Re: HOLLYWOOD SAVED THE RIO GRANDE NARROW GAUGE

Another factor in 1952 was the closure of the Mayflower mine and mill in Silverton cutting both inbound and outbound freight to the bone. The passenger operations continued and I believe there were 3 scheduled trains a week and some freight continued. Winter service was discontinued for the 53-53 winter with no mining traffic to handle. It was a delicate thread that held this operation together at the time.

I think the movie that may have had an equal or greater impact on the Colorado market for the Silverton line was the filming of the "D&RG"--it was well covered in the Denver papers and when the staged collision took place it rated a full color banner picture--it received intense coverage and brought attention to a part of the state and the railroad that was rarely reported in Denver. The world premier of the movie in Denver was well covered, the 268 on display in the Wazee Market brought hundreds of people to see it.

Remember that the road to Silverton was still gravel the last few miles into Silverton until the mid-1950s. The state highway system was primitive by today's standards in most of the mountains and Durango might as well had an address on the moon for people in the metro-Denver area. Obviously it was a fortunate combination of events that the movies helped start. When flooding in 1956 shut down the Silverton line for several days, it was well covered in the Denver papers--to the point I delayed my first trip waiting for train service to resume before I got on the bus for a trip to nowhere just to ride a train--screwed me up for life.

And unless I'm mistaken, no formal petition for abandonment of the Silverton Branch was filed with the ICC until 1959 when the D&RGW sought permission to sell the branch to the Helen Thatcher White Foundation. So anything up to that point was speculation and idle chat.

Fritz