Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Transportation – July 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Last scheduled narrow-gauge passenger train from Alamosa to Durango: the San Juan, Jan. 31, 1951. After that there were special excursions chartered by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club and similar organizations, and these continued into the 1960s. Summer tourist service on the segment between Antonito and Chama, N.M., resumed in 1970.
Last scheduled standard-gauge passenger train to Alamosa: the San Luis, June 2, 1953. Summer tourist service between Alamosa and La Veta resumed in May of 2006.
Last scheduled narrow-gauge passenger train from Salida to Gunnison: the Shavano, Nov. 24, 1940.
Last scheduled standard-gauge passenger train from Salida to Malta (Leadville) and Grand Junction: the Royal Gorge, Dec. 5, 1964. There were occasional passenger excursions through Salida afterwards, among them a chartered train of private cars in the fall of 1993, and a UP steam-powered special in 1997.
Last scheduled standard-gauge passenger train to Salida: the Royal Gorge, July 27, 1967. Tourist service through the Royal Gorge resumed in 1999.
Last through freight over Tennessee Pass: August 23, 1997.
Last freight through Salida, going from Pueblo to Malta to pick up concentrates from the Black Cloud Mine and starting them toward the smelter in East Helena, Montana: March 11, 1999.
Last narrow-gauge passenger train from Leadville: April 10, 1937. The line from Leadville to Climax was not abandoned with the rest of the C&S route, and was converted to standard-gauge in 1943. It served the Climax Molybdenum Mine until the 1980s, and summer tourist excursions began in 1988.
