A rail-fan favorite, Colorado Narrow Gauge pictures the trains of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Established in 1870, the Rio Grande eventually operated 2,783 miles of track connecting Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Serving mountain communities, farms, and mines from the 1800s into the mid-1900s, the Rio Grande ran trains through mountain gorges, and across the highest rail mainline in America to deliver on the D&RG s early motto, Through the Rockies, not around them." Engines and trains featured include:
Mikados (2-8-2) 486, a Class K-36, and 494, a Class K-37, are on a 2% grade ascending eastbound four miles west of Falfa, CO
Engines 499 on the point and rear helper 497 (both Class K-37 Mikados) bring eighteen carloads of sheep up the 4% grade around Windy Point, CO
Rotary Snowplow 0Y is working in two- to six-foot drifts being pushed by 487 and 488 (Class K-36 Mikados) about two miles east of Los Pinos, CO
Engine 455 leading a southbound freight across Bridge 19-A near Wade, CO on April 15, 1949. 455 was one of an order of fifteen locomotives purchased from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1903
Engine 489 (a Class K-36 2-8-2 Mikado) is on the point of an eastbound train, coming off the Marshall Pass Line
Engine 483 (Class K-36 Mikado) is on an eastbound Illini Railroad Club passenger special just east of the siding at Oxford, CO
Engine 278 (a 2-8-0 Class C-16 Consolidation) built in 1882
Engine 42 (a 2-8-0 Consolidation) was purchased from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1887
Engine 74 (a Consolidation 2-8-0) has stopped at Vance Junction, CO to take on a load of coal
The unusual nature of the train is apparent if you consider the locomotive and consist. 481 is a narrow-gauge locomotive. Behind it is a standard gauge idler car, equipped with both standard and narrow-gauge couplers...
Engine 488, a Class K-36, and 494, a Class K-37, both 2-8-2 Mikados, are on an eastbound livestock train 1.5 miles west of Cresco, CO
Engines 498-491 are on the point of a double-headed westbound freight passing through Arboles, CO; within a few years, this entire scene would be under water
