I'm the one to apology for missing it in that issue. And I now realize that I had read that and it just passed by me until Mr. Richardson told me it was his latest interest to get a further answer. This was the latest issue of S&NRails and I had concentrated on checking through the old ones.
OK guys!!! We have a real issue here, as there were other "narrow gauge intelligence folks" who also know of this so the issue #51 states.
The first question is: operated by the D&RGW railroad crews or by a government contractor or army crew?
And I insisted that someone find some confirmed date that the scrap train ran through any of the towns on the line. I also said that someone could go into the land deed office and find D&RGW in the index and check for any land sales before 1943 of the right of way, especially in Santa Fe.
WAS the line serving Los Alamos via Alamosa or via Santa Fe? If operated by railroad crews from Alamosa, are any of their time books still out there to study and prove it? If run by a contractor, it would be low pay locals and only the contractor office would have pay records and they surely are trashed. We have the name of the scrapper, so is there a trace route that way to interview someone who took up the rails?
Surely there is some more New Mexico rail historian who can chime in here with some confirming data pro or con. I guess this story is not dead, though it maybe should be!
And, thank you Donald for taking the nerve to face this school of sharks looking for blood. If the Secret Narrow Gauge did happen, it would make a wonderful plot for some model layouts.