Re: Grande milepost

Joe Weigman Wrote:
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> Was it just on the Silverton branch or was it a
> narrow gauge system-wide change? I'd assume the
> bottom of the wooden mileposts would easily rot
> way and after a while the D&RGW probably got tired
> of replacing them at a certain point...

Somewhere there is a drawing of the "mile post on a rail" with a date attached to it. I'd make a guess in the early 1950's the Grande started replacing the wood posts withe steel ones. Of course money for such luxuries was confined to the Standard Gauge Mainlines, and little filtered down to the Narrow Gauge. There a photos and movie footage of wood mile posts on the Silverton Branch in the 1950's, but they all seem to have been replaced in the early 1960's.

When the Rio Grande decided to promote and develop the Silverton Branch in the early 1960's, they did quite a bit of improvement, including rail replacement, a new bridge across the Animas River below Elk Park, building new passenger cars, etc. I could see new mileposts coming into that program.

On the west of Antonito, the only posts that got replaced were those that rotted out and needed replacing.