amounts of freight for transfer to points east and west. Through the 1930s the depot was also the Denver and Rio Grande’s division headquarters.
Alamosa continued to be a busy railroad center during World War II and the following decade dominated by local agricultural produce and livestock. Potatoes were the primary crop in the San Luis Valley and flour mills were constructed to process wheat which was grown extensively across the valley. The land was equally productive for sheep raising and lamb feeding, and were shipped in great numbers through Alamosa. Agriculture became the mainstay of the San Luis Valley and resulted in good economic times in Alamosa. However, during the 1950’s there was a decrease in rail transportation for passengers or freight, the Denver and Rio Grande Depot in Alamosa was closed and sold to Alamosa County in 1961.
Picture: Train tracks located in Alamosa- map of Alamosa with East Yard
Engine #169
Engine 169, which is now located entering into the town of Alamosa, Colorado near City Hall was built for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) to meet the need for additional and larger engines to haul passenger trains, it was part of an order of 12 locomotives and is one of the oldest surviving locomotives of the D&RG Railroad.
The Denver & Rio Grande Railway was incorporated in October 1870 by General William Jackson Palmer. It became the fifth railroad in Colorado, and began as a narrow gauge route because Palmer believed that it would be cheaper to build and operate to be better suited to the canyon and mountain landscapes. By 1888, the D&RG had over 1650 miles of narrow gauge track, reaching to Salt Lake City, Utah, and into the northern part of New Mexico, as well as many areas of the Colorado mountains.
Between April 1883 and June 1884, Baldwin built twelve 4-6-0 narrow gauge passenger locomotives (numbered 166 to 177) for the Denver & Rio Grande as part of construction order number 7028. Locomotive #169 was built in April of 1883. Originally classed as “47” by the D&RG, these locomotives would later be classified as “T-12”—the “T” was for the ten wheels and the “12” for its approximately 12,000 pounds of tractive effort. The No. 169 and the rest of the T-12s remained in passenger service for over 50 years although they were gradually bumped from the name trains by newer and more powerful locomotives. While in active service on the railroad No. 169 was assigned to Denver (the first division), to Alamosa (the fourth division), and to Salida (the third division).
The 169 was assigned to the “San Juan Express” providing regular passenger service between Alamosa and Durango in the early 1900s and as late as September 1922, until it was involved in a head-on wreck while running near Toltec, New Mexico.
Jack Tuney wrote many interesting facts of the D&RG throughout the valley that his family moved to Alamosa as his father found a job a railroad brakeman in Chama, New Mexico. Westbound passenger train #115, was being pulled by Engine 169. It left Alamosa the morning of September 23, 1922, bound for Durango, the train stopped at Sublette station and then proceeded toward Toltec Gorge and Osier. Upon #115 reaching milepost 309.35, Engine 169 hit head-on by an eastbound light (an engine traveling alone) Engine #411 with R.L. Smith at the throttle. Smith thought he had enough time to reach the siding at Sublette before the passenger train arrived, he had misread his orders and it led to consequences. Smith had minor injuries but Engineer D.M. Wright and Fireman Lurton J. Knee on Engine #169 were both unfortunately killed. Two or three employees and almost two dozen passengers had injuries. Pictures were taken by Jack Turney’s (the author) father who arrived on the scene as a brakeman to assist in resolving the situation. Soon after Engine #169 was rebuilt in Alamosa shops it was back in service by December 1922.
Engine 169 was selected to pull westbound Passenger Train #115 to Durango. The train departed from Alamosa on a cold December morning only to find winter conditions growing worse as they traveled west into the San Juan Mountains. In the meantime, westbound Freight Train #441 was experiencing difficulties especially from Osier to Los Pinos because of the winter conditions. The track from milepost 321 at Long Creek on the Cumbres could experience gale-force winds and snow drifts 20-30 feet high at times. Due to weather the freight train was forced to stop on the main line with the engine on the west side of the Los Pinos loop and the end of the long train was still on the east side of the Los Pinos loop. A warning was issued to Osier without knowing it was too late. The conductor of passenger train #115 had not received a message at Osier of freight train #441 was stalled a few miles ahead, so they continued traveling even with the weather conditions worsening. The conductor had to assume that the freight train would be on a designated siding due to passenger trains taking priority on the tracks. Passenger Train #115 continued to travel and rounded the curve into the Los Pinos loop between mileposts 323 and 324. Engine #169 and the passenger train caught up with Freight Train #441, Engine #169 slammed into the rear of the caboose on Freight train #441. The caboose #0540 was forced up and on top of the front of the engine. Inside of the caboose the conductor, two brakemen, and a section worker who sat in the
cupola and saw the light of the engine and jumped out of the window into a snowbank. The remaining three men on the caboose road in the trail till it was at a standstill and had minor injuries. If the engine crew on #169 heard a warning, seen the caboose prior, or was cautious about the weather conditions, they could have slowed down before they crashed into the other train not striking the caboose at a high speed, neither the engineer or firemen would have been injured, and caboose #0540 wouldn’t have been shoved to the side of the tracks which caught on fire. Engine #169 had to be pushed onto the siding and another 4-6-0, ten-wheeler Engine #170 coupled to the passenger train. Eventually Engine #170 survived several accidents and suffered a fate much worse than Engine #169 as it was dismantled in 1926. Caboose #0540, was rebuilt and was still in service in 1968 as it was on the train for the “National Park Service Special Excursion” in November of that year.
Engine #463
The engine is a medium sized, three-foot narrow-gauge steam locomotive. It was built in 1903 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under builder’s plate # 21788. Coal fired and operated by two men, an engineer and a fireman. The engine was originally constructed as a Vauclain compound, however was later changed to piston valves by the D&RGW shops in Alamosa. This change also included the adoption of walschaerts valve motion and linkages. The boiler is a straight circular design of riveted construction, 60 inches in diameter by 16 feet long and has a maximum working pressure rating of 200 pounds per square inch. It was originally built as a saturated steam engine, but was changed to a superheated steam engine in 1927. The frame, which carries the boiler and firebox and rides on the wheels is of the outside pattern. That is the frame, springs and bearings are mounted outside the wheels. The locomotive has a steam operated cross-compound Westinghouse air pump and braking system. The engine also has a Pyle-National 32-volt electrical system. The cab is enclosed and has a foul weather curtain that can be pulled across the gangway. The tender was originally of the slope back design, but was later changed to the rectangular type with increased coal and water capacity. The loaded weight of the locomotive and tender ready for service is slightly under 90 tons. All of the noted changes to the locomotive were made by the Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) shops in an effort to standardize and improve. It is readily apparent that the larger firebox feature was directly equated with greater steaming ability and more power. To this basic the Vauclain compound cylinder system was added, an ingenious device of Samuel vauclain. General Superintendent of the works at that time, which “recycled” the high-pressure exhaust steam through a second set of low-pressure cylinders, thereby increasing the efficiency of the engine. The net result was a locomotive one and one-half times more powerful and the tonnage lifted over the 4% grades of the D&RGW mainline narrow gauge was almost doubled.
In 1955, Engine # 463 was sold to the cowboy singing star, Gene Autry and was shipped to his Melody Ranch at Newhall, California. This action probably saved the engine from the scrap pile. In 1971, action was started by a preservation minded group of rail fans to seek the return of the engine to the former D&RGW narrow gauge operation which had been acquired by the States of Colorado and New Mexico and is now known as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, which is also listed on the National Register of Historic places. The engine was donated by Mr. Autry to the Town of Antonito in November, 1971 and arrived in Town in March of 1972. About this time 463’s only surviving sister # 464 was sold by the D&RGW to Knott’s Berry Farm of Buena Park, California and subsequently shipped to the Berry Farm in 1973. After more than six months work the 464 was put into service on the Berry Farm’s half a mile loop as an amusement attraction. Engine No.463 is the oldest engine on the C&TS line.
San Luis Southern Railroad
The Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area was once home to the shortest standard gauge railroad in the world, the San Luis Southern Railroad, a fallen flag short line railroad which was a connection to the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The rail line connected the communities of Mesita (originally to be named Hamburg with street names in German, and was expecting an influx of German immigrants from Hamburg, Iowa), Jaroso, and the railroad headquarters, San Acacio. You can still see the San Acacio station in San Acacio on road 142 between San Luis and Manassa. During its life freight traffic included farm produce, fertilizer, volcanic scoria (lava rock), and operated passenger service between Blanca and Jaroso, Colorado, until 1946. The railroad formally ceased all operations on December 31, 1996.
A group of Colorado Springs investors purchased a part of the original Sangre de Cristo Land Grant and their development company built a 31.38-mile standard gauge railroad from Blanca to connect the planned communities and farms set up by the Costilla Estates Development Company, whose business model was dependent on reservoirs it had built filling up with water for irrigation. The reservoirs have never filled up, owing to inadequate rainfall to fill them. Consequently, Costilla Estates never prospered, nor did the San Luis Southern Railroad.
The railroad was purchased out of bankruptcy by Charles Boettcher, a Denver businessman, in 1928 after 15 years of unsuccessful settlements. He reorganized the line on December 13, 1928, as the San Luis Valley Southern Railway. In 1954, the name changed again to the Southern San Luis Valley Railroad Company Under Boettcher’s management, the railroad continued to struggle and its fortunes did not progress considerably.
On January 24, 1949, the Boettcher/McLean estates filed a petition before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to abandon the railroad, which was hotly contested by interests in the San Luis Valley. As the interested parties were fighting over the abandonment, San Luis Valley businessmen S. Yorimoto and W.W. McClintock made arrangements to purchase the railroad, purchase took place two weeks before the abandonment hearing were scheduled. Between 1949 and 1954 there were various machinations and financial arrangements made to keep the railroad afloat. In, 1952, McClintock filed for abandonment of the railroad, however the ICC only granted a partial abandonment in 1953, and continued to operate the railroad. Purchasing all stock in the company, McClintock and businessman George Oringdulf, decided to reorganize the line and tied up all the railroad’s loose ends.
In 1958, the rail line from McClintock to Jaroso was closed and the rail was sold to the Climax Molybdenum Company. What was left of the SSLV was roughly a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) stretch south from Blanca. The railroad served Colorado Aggregates Company at McClintock and the Mizokami lettuce packing plant just north of the McClintock wye track, and became the status quo for the railroad until the closing of the Mizokami lettuce plant in the late 1970s and then the subsequent sale of the SSLV to the Hecla Mining Company.
The railroad formally ceased all operations on December 31, 1996.
Locomotive D500
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 11, 2025
A chain-drive diesel-mechanical locomotive built in Mesita, CO located 25 miles south of Blanca, at the workshops of the then Colorado Aggregate Co is the D500 during 1954-56. Designed and built by Channel Wilcox of Denver, CO and George Oringdulph of Mesita, CO to replace the Southern San Luis Valley’s (SSLV) aging ex-D&RGW steam locomotives. A new or used diesel was too expensive, so SSLV decided to build its diesel engine. Built from the underframe of former D&RGW idler car No.010798, and wheelsets (trucks) of a steam locomotive tender from which the coal bunker and water tank had been removed, and castings, each having one standard gauge and two narrow gauge coupler pockets, installed at both ends. The SSLV could now use the diesel engine to move both standard and narrow-gauge cars in a single train over dual gauge track. Although the rear coupler casting is missing, the front one remains in place.
To build the D500, an International Harvester UD-24 diesel, designed for bulldozers and IH’s most powerful engine at the time, was installed driving, through a Caterpillar hydraulic transmission, the power axle from a Euclid truck. The Euclid axle connects, via sprockets and roller chains, with two transverse shafts, one above each of the two trucks. Each shaft is similarly connected using sprockets and chains with one axle of each truck. The other axle in each truck is connected by another set of sprockets and chains, so each axle is powered. The headlights and horn came from a road freight vehicle and the red running lights from a school bus. The “F”’s on the black side ballast bins were required by Federal regulations to indicate the front end. There are two exhaust stacks because the UD-24 engine has two separate 3-cylinder heads, each with its own exhaust.
After the D500 proved its ability to successfully operate from Blanca, CO to Jaroso, CO the SSLV, in 1957, retired its remaining operable steam locomotive. The
D500 last operated in the early 1990’s, then sat on an isolated track section south of Blanca for another 30 years, until recently. You can know visit the newly groomed D500 on the edge of the Town of Blanca.