Bachmann Trains Roaring Ridge Ready-to-Run On30 Scale Train SetProduct Features
2-6-0 steam locomotive with operating headlight and coal tender
3 Lighted passenger cars
56" x 38" oval of nickel silver E-Z Track
Power pack and speed controller
From the Manufacturer
Valleys echo with the sounds of pulsing steam and churning wheels as the mighty Roaring Ridge makes its ascent into the mountains.
DVD video with assembly instructions
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) was founded in 1870 by General William Jackson Palmer and his life long friend and partner Dr. William Bell as a narrow gauge railway system with the intention of connecting Denver with Mexico City. Narrow gauge was chosen because construction costs — and equally important, construction time — were lower than standard gauge. The route was to pass over Raton Pass in what is now northern New Mexico. Feverish, competitive construction provoked the 1877–1880 war over right of way with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Both rivals hired gunslingers and bought politicians. In June 1879, the Santa Fe defended its roundhouse in Pueblo with Dodge City toughs led by Bat Masterson; on that occasion, D&RG treasurer R. F. Weitbrec paid the defenders to leave. In the end, the Santa Fe won the right to Raton Pass, while the D&RG paid $1.4 million for tracks through the Arkansas River's Royal Gorge to the mining district of Leadville, Colorado. Subsequently, the D&RG focused on exploiting the lucrative mining service opportunities to the west.
The D&RG also pushed west from Walsenburg, Colorado over Veta Pass (now "Old La Veta Pass") by 1877. At the time the 'Uptop' depot on Veta Pass, rising over 9,500 feet (2,900 m) in elevation, boasted the highest elevation for a narrow gauge railroad. The railroad reached Alamosa by 1878. From Alamosa, a line was pushed south through Antonito eventually reaching Santa Fe, New Mexico (the Chili Line) and west as far as Creede, Colorado. A line containing one of the longest tangent tracks in U.S. railroading (52.82 miles) also linked Alamosa with Salida to the north. From Antonito a line was built over 10,015 feet (3,053 m) Cumbres Pass, along the Colorado-New Mexico border, reaching Durango, Colorado in August 1881 and continuing north to the rich mining areas around Silverton in July 1882. A line was also constructed in 1902 as a standard gauge line, perhaps in anticipation of possible standard gauging of the entire line, south from Durango, Colorado to Farmington, New Mexico. Originally hauling mainly agricultural products and serving as a deterent to the Santa Fe building up from the south, the line was converted to narrow gauge in 1926, and later delivered pipe and other construction materials to the local oil and natural gas industry into the 1960s.
Today, the Walsenburg-Alamosa-Antonito line survives as the standard gauge San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad, with passenger excursion trains service provided by the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad. Two narrow gauge segments survive as steam railroads, the Antonito-Chama line as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad and Durango-Silverton as the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
See Also: Lionel O Scale Electric Train Set - Rio Grande Flyer- Just In Time For Christmas! / Bachmann HO Scale 2-6-2 Prairie Locomotive - Rio Grande / Trainline EMD GP9 HO Scale Locomotive - Rio Grande
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