guymonmd Wrote:
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> Many of the curves on the C&TS track are far too
> tight for standard gauge. I do not believe the line
> was constructed with the idea that it would one day
> be converted to SG.
VERY unlikely that conversion was in mind when the Sawn Juan Extension was built in 1880-81 . . .
drgwk37 Wrote (approximately):
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> It wouldn't have been too different than when the
> Monarch branch was converted to SG — that pro-
> cess took around 30 days IIRC. Curves were
> broadened, sidings added [and] bridges filled in.
> I'll have to dig it out, but there were talks & plans
> and plans to Std Gauge most of the existing NG,
> money being a huge factor derailed a lot of the
> these plans and I'm happy for it!
The Monarch Branch was a relatively small-volume, single-commodity, low-speed short-haul branch that required only minimal changes to maintain service – quite different from the Alamosa-to-Farmington "mainline" in the early and mid fifties, which was very high volume for a time. I vaguely remember reading an article in the Colorado Springs
Gazette Telegraph while attending college in 1959 that the D&RGW had been contemplating the standard-gauging (and diseaselization) of the line, but decided against doing so as projections indicated (quite accurately, as it turned out) that oil and gas production in the San Juan Basin would level off by the late sixties.