Re: Food on the Shavano...

Ralph, by 1937 when the rebuilt Shavano train was placed n service, the passenger train service between Gunnison and Montrose had been replaced by a Rio Grande Motorways bus. There was a dinning room in Gunnison by the depot. There was a long layover of the Shavano at Gunnison waiting for the bus to come from Montrose. The layover was long enough that the Shavano engine (usually 472 or 479) could be used as mid-train helper on Crested Butte coal trains.

My family rode the San Juan passenger train from Durango to Alamosa when I was 5 years old. Unfortunately they did not keep track of the date so I do not know what the consist was. But most likely we rode in one of the three San Juan parlor cars (my mom said we were on the end of the train and had food to eat). I read somewhere that kids were not allowed on the parlor cars due to alcohol being served, but I vividly remember being on the rear platform watching as we crossed bridges.