Traffic in the San Luis Valley

This page is about the D&RGW in San Luis Valley, a model railroad project by Roland Levin, based on the historical Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in Colorado. The page provides the following information:

Standard gauge traffic: A table of the towns, companies, commodities, and types of cars involved in the standard gauge traffic in the valley, along with the time frame and comments for each entry.
Narrow gauge traffic: A similar table for the narrow gauge traffic, which operated until 1968 and declined rapidly after 1964.
Last update: The date when the page was last updated, which is 2009-10-05.

Town	Company	Ships	Receives	Amount	Type of cars	Time frame	Comments
Antonito	Johns-Manville Corp.	Perlite, 100lb bags			40' and 50' box cars	50s and forward
	Johns-Manville Corp.	Perlite, bulk		2000 cars/year	2 and 3 covered hoppers 1965-69 Pullman 2893, 4427. Later Pullman 4740, 4750 and ACF Center flows		50% of the total traffic
	United Perlite	Perlite, bulk
	Great Lakes Carbon	Perlite, bulk			as above		2nd biggest shipper
	Colorado Aggregate	Scoria		300 cars/year 1955	70 ton and 100 ton hoppers	50s and forward	Folsom Cinder Company during the 50s
	Colorado Aggregate	Decorative rocks
	Colorado Aggregate		Marble chips
	Lumber Mill	Lumber			Flat cars, box cars

Romeo	Reed Feed & Grain	Oats, wheet, barley			Covered hoppers, box cars
	Cattle pens	Cattle, sheep

Bountiful	Coors Brewing	Barley			3 bay covered hoppers	Started mid to late 60s

La Jara	Floyd Reed's Grain	Grain			3 bay covered hoppers

South Fork	Stone Forest Products	Lumber			Flat cars, box cars	Ended 2000	To Tennessee, Georgia
		Wood chips			D&RGW 40ft box cars later Santa Fe GS gons with side extensions	Started mid to late 60s	To paper mill in Nekoosa, Wisconsin

Creede		Ore concentrates			GS drop-bottom and GB fixedbottom gons	Until mid 80s

Monte Vista	Coors Brewing	Barley		800 cars/year	3 bay covered hoppers 1965-69 Pullman 2893, 4427 Later Pullman 4740, 4750 and ACF Center flows		Coors, Golden CO?
	Lumber Mill	Lumber			Flat cars, box cars
	Mountain King	Potatoes			Un-iced and mechanical reefers
	Wolf Creek Potato	Potatoes			Un-iced and mechanical reefers
Center	San Luis Central	Centennial Russet Potatoes		20 cars/day	Un-iced reefers mainly from ART but also from WFE, PFE, FGE, BREX and SFRD.	Until end of the 60s
Center	San Luis Central	Centennial Russet Potatoes		20 cars/day	SLC REA express reefers. Later second hand 57ft mechanical reefers from PFE and FGE	From the beginning of the 70s
			Acid		Tank cars
			Fertilizer		Tank cars
			Anhydrous ammonia		Tank cars

Zinzer	Sanner Bros	Scrap Metal			Gondolas
	Monte Vista CoOp	Grain			Covered hoppers
			Fertilizer		Tank cars
			Anhydrous ammonia		Tank cars

Parma	Poote Chemical		Fertilizer		Tank cars

Alamosa	Trucks from Chama	Raw timber			Flat cars
	Rio Grande Motorway		General freights		Box cars
	Stock yard	Stock			Stock cars		Transfer from narrow to standard gauge
	E+H Crane		Pipes		Gondolas and flat cars		Transfer from standard to narrow gauge
	Transfer yard		Drilling mud, Fibertex from Baroid Corp.		Box cars		Transfer from standard to narrow gauge
		Lumber			Flat cars and box cars		Transfer from narrow to standard gauge
	Oil transfer track	Crude oil			Tank cars		Transfer from narrow to standard gauge
	Lumber yard		Lumber		Flat cars, box cars	Until beginning of the 60s
	Sky Valley Ice	Lettuce			Reefers*		August and September

Blanca	Blanfort Potato Warehouse	Spuds (Potatoes)			Reefers*
*reefers mainly from ART but also from WFE, PFE,FGE, BREX and SFRD

Town	Company	Ships	Receives	Amount	Type of cars	Time frame	Comments
Alamosa	E+H crane	Pipes			Gondolas/flats		Transfer from standard to narrow gauge
	Transfer Yard	Cars			6200, 6300 and 6500 series flat cars with canvas cover	Until 1952	Transfer from standard to narrow gauge
	Transfer yard	Drilling mud, Fibertex from Baroid Corp.			Box cars, also 40' reefers in the end of the narrow gauge era		Transfer from standard to narrow gauge
	Transfer yard	Glass bottles			Box cars		Transfer from standard to narrow gauge
	Stock yard		Cattle/sheeps		Stock cars		Transfer from narrow to standard gauge
	Alamosa refinery		Oil		Tank cars
	Oil transfer track		Oil		Tank cars		Transfer from narrow to standard gauge
	Transfer yard		Lumber		Box cars/flats		Transfer from narrow to standard gauge
	Engine facility		Coal		Drop bottom gondolas
	Transfer yard		Soft Drinks		Box cars

Durango	Soft drinking bottler		Glass bottles		Box cars
	Weidemann's mill	Lumber			Box cars/flats	Until 1968
	Yard	Coal			Drop bottom gondolas		For engine facilities
	Yard		Cars		Flats with canvas cover		To car dealer in Durnago
	Yard	Scoria					Ballast dump along the track
	Lumber Yard	Ties					Dropped at sidings along the stretch
	Soft drink bottler	Soft drinks

Farmington	Oil field		Drilling mud		Box cars
	Oil field		Pipes		Gondolas/flats

Chama	Yard	Oil			Tank cars
	Skyline Lumber Co	Lumber			Box cars/flats	Until 1968

Antonito	Engine facility		Coal		Drop bottom gondolas
*all narrow gauge traffic started to decline rapidly after 1964 and ended completely in 1968 .

Standard gauge traffic

Narrow gauge traffic