Re: Any NG sidings/indus Antonito to Alamosa?

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the reminder, as I had know of the detour of the oil traffic. First it went to Salida and over Marshall Pass to be transferred to SG tanks at Montrose, but quickly a transfer was set up at Salida to put it in SG tanks.
Most don't realize that all the extra mileage only cost the D&RG more expense, as they got no more revenue account of the RGS Ames Slide problem. The cars are rerouted by the tariff rules, so the D&RG was very unhappy even having the traffic, as it was now all a loss to them. Even with the long haul in SG cars from Salida, the mileage was so great for the revenue it is wonder they did not get an embargo and stop the move.
The oil kept moving to Salt Lake till even after the Ames slide was fixed I believe, but soon new refineries were build in Farmington, and then shipped the finished road oil and gasoline.
Now that we know where the track were build and when they operated, the untold story of the narrow gauge is the traffic that ran over it and the industries that keep the railroad busy. Anyone who has original source data on the traffic in the San Juan country is sitting on the gold mine of future history of the railroad. Hopeful this information will come out of the woodwork so someone can make a great story of that fascinating history. Richardson, Norwood , Turner, and Chappell have only touched on the traffic in their writings.
I was most interested in what traffic was moving intraline narrow gauge and not what was part of a SG move or transfer traffic, like the oil field supplies. Was there any meats, for example, that loaded in the Valley in ng reefer cars that went to a ng destination in the mountains? I’m sure that happened at some time frame in the history of the line.