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AMERICA'S HIGHEST & LONGEST
Take a Ride: May to October, 2011 Click Here for Rates & Schedule Click here to visit our YouTube page with lots of new videos The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad was originally constructed in 1880 as part of the Rio Grande’s San Juan Extension, which served the silver mining district of the San Juan mountains in southwestern Colorado. Like all of the Rio Grande at the time, it was built to a gauge of 3 feet between the rails, instead of the more common 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches that became standard in the United States. The inability to interchange cars with other railroads led the Rio Grande to begin converting its tracks to standard gauge in 1890.
However, with the repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893 and its devastating effect on the silver mining industry, traffic over the San Juan Extension failed to warrant conversion to standard gauge. Over the ensuing decades it became an isolated anachronism, receiving its last major upgrades in equipment and infrastructure in the 1920s. A post-World War II natural gas boom brought a brief period of prosperity to the line, but operations dwindled to a trickle in the 1960s. Finally, in 1969 the Interstate Commerce Commission granted the Rio Grande’s request to abandon its remaining narrow gauge main line trackage, thereby ending the last use of steam locomotives in general freight service in the United States.
Most of the abandoned track was dismantled soon after the ICC’s decision, but through the combined efforts of an energetic and resourceful group of railway preservationists and local civic interests, the most scenic portion of the line was saved. In 1970, the states of Colorado and New Mexico jointly purchased the track and line-side structures from Antonito to Chama, nine steam locomotives, over 130 freight and work cars, and the Chama yard and maintenance facility, for $547,120. The C&TS began hauling tourists the next year.
Today the railroad is operated for the states by the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission, an interstate agency authorized by an act of Congress in 1974. Care of the historic assets, and interpretation of the railroad is entrusted to the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, a non-profit, member-based organization whose mission is to preserve and interpret the railroad as a living history museum for the benefit of the public, and for the people of Colorado and New Mexico, who own it.
When you visit us, be sure to take the self-guided tours of the railroad yards. Departing Antonito, Colorado
One of the most spectacular parts of the trip
starts as the train inches its way along the rim of 800-foot-deep Toltec
Gorge. The walls of the gorge are steep and rocky and at times the
Past Osier, the train first crosses 137-foot-tall Cascade Trestle, the highest on the line. Trees are sparse here and the open mountain scenery is magnificent. Around Tanglefoot Curve, a loop so tight that the train seems almost folded in half, the locomotive steams toward Cumbres Pass. At 10,015 feet elevation, it is the highest pass reached by rail in the United States. There are tall conifers and meadows that bloom with wildflowers in spring and summer. At the summit is an old section house, one of many of the railroad’s historic buildings. As the steep descent begins, sweeping views of the Chama Valley unfold. The lower elevations are dominated by aspen trees and grassy hills. Past the area that was once the historic Lobato sheep ranch, over another trestle spanning Wolf Creek, and the end of the trip at Chama, New Mexico is just ahead.
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The
excitement begins the moment the train leaves the historic station in
Antonito, Colorado. Leaving the vast, open San Luis Valley, the imposing
peaks of the Rocky Mountains seem to stretch forever. The train quickly
covers the flat ground and reaches a series of hills. It crosses
Ferguson’s Trestle, named for a man who was hung there, then climbs to a
lava mesa, a remnant of the mountains’ volcanic past. From here, the route
winds around wide curves, going up into the mountains. White-barked,
slender aspen trees, which turn yellow-gold in fall, form a light,
whispery forest. Sublette, Colorado, an abandoned railroad town, still
provides water for the steam locomotives. Wildlife abounds throughout the
area, with bears, elk, and deer roaming the forests and hawks and eagles
patrolling the sky. Shortly after passing Sublette, the train makes
another crossing between Colorado and New Mexico state lines. (There are
11 throughout the train route.)
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train
seems almost pressed in by rock on both sides. First comes Mud Tunnel,
which is supported by wood beams. Around Phantom Curve, named for a spire
of rock that casts a ghostly shadow, then through Rock Tunnel is a narrow
ledge where the dizzying view is straight down to the rushing Rio de los
Pinos. The train roughly follows this river along much of its route.
Leaving the gorge, the locomotive picks up speed, for it is only about 10
minutes away from the lunch stop at the old townsite of Osier, Colorado.
