Dear PRSL,
Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I think we are talking past each other. My posted question was about converage of the RGS dismantling by the local newspapers, not the enthusiast community. That aspect of the question has not been responded to yet. And that is really the core element of my inquiry. Because I think most local papers give relatively short shrift to the dismantling of abandoned railroads and industrial plants.
The other aspect of documentation, the enthusiast photography, is certainly there for the RGS. However, enthusiast documentation of the dismantling of much of the narrow guage system is not as thorough as it is for the RGS. The abandonment and scrapping of the D&RGW's Lake City branch, Orient branch, Valley Line, Pagosa Springs branch and Floresta branch are largely unrecorded by enthusiasts. So the similar lack of enthusiast photos documenting the scrapping of the Santa Fe branch should not surprise anyone.
I will be interested in seeing the work on the Los Alamos end of the project which you referenced when completed. Again, I mean no disrespect, but good stories have a way of becoming embedded in local lore - the tale about Daly's men building the BA&P was repeated in TRAINS. Given the amount of detailed information about the construction of Camp Hanford (another part of the Manhattan Project) which has been declassified and has come out, I would expect the documentation of much of the early selection and development of Los Alamos should be open to researchers at the National Archives. That is much more likely to resolve this question than the local newspapers.
Good luck researching.
Charlie Mutschler
-30-
