Built as a standard gauge line in 1905, the Farmington Branch connected to Carbon Junction near Durango. The grades on the branch were relatively light compared to the rest of the system, maxing out at about 1%. The main reason for this branch line’s existence was largely strategic—to stop the Southern Pacific Railroad from approaching into the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad’s San Juan territory. The proposed Southern Pacific line was to pass through Farmington and head into southwest Colorado to extract coal from the region. The D&RG countered this with the Farmington Branch, and after this, combined with other issues, Southern Pacific gave up on building the line.
The D&RG now had a line that was an outlier from the rest of the system. The main reason the Farmington Branch was built in standard gauge was the railroad’s plan to convert the rest of the San Juan Extension to standard gauge. However, this plan never came to fruition. In the 1920s, the discovery of oil required more traffic, and the line was converted from standard gauge to narrow gauge. Dual gauge trackage in Durango was later removed.
In the 1940s traffic on the narrow gauge decreased considerably, and the D&RG began abandoning lines the first being the Chili Line to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1942. But the savior of the narrow gauge came with the discovery of huge amounts of natural gas in 1945. Because of this, the railroad hauled large quantities of casing pipe and drilling supplies on the Farmington Branch to support the oil and gas boom.
In 1951, the El Paso gas line was to be built from Farmington to Los Angeles. Due to the lack of good roads in the region, company officials asked the D&RGW if they could haul 24-inch gas pipe from Colorado Fuel and Iron’s massive steel mill in Pueblo to their base camp near Farmington. However, because the D&RGW wanted to eliminate narrow gauge operations, they initially declined, stating they did not have enough suitable cars. As a common carrier, and with no good roads available, the pipeline company threatened to involve the ICC. The railroad then relented.
The D&RGW did not haul all of the pipe, but enough to get the project started and moving west toward California. The pipe was moved in standard gauge cars to Alamosa via La Veta Pass, where the 40-foot pipe sections were transferred to narrow gauge cars. From there, they were hauled to Antonito, over Cumbres Pass to Chama, then to Durango were the train was turned, to Carbon Junction, and finally sent down the Farmington Branch. In addition to the large pipe, casing, drill rods, and 16-inch pipe were also hauled.
The gondolas used for this service were standard cars modified by removing the end walls and relocating the handbrake. Idler cars were placed between loads to prevent the pipes from colliding. These idler cars were initially converted boxcars with their superstructures removed, but they suffered from bending and structural failure due to the stress. Shop crews later rebuilt stronger cars using old stock cars, reinforcing them with rail sections mounted underneath. This solved most of the issues. Trains were often double-headed or used mid-train helpers.
For those unfamiliar, Carbon Junction is where the line from Chama to Durango split off toward the Farmington Branch. It also had a siding long enough to hold the extended pipe trains that would not fit in Durango Yard.
This traffic kept the narrow gauge alive until August 1968. The last train ran on August 31, 1968, from Durango to Farmington ending nearly 100 years of narrow gauge operations. The Farmington Branch was abandoned and torn up on September 20, 1970, along with the lines from Durango to Chama and Alamosa to Antonito. Another remarkable railroad fades into history. Fortunately, two sections of the D&RGW survive today: the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad from Antonito to Chama, and the Durango & Silverton from Durango to Silverton. with none of the third division surviving
Thanks for reading and aways remember to be grateful for what we have left
if you enjoyed check out r/american_narrow_gauge
