Hi Rod! I was asked several years ago if you and I are related. I could only answer "Not that I'm aware of." Since neither of us seems to have done anything to disgrace the name we share, I'm OK with it if we are related! I did not intend to diminish the role that many, many "boots on the ground," as you put it, played in saving what still exists of the old Rio Grande narrow gauge. As I researched and read reams of written words on the subject over a period of several years, it became apparent that 1949 was a pivotal turning point.
The Silverton branch train carried around 3,000 passengers in 1949. By 1954, the count was more than 15,000 and Rio Grande president Wilson McCarthy admitted the line made "a little money." While it is true that conductor Alva Lyons and his coffee pot were wonderful PR for the line in 1949, and Bob Richardson opened the Narrow Gauge Motel and became a huge thorn to the Rio Grande that year, and Beebe and Clegg were writing about the line, and the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club was staging excursions, and politicians were lobbying, and more and more people joined the bandwagon over time, no combination of these efforts alone would – in my humble opinion – have resulted in the 15,000 number in 1954 without what took place in 1949.
It's like the old PBS show "Connections," where they charted how one event led to another that, in turn, led to yet another, and so on. It was a domino effect. What I referred to as the "trigger" in my earlier post was "A Ticket to Tomahawk." That was the first domino. It resulted in the "Painted Train" in 1950, which increased capacity on the Silverton branch that was filled, in part, by some of the millions of people who saw the movie in theaters after it opened in May 1950. It also led to producer Nat Holt making the movie "Denver & Rio Grande" in 1951. In the same month that movie premiered in Durango – May 1952 – Bob Richardson's "Narrow Gauge News" had the headline "End of Silverton Branch Expected This Year."
In an editorial statement in the November 1952 issue, Richardson criticized the lack of marketing for the Silverton Train and credited the publicity surrounding "Denver & Rio Grande" with proving what publicity can do. Still, a headline in his July 1953 issue stated "Probable Abandonment of Silverton Branch Announced by D&RGW Official." So while the threat still loomed, the train kept breaking records in the number of people carried.
All this goes back to "Connections" and 1949. No "A Ticket to Tomahawk," no "aha" moment for people in Durango and Silverton, no "Painted Train," no increase in passengers, no "Denver & Rio Grande" with the masterful publicity that surrounded it, and likely no building the passenger count fast enough to a level where even the railroad had to admit it was profitable. Hence, the Silverton branch is likely abandoned in the 1950s and the Cumbres & Toltec never exists. All of this is merely speculation, of course.
