Re: Tank Cars in Durango

Tank cars were run over the complete system. To answer one of the questions. Crude that came up from Farmington via the RGS went on to Montrose where there was a transfer facility to standard gauge cars. Another great example is found in Trails along the Columbine series in the 1989 issue on page 76-77 is a color photo showing a mixed freight with seven UTLX tank cars and five with "Gramps" lettered on their sides, on June 6, 1940. The tank cars contained road oil and were being setout at Iola. Gunninson had a fair sized distribution building and tanks. Chione had an excellent color slide set of this train running between Gunninson and Montrose. Cimarron had a simple buried tank that fuels were distrubuted into. Ouray had a small distributor and two above ground tanks. While tank traffic was not large on the RGS (percentage wise) and the D&RGW (3rd Division) it did generate some steady traffic. One of the RGS story books gives a breakdown on percentage of car traffic per commodity type.