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53-502: The Rio Grande Southern Railroad ( reporting mark RGS , also referred to as "The Southern" ) was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge railroad which ran in the southwestern region of the US state of Colorado , from the towns of Durango to Ridgway , routed via Lizard Head Pass . Built by German immigrant and Colorado toll road builder Otto Mears , the RGS operated from 1891 through 1951 and

106-695: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

159-526: A few different places in Dolores. Much information about this railroad is hard to come by if not lost to history. Still, common knowledge suggests that it ran north of Dolores and through where the McPhee Reservoir is now located to transport logs and other resources to the large logging operations in the area. The BC&F Railroad was built by George Franklin's Boston Coal mine in 1901. The mine

212-464: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

265-497: 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 Buss bodies. These motor cars indeed were successful and handled daily services until 1940 when

318-700: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

371-584: 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

424-717: The Galloping Geese Railcars. Later on, they purchased some boxcars from the Colorado and Southern narrow-gauge railroad system for the last few years of the railroad's life. While the Rio Grande Southern route may be long gone, reclaimed by nature and newer development of civilization, there are still many artifacts from the railroad that still exist today. Such as structures on or along the original right of way, as well as equipment and rolling stock. The RGS had many different locomotives that ran on

477-669: The TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses

530-513: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

583-568: The AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example,

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636-496: 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 . Mears' first attempt at doing just that

689-699: 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

742-576: 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

795-516: The Mayday Mine, just west of Mayday, Colorado (north of Hesperus). As the Rio Grande Southern was not a wealthy railroad for most of its life, the locomotives owned were all second (or more) hand, mostly from the D&;RGW . Many RGS locomotives purchased were pretty old and heavily worn, some having been pulled from storage lines that were intended to hold locomotives prepared for scrap. Most of

848-650: The RGS Mainline. As the name implies, the Telluride branch was a branch line that branched off from Vance Junction facing south and curved around to the north. It then went east into the Downtown Telluride Area. It then extended past Telluride to what was known as Pandora to service more mines in the area. The Montezuma Lumber Company operated a railroad line that branched off the RGS Main in

901-517: The RGS Rolling stock was leased from the D&RGW for frequent use between Durango and Ridgway. The RGS did however manage to have their own fleet of freight equipment (for a time) and passenger cars, as well as cabooses, all of which were purchased second hand from the defunct Rio Grande Western as well as the D&RG and had to be heavily overhauled. The RGS also managed to have their own snow fighting equipment as mentioned above, and of course,

954-596: 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. 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

1007-621: The Rio Grande Southern right of way and remains, during their annual Railroad Days events in September, as well as guided hiking tours of the Silverton Railroad right of way. Reporting mark In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by

1060-635: 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

1113-682: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

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1166-541: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

1219-599: 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. 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

1272-472: The canyon to make its way directly south into the town of Mancos . From Mancos, it traversed east following the East Mancos Creek up Mancos Hill, and then down Cima Hill to the townsite of Hesperus . Then it curved south, passing by Ute Junction, the second coal topple on the line. It then looped back around the east, near the original Fort Lewis campus, heading northeast into Wild Cat Canyon. In

1325-607: The canyon, it passed by the townsite of Porter and the site of the Porter Coal mine, making its way north to Franklin Junction. It then curved east and finally ended close to the San Juan Smelter , where it met up with the D&RGW's San Juan Extension. The RGS had numerous small industry spurs servicing mines and other types of freight traffic, but there were at least four notable branch lines that branched off of

1378-404: 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

1431-465: The first few years of its life, the RGS would have fallen under the definition of a "Bonanza Railroad" which meant it was an instant success, quickly generating more than enough money for the investors and covering costs spent to build the railroad, but their wealth would not last long due to the Silver Panic of 1893 , which would permanently cripple the railroad's finances. The RGS closed down and

1484-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

1537-719: The line throughout its life, but with the exception of locomotives that were leased and the motors/geese, very few remain today. Today, much of the former D&RGW and RGS rolling stock has new life in tourism, at places such as the Huckleberry Railroad , Knott's Berry Farm , the Durango & Silverton Railroad , the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad , and the Colorado Railroad Museum . The Ridgway Railroad Museum offers in-depth guided tours of

1590-572: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

1643-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

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1696-464: 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

1749-406: The railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of

1802-440: 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

1855-468: 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

1908-591: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Lizard Head Pass Lizard Head Pass , elevation 10,222 feet (3,116 m), is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado , on the border between Dolores and San Miguel counties. It is also on the divide between the watersheds of the Dolores River and San Miguel River . The pass lies in

1961-762: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

2014-466: 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

2067-820: The reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

2120-456: The saddle between Lizard Head and Sheep Mountain . The pass is named for a prominent nearby peak that is said to look like the head of a lizard, the 12,995 ft (3,961 m) spire of Lizard Head . The pass is currently traversed by State Highway 145 , about 12 miles south of the Telluride turnoff. It was also used by the historic Rio Grande Southern Railroad until 1952. Although

2173-531: 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. From the Railroad's headquarters and where the main facilities were in Ridgway, the railroad traversed northwest to the Dallas Divide and then headed southwest following near the present-day Route 62, heading down to

Rio Grande Southern Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-530: The side of Yellow Mountain to Trout Lake , curving around it to the Summit of Lizard Head Pass. It then continued southeast, where it met the Dolores River and looped around it heading southwest into the town of Rico. Rico was considered the center of the Railroad and had some notable engine facilities. From Rico, it followed the Dolores River west into the town of Dolores , where it then curved southeast into Lost Canyon. It followed Lost Creek, and eventually exited

2279-468: The townsite of Placerville. It then continued south toward Telluride following the San Miguel River , to what was called Vance Junction (west of Telluride), where one of two coal topples were located. It then continued southeast, curving around up the side of Yellow Mountain to the Townsite of Ophir with the help of numerous, large trestle bridges. It then looped around to the southwest and continued up

2332-467: 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

2385-438: 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. 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

2438-542: Was built with the intent to transport immense amounts of silver mineral traffic that were being produced by the mining communities of Rico and Telluride . On both ends of the railroad, there were interchanges with The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (reporting mark D&RG(W), later known as the Denver and Rio Grande Western), which would ship the traffic the RGS hauled elsewhere like the San Juan Smelter in Durango. For

2491-433: 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

2544-574: Was dismantled in 1952–1953, but it is well known as one of the most rugged and iconic narrow-gauge mountain railroads in the history of Colorado. 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

2597-580: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

2650-459: Was located on the southwest side of Durango's Perins Peak, and George was interested in building a railroad line to service it. The BC&F Railroad branched off the RGS main at Franklin Junction (presumably named after him) and curved its way 5 and 1/2 Miles up the hillside to the mine. The mine had purchased RGS Locomotive No. 35, and renumbered and re-lettered it to BC&F No. 1. The railroad spur started operation on 25 November, of that year, and

2703-530: Was noted often pulling seven gondolas down to Franklin Junction and back three times a day. The spur and locomotive were leased to the RGS in 1925, and eventually, the mine ceased operations in 1927. The BC&F Railroad was dismantled later that year. The Franklin Junction site is now known as the Twin Buttes Subdivision, and the BC&;F Grade is now a hiking trail. The Mayday branch serviced

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2756-550: 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,

2809-408: 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. 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

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