Twilight of the Rio Grande Narrow Gauge

"This footage was filmed by Emery Gulash in the late 1960s, not long before the end of Rio Grande service east from Durango. This tape shows a variety of freight action on the line between Durango and Alamosa, plus the Farmington Branch. Each accessible section of the line features a chase of a freight train along its length, including east from Durango to Pagosa Springs and south to Farmington, lines which are no more. Still existing lines are well covered, too.

"Several other treats are included. We watch standard-gauge diesels in Alamosa switch narrow-gauge cars as a doubleheader prepares to head to Chama. We also watch narrow-gauge diesel 50 work the Durango yards; it remains as a static display today at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. A flying switch is observed at Carbon Junction as the caboose is shunted to the rear of a long string of pickups, to facilitate their being added to the train to Farmington.

"Narration is held to a minimum, background music serves only to open and close the tape and the viewer can tell the sound is dubbed, but discrepancies are not intrusive. Some misquotes were noted, including the description of a second train (adding a helper) during the switching of the above-mentioned train at Carbon Junction, yet never more than one locomotive was ever seen, the same one we saw leave Durango and arrive in Farmington. And the misspelling of "knell" as in "death knell" in a caption was jarring. Despite these minor errors, this tape is one of the best of the narrow-gauge series Green Frog has offered. Colorado fans should not be disappointed." Richard G. Prince - National Railway Historical Society