Les Jarrett Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I was doing interviews for the video programs
> that I did during the 1980s, I interviewed Jack
> Thode who had been the chief budget officer for
> the Rio Grande. He told me that at the end, the
> gross revenue on the Silverton branch for an
> entire season was the same gross revenue as the
> Denver to Salt Lake mainline accumulated in about
> a day and a half.
>
Yeah, I've heard that factoid several times and belive it to be true.
OTOH, I remember riding the line several times during the late 1960's and 1970's where we got tickets by joining the cancellation line. The way that worked was you showed up at the depot at an ungodly hour (before sunrise) and waited in the line, which typically snaked out of the depot and up the street (Main st) a bit, until just before time for the first train when they would sell all the seats which people had reserved but not claimed for the first train. If you didn't make it on the first train, you waited some more and hoped to get on the 2nd by the same process. Didn't always make it on. So there was a demand for more service that D&RGW wasn't meeting.
The first time I rode after Mr. Bradshaw took over (Sep. 1982) I noticed 3 changes: A K-36 under steam, no more goofy stacks, and the cancellation line was replaced by a take-a-number system and cancellation made at (IIRC) 5:30 pm the previous evening!
hank
ps Under the "what might have been" heading I've wondered for years if a clever someone might have made a go of buying the south end of the RGS (to Delores at most) and running a train that left right after the Silverton as a consolation prize for those who couldn't get on the Silverton that day. Sorta live on the Grande's left-overs as it were. Maybe steam to Delores and a Goose to Hesperus and/or Mancos. Might even made a bit on freight, at least until 1964...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2018 10:22AM by hank.
