Syd Schofield

Editors note: Welcome to the eleventh article of a series on narrow gauge by Syd Schofield. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Narrow Gauge”. Syd welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of the post.

As the common carrier railroads grew to service larger and wider areas than the linear path from A (departure) to B (destination), the construction of a branch line followed, at least when the market supported and the terrain allowed. Railroads often pursued interesting routes to get to the destination in the shortest distance, frequently in a path unsuitable to the standard gauge requirements. In the case of access to the mines near Westcliffe and Silver Cliff in the Wet Mountain Valley, the surveyors chose the Grape Creek Canyon. This area is in south central Colorado from the Royal Gorge route of the Denver & Rio Grande, then a dual gauge line. In the challenging accomplishments building the line along the Arkansas River through the Gorge (running gun battles with rival railroad construction crews notwithstanding), it probably didn’t seem too difficult a task for the veteran builders.

The Grape Creek Canyon route runs over thirty miles and two-thirds are through some extremely challenging curves and tangents. There are tunnels and bridges when even the agile three foot trackage couldn’t negotiate the obstacles. Fortunately the grade along the moderate creek drop wasn’t too difficult. After a couple of washouts from the frequent Colorado flash floods the route was abandoned and a much longer standard gauge route was constructed a generation later. The standard gauge route was built to the west and had one S-curve for altitude gain. The attraction for access was gold, silver, iron, coal, logging and livestock. This makes for some interesting modeling possibilities.

Today there are three highways replacing the rails and allowing access to the region. Negotiating the original route can be accomplished only on foot and perhaps by the most skilled mountain bike rider. Exploration is only recommended in late summer dry conditions. One can only imagine the construction efforts in the best of conditions with a wary eye on the weather for a hasty exit. These common situations in the mountain narrow gauge lines presented challenges for the engineers and accountants as well as the actual laborer. In this case getting the workers, food and supplies to the building site from base camp wasn’t difficult.

One possibility for modeling this area is to use the creek bed as the edge of the layout looking across the track to the cliffs of the canyon.