Re: What was Rio Grande Land?

Peyton Smith Wrote:
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> Though the fact the train 'often sold out' was
> included in a joint promotional film between the
> WP and D&RGW in the late fifties or early sixties.
> 'Magic Rails to yesterday' or something I think
> it was called.. was this actually ever the case?

Yes. I remember several times as a kid getting up well before dawn in Durango to go down to the depot and wait in line for cancelled tickets. Easy for us to do as we were from Iowa and still on Central time, not to mention that at home we kept farmer's hours. Back in the 1960's and 1970's the Grande would load the first train, then go through and count the no-shows and sell the people at the head of the line the seats. About an hour later they would go through and do the same for the second train. The line would wind through the depot, out the door, and up the sidewalk on Main street, sometimes for a block or more. People at the end of the line seldom made it on, hence our early arising. This, and the fence around the yard, were two of the first things I noticed had changed once Bradshaw took over as the procedure became tickets not picked up by late the previous afternoon were resold that evening.

As to "Rio Grande Land", after the attempt to sell the line was denied in the early 1960's the D&RGW bought up a lot of the area along Main just North of the depot and redeveloped it, promoting it as Rio Grande land. This included creating the General Palmer House from some of the old hotels and a few other things. It hit its peak in '64-'65 about the time the new cars came in.

Hank
ps I still remember well the time in the late 1970's when I was flirting with a girl in line in front of us (we eventually made it on the 2nd train that day) only to find out she was about 5 years older than me and married! I was 16 or 17 at the time...