Jim,
Good points.
I do not know about a legal battle, but legal advice will be needed for sure. If we can locate the current owners, we need to negotiate with them about obtaining the property or an easement across the property. Reversion back to the original owner occurs when the railroad did not buy outright the property in question. When a railroad is abandoned, the property is still the property of the railroad for the railroad to dispose of or not as it sees fit. Upon abandonment, adjacent landowners will frequently purchase the ROW. In one case I heard about, neither adjacent landowner bought the ROW, it was bought be someone farther down the tracks with adjacent land so that he would have a new driveway that was easier to maintain.
If the deal was for an easement across someone else's property, the easement usually becomes null and void after a period of time (say 10 years) after a trigger point (say the last train crosses the property). As long as you run a train every 9 and one half years, the easement stays in affect. Again all we need to do is locate the current owner.
If the land was a grant from a government, there is no telling what the conditions are on the property.
This is why we need to locate where the ROW is and figure out what to offer to get control of the ROW.
All of this takes time and legwork. I know how to do it but live in the wrong state to do much of it. We just need people who know how to do a records search through the tax record plats to see what happened to the land since the D&RGW relinquished ownership or control.
As Jessica believes, the D&RGW received permission to lay track across the Indian Reservations in exchange for free rides for any Indian. Maybe we can work out a similar deal. According to my Rand McNalley road atlas most of the Colorado ROW is on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation (from Falfa to about halfway between Gato and Dulce at the Colorado-New Mexico state line). From the same state line crossing to Dulce NM, the ROW is on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation. This looks to be over half of the 100 miles. If the Utes and the Apaches will allow us to use the ROW on their reservations for the running of gambling trains, we would be over half way to our goal. Since it may be tied into a revenue source for them (gambling and tourism), they may actually help us lobby for the rest of the ROW. We might even be able to sweeten the pot by offering railroad jobs (say section workers, shop workes, etc) to them.
The buy-in by the Utes and the Apaches would be a major key to the success or failure of this endeavor. Purchasing the ROW from the Utes and Apaches I believe is impossible for us. I think federal law prevents non-Indians from owning land inside a reservation unless it is grandfathered in.
There are at least three existing sections of track in existence. A short piece at Dulce with two rotting stock cars on it. A half-mile or so with steel trestle and switches and a gondola at Gato. And a short piece with two or three gondolas at Arboles with the water tank made from a standard gauge locomotive tender. If we can get the go ahead from Durango to lay a section of track next to the bike path they want, that would be great.
Are there any more artifacts (track, bridges, and structures) along the old ROW?
Doug
