Rio Grande Southern Railroad

Background

The D&RG had built a narrow-gauge route from Denver in 1870, making its way to the Animas Valley from the town of Alamosa (Known as the San Juan Extension) and establishing the city of Durango in 1881, and then built to the town of Silverton in 1882. The D&RG would later build a route from Salida to Montrose, and then south to where they established the town of Ridgway (named after D&RG superintendent Robert M. Ridgway) and reached the mining town of Ouray in 1887. The D&RG had surveyed possible routes to access the town of Rico and connect the Ouray branch, one that branched off of the Silverton Branch at Hermosa and another route that Otto Mears' Silverton Railroad would eventually be constructed on, but as far as the D&RG was concerned, both routes were deemed as too formidable for a railroad line to be constructed. It was Otto Mears who decided to take on the task of connecting the D&RG's rail lines that were separated North and South of the central San Juans, and he had been on good terms with the D&RG from building the roadbed for their route to Gunnison, over Poncha and Marshall Pass.

The Silverton Railroad

Mears' first attempt at doing just that was the Silverton Railroad (reporting mark SRR), which went northwest of Silverton utilizing the survey done by the D&RG, mostly following the route of today's US 550 (also known as the Million Dollar Highway) over Red Mountain Pass. With the help of locating engineer Charles Wingate Gibbs, Mears managed to build the SRR to Ironton, which made it within 8 miles (12.9 km) of Ouray. However, the remaining stretch through the Uncompahgre Gorge to Ouray was considered too difficult, despite the efforts and engineering feats that had been already accomplished by Mears and Gibbs to get the SRR to Ironton in the first place. A cog railway was briefly considered as well as a spiraling tunnel, but the two ideas never made it out of the hypothetical realm. The SRR was able to profit from the also immense mineral traffic coming from the Red Mountain Mining District, but the Silver Panic of 1893 did not do any good to the Railroad, and eventually, the SRR was shut down and removed in 1926.

Formation

Once it was apparent to Mears that the Silverton Railroad would not be able to access Ouray, he considered a Railroad route heading west of Durango. It would head north following Lost Creek and the Dolores River, accessing the mining community of Rico, then over Lizard Head Pass, following the San Miguel River up to the Dallas Divide, and then into the town of Ridgway. This route would essentially bypass the issues that kept the SRR from completing the line from Ouray and the need for various switchbacks and wyes the SRR required to traverse Red Mountain Pass. So in 1889, he incorporated the Rio Grande Southern. Construction began that year from both Ridgway and Durango. By the end of 1890, before the line was complete, the RGS was already servicing mining companies in Telluride and west of Durango. One of these was the Porter Coal Mine, built by John Porter, who had started other coal mines throughout the Durango Area to fuel the Durango Smelter/San Juan Smelter that he had built as well. The line was completed on 12 December 1891, where the two construction teams met south of Rico. Then the RGS was booming, profitable for the company and investors, and producing higher than average pay for RGS employees. This only lasted for a year and a half, however, as the Silver Panic of 1893 had resulted in most of the mines the railroad serviced closing overnight, and the railroad lost most of its traffic. This would severely affect the finances of the RGS, and the railroad was never able to fully recover from this and it created many characteristics the RGS is known for today. In August 1893, the RGS requested a voluntary receivership, which was received by Edward Turner Jeffery of the D&RG. Otto Mears had lost control of his railroad, and the D&RG was now in charge. By 1895 the receivership had ended, but Ed Jeffery was appointed president, still ensuring D&RG's control of the line. Later on, the RGS was able to pursue other kinds of traffic, such as lumber/logging, livestock, as well as different types of mineral traffic.

Difficulties

As the railroad attempted to recover from the panic of 1893 slowly, other issues had to be dealt with regarding natural occurrences. The railroad's route followed the Dolores River, which tended to flood many times during the railroad's lifetime. Most of the terrain it went through experienced tons of snow in winter and occasional rock and mudslides in summer. The RGS was able to order two new rotary snowplows specifically for the railroad before the Panic of 1893 and later on built three(?) plow flangers. Still, depending on how bad the snow got, it often caused closures, and the cost to operate trains with their plow equipment was too much for the railroad during specific times as they required two to four locomotives to push them. Many bridges and trestles would be washed out when rivers flooded over, adding more costs to railroad maintenance and closures.

Galloping Goose railcars

The Great Depression of 1929 heavily affected the RGS, to the point where the railroad could not afford to operate one single steam locomotive (Paying for Fuel, Paying the Engineer and Fireman to operate the locomotive, etc.). However, they still had the responsibility to ship US Mail, and in 1931, Chief Mechanic Jack Odenbaugh devised a way to construct seven homemade "railcars" that would be cheap to build and operate, capable of transporting US mail and a few passengers. The official names given from the RGS were "Motors", but these railcars would later be unofficially named "Galloping Geese" by Railfans because of how they looked, operated, and sounded.- Waddling down the poorly maintained, unlevel RGS tracks with a silver-painted body and hood covers that looked like goose wings when opened up to prevent the motor from over-heating, and the horn sounding somewhat like a honking goose. These railcars are arguably one of the most iconic aspects of the RGS and are known by most narrow-gauge railfans. The first Goose (RGS Motor #1) was built from a recycled Buick body, frame, and engine, and #2 would be as well, but with a larger and enclosed freight compartment, a requirement to haul US mail. Motors #3 through #5 and #7 were built from Pierce Arrow bodies, but with freight compartments the size of a boxcar. Motor #6 was made from a Buick as well, but it was designated for Maintenance of Way service, and only had a flatbed attached behind the cab. Later on, Motors #3 through #5 would receive replacement Wayne bus bodies. These motor cars indeed were successful and handled daily services until 1940 when the RGS could afford to run regular freight trains. Even after that, the Geese completely replaced revenue-generating passenger trains until abandonment; almost all passenger coaches the RGS owned at the time had been put into MOW service since.

Demise

The RGS filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission for abandonment on 24 April 1952, after 60 years of operation. The RGS had lost the contract to ship US mail after failing to clear snow to deliver during the winter of 1951–52. This contract was the very last profitable aspect of the RGS. Scrapping operations started after the request for abandonment was approved in April and was completed by March 21st, 1953. Remaining operational equipment such as RGS C-17 #42 on the south end of the line and D&RGW K-27 #461 on the north end as well as various Motors/Geese were used to salvage the rails and other parts of the railroad that were removed.

Most of the RGS equipment had been abandoned, sold, or scrapped. The RGS had many locomotives regardless of whether they were leased or owned, but many were eventually cannibalized for parts that went to similar locomotives of the same class and then scrapped. The RGS was always having financial issues and was usually more than willing to sell worn out or excess locomotives and rolling stock hardware to the scrappers to stay afloat. The D&RGW had to perform similar practices during the Great Depression, causing many typical classes of RGS and D&RG locomotives to almost go extinct.