Yes. The headline for this thread is a bold statement. I'll go even farther. If the Rio Grande had been successful in scrapping the Silverton branch in the 1950s – which was its objective – the Cumbres & Toltec wouldn't exist today, either. After all, who would have been crazy enough to put money into that project if the "Silverton Train" hadn't proved that there was viability in running a tourist train in the wilds of southwestern Colorado.
The 1949 motion picture "Colorado Territory" with Joel McCrea – the first train film shot in the area – was not a game changer, but is likely the reason 2-8-0 loco No. 315 ended up in a Durango park and not as scrap metal.
The more research I did into the subject, the more I came to believe that "A Ticket to Tomahawk" – filmed on the Silverton branch in 1949 and released in 1950 – is reason the line still exists today. It proved to people in Durango and Silverton that what they had was something special, spurring public pressure on the Rio Grande to better promote the Silverton Train and increase its capacity.
Ridership on the train kept growing in the years that followed, assisted by the publicity surrounding several more motion pictures that were shot on the Silverton branch or around the Durango area. Tourism that was based on people visiting motion picture locations is now commonplace everywhere. Durango in the 1950s was a very early example of this phenomenon. People came to see the sights and ride the train.
Prior to this, when a Rio Grande narrow gauge line became unprofitable due to mine closures, they applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for abandonment, which was usually granted. Robert W. Richardson reported on the pending demise of the Silverton branch in various issues of his "Narrow Gauge News" publication in the early 1950s, based on the decline in Silverton mining. The idea that a tourist train without freight to help support it could sustain a 45-mile railroad was unheard of at that time.
When I began researching "Hollywood's Railroads, Volume Three: Narrow Gauge Country," I read a couple of simplistic articles where the authors had given Hollywood credit for the line's survival. Initially, I dismissed this as hyperbole. I originally believed the line was saved by an equal combination of factors. The more I dug into it, though, the more it became apparent that the combination of factors had a definite trigger, which was "A Ticket to Tomahawk." Without that particular film coming along in 1949, I am now convinced things would be very different today.
Imagine a world where steam trains didn't exist in that region; where Durango and Chama didn't evolve around a railroad theme and were less prosperous than they are today; where documentation on what used to be there was limited to the pages of long-out-of-print books by Lucius Beebe and others; where generations of steam railroad professionals didn't have the opportunity to learn the business under ideal conditions; where volunteers couldn't learn about preservation and restoration in a hands-on setting; where model manufacturers like Pacific Fast Mail, Westside, Precision, Blackstone, Rio Grande Models, PBL, and many others didn't exist or had radically different product lines because modelers were largely unfamiliar with the Rio Grande narrow gauge, since it was something they never saw, rode, or could identify with; where all of us who share a love of these narrow gauge lines had never met and probably wouldn't be communicating on dedicated discussion forums.
Without living railroads, Durango is another Gunnison (a college town and government center), Silverton is another Lake City (a summertime bedroom community for Texans with depressed retail activity), and Chama is just another wide spot in the road.
Thankfully, history played out as it did, or I'd probably have the HO-scale Sierra Railroad locomotives 28, 34, and 36 that Westside or Precision might have imported in brass because the market for locomotive models from defunct Colorado lines was small. And I wouldn't know the difference. I also wouldn't have met a bunch of really wonderful people whose friendships I cherish.
For me, the Durango Railroad Historical Society's "Emma Sweeny" locomotive from "A Ticket to Tomahawk" that now sits in Durango's Santa Rita Park is much more significant than just being an old movie prop that is stuffed and mounted. It is literally "ground zero" for all that has happened in narrow gauge preservation over the past 65 years – a monument for the ages.
I believe Hollywood saved the Rio Grande narrow gauge for all of us to enjoy.
Your thoughts? Questions? Comments?
