Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad traces its origins to July 1881, when the Denver & Rio Grande began grading the final 45‑mile stretch that reached Durango and was completed by spring 1882; the line opened to Silverton in July 1882 and the Durango depot was erected in January 1882. After decades of freight and passenger service, the last east‑bound train left Durango on December 6 1968, and in 1970 the states of New Mexico and Colorado bought 64 miles of adjacent track for the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, while the Chama‑to‑Durango segment was removed by 1971. Facing abandonment, the line was saved when Charles Bradshaw of Florida offered to purchase it in 1979, and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad sold the 45‑mile right‑of‑way to Bradshaw’s newly formed Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Company on March 25 1981. The railroad suffered a temporary shutdown after the “416 Fire” in June 2018 and again during the COVID‑19 pandemic in 2020, prompting a multi‑million‑dollar conversion program to replace coal‑fired steam with oil‑burning units, a project the company aims to complete by 2023. Today the D&SNG, together with the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, remains one of only two operating remnants of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow‑gauge network.