Re: That "fake" stack....

There weren't miles of missing track after the 1970 flood. I walked from Teft Spur to Rockwood a couple of weeks after the flood and saw first hand the amount of damage. And, the rail from the abandonment belonged to the scrapper, not the D&RGW as they had sold it by the time of the flood. They did dig into their stash of new ties in Durango and I think they had more than enough rail on hand.

I also attended the meeting held in Durango after the flood where Gus Aydelott made a presentation to community leaders about the flood. He said they would rebuild this time, but not again, and that the branch was officially for sale. The final cost of the flood repair was split over 1970 and 1971 and was listed by the D&RGW as "an extraordinary expense" of $73,383.00 Perhaps not as dramatic as many have made the flood of 1970 out to be. Even considering the flood, the D&RGW reported a net income of $39,923 in 1970 and $112,731 on the branch the two years of the flood damage. Net revenues for 1970 were $488,085 and 1971 were $678,229.

Fritz