DENVER — As Denver7 highlights one videographer's shoot of the last coal burning-train on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, we were inspired to reflect on the role trains and the railroad industry have played in Colorado's history.
Earlier this year, Joe Fusco posted a short film on Denver7's Discover Colorado Through Your Photos group on Facebook of the No. 481 engine making its last trip on the Durango Silverton railroad. Denver7 sat down with Joe Fusco to learn more about the experience capturing such stunning images and it got us thinking, "How does this locomotive fit into the the larger picture of our state's past?"
The railroad industry developed in the state of Colorado in June of 1870, according to Dr. Rachael Storm, head of curatorial services and curator of business and industry for History Colorado. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, in particular, roared to life in July of 1882.
Colorado originally started with standard gauge railroads that were approximately 5 feet wide. Standard gauge railroads couldn't vary because locomotives and rail cars were built to sit on those tracks at that specific width, according to Dr. Storm. Those limitations brought about the development of narrow gauge railroads, which require around two-thirds less space.
"We don't have to blast out as much of the mountain in order to get them up. Because the gauge is so much narrower, we can curve easier... It's like the difference between trying to do a three-point turn with an SUV versus doing a three-point turn with a mini," Dr. Storm said.
Getting narrow gauge railroads into the mountains facilitated the sale of vital goods like silver, gold and marble in other cities.
"Railroads themselves became the conveyor belt for getting those products out of the state and showing that we had an economic imperative to be able to become a state, so historically very important," Dr. Storm said.
That's not all, though. Trains also provided a means of transportation to get visitors into the mountains, creating turn-of-the-century tourism, according to Dr. Storm. People wanted to vacation to the mountains from out of state, but Coloradans also used trains to visit the state's high country.
"In the late 1800s, early 1900s... churches, for example, would rent a train, and then after church on Sunday morning, everybody from the church would take picnics and go up into the mountains for a day... They would rent out train cars... They'd have a refrigerated car for everyone's picnic baskets, and then everyone would get on the train and enjoy the train on the way up, unload their picnics, have a picnic in the mountains, and then come back down for the day," Dr. Storm said.
That travel increased the economic strength of the state, in addition to the ability to move freight. That's still true today. The railroad industry isn't going anywhere anytime soon, Dr. Storm believes.
Colorado still has more than 2,545 miles worth of tracks across the state that move goods. Passenger traffic may have declined on rail, but Amtrak — the national rail system — still transports 144,000 people per year out of Colorado, Dr. Storm said.
While travel by train is sometimes not as fast as driving a car or taking a plane ride, Dr. Storm explained there's another way to look at it.
"I love to try to capture nostalgia," Dr. Storm said. "I think one of the things that riding on a train does is it slows you down a little bit, right? You can't worry about being on time for something. You can't worry about schedules... It's just a nice time to give time back to myself."
With a changing climate, the iconic puffs of smoke from the train's smokestack may elicit worries of pollution in the air. While it is true coal can have a negative effect on the environment, Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway — two of the largest companies moving freight across the country — have recently invested in making their technology more climate friendly. Plus, Dr. Storm explained that a train with 100 or more cars on it can move exponentially more goods than a semitruck or airplane at one time. Plus trains are better equipped than a semi or plane to support the transportation of large, heavy materials like glass, coal and marble for which Colorado is known.
"Good luck getting a million pounds worth of marble into an airplane and seeing if it stays in the air," Dr. Storm joked.
The efficiency of the rail industry pays unexpected dividends for the environment.
"Rail moving goods [in 2021], saved 2.47 million tons of greenhouse gasses over moving goods via semi trucks or by air," Dr. Storm said.
Benefits like this could point to what keeps the railroad industry around in the U.S.
"I think one of the things that, particularly here in Colorado, is really important regarding rail, is trying to use rail as a solution to reducing some of our environmental and congestion problems. We're in a time where we have a lot of people moving to Colorado. We're very high in elevation, which means that almost every day in the summer, if you're on the roadways, you're going to see a sign saying 'There's an ozone alert. Please carpool,' right? So, rail is a potential solution to reducing that," Dr. Storm said.
Europeans have incorporated train networks into their everyday life and are using a variety of alternative energies, that could prove useful on the Front Range, Dr. Storm explained.
As Denver7 reported earlier this month, a former, long-time Amtrak train conductor in Colorado is proposing an idea to alleviate traffic on Interstate 70 that stemmed from a successful European model. The proposal? To put semi trucks and other large commercial vehicles on trains, freeing up more space on the interstate.
The former conductor, Brad Swartzwelter, told us that the roll-on, roll-off bridge would remove around 1,100 commercial trucks a day from I-70.
Earlier this year, we also reported on a Swiss company that developed a hyperloop test track on the grounds of the former Pueblo Army Depot in southeastern Colorado.
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If the test track is successful and scaled up, the hyperloop could make the trip between Pueblo and Denver just 10 minutes, and the trip between Denver and Dallas about an hour.
"I think a lot of Coloradans would be open to using public transportation if it's going to save them time and it's going to save the environment some damage. And so I really do see rail coming into a bit of a renaissance," Dr. Storm said.
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