| From Pueblo
the railroad heads south to Trinidad. This was
the original destination route before court action from the AT&SF
railroad denied the D&RG access to Raton Pass. In order to continue
south, the railroad would first have to cross the Sangre de Cristo
mountain range into the San
Luis Valley. Here the railroad finally meets its namesake, the Rio
Grande del Norte (Grand River of the North in Spanish).
The line follows along the eastern plains from Pueblo, at the base of
the Sagre de Cristo range. This arid route contains little development
until turning west and reaching the town of Walsenburg.
From here the tracks begin their long climb over La
Veta Pass at elevation 9,393. At the time of its construction in the
late 1870's, this crossing of the mountains was 1000 feet higher than any
railroad and deemed an engineering
marvel by the rest of the world. The scenery was stunning and lead to the
railroad's slogan "Scenic Line of the World."
Grades on the line were steep and there were numerous sharp turns. Mule
Shoe Curve was a famous spot on the route where the trains negotiated a 30
degree curve on a four percent grade. What made it all the more dangerous
was the fact that the trains ran mostly at night across the pass due to
scheduling.
From the top of the pass the tracks move down into the San Luis Valley,
one of the first areas of Colorado to be settled in the 1850's by Spanish
communities venturing north out of New Mexico. In the south central valley
the railroad crosses the Rio Grande for the first time at Alamosa.
This town was founded by the railroad and contained extensive maintenance
and repair facilities. Eventually, the railroad branched out in all four
directions from Alamosa making the town a main hub of activity for the
region.
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Spanish Peaks near La Veta Pass c1890
Mule Shoe Curve c1880
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