Re: K28s on the RGS

In 1968 during my first trip on the D&RGW as a 12 year old boy I was very excited about the narrow gauge steam railroad. I saw the tracks heading west out of Durango from the yard and ask the conductor were they went. He told me they used to go west around the smelter to Mancos. I knew Mancos was the nearest city to Mesa Verde and asked him why the railroad did not have a train going there. I was told it was abandoned 15 years earlier when the RGS went bankrupt. He then told me the D&RGW was even then trying to get rid of the narrow gauge railroad and they going to take up the tracks to Chama. One of the prospects he told me was they might sell the railroad to the government and rebuild the route to Mancos to carry tourist to Mesa Verde. This made a big impression on a 12 year old boy so I ask him if they would use the same engines as they did going to Silverton. The conductor told me probability so since they had done it once earlier. This is the old railroad employee talking to a young man in 1968. There was no talk of the D&RGW doing this, or of rail weight ,or of Ridgeway, it may have been public relation talk to get politicans to relieve the the D&RGW of what they considered the narrow gauge burden. mktjames