The San Luis Southern Railway

The San Luis Southern Railway. . , Rail transportation reached the San Luis Valley in the form of the narrow gauge Denver and Rio Grande Railway, completed to Alamosa in 1878. The track was standard-gauged in 1899. Meanwhile, efforts to cultivate the Valley demonstrated the soil's fertility along with the need for irrigation. A review of the precipitation data for the decade 1895-1905 suggested that the west slope of the Sangre de Cristo range, with irrigation, could be profitably developed for agriculture. On that basis, Eastern capitalists organized the Costilla Estates Development Company, installing a series of reservoirs, ditches, and townsites. Separately they organized a transportation facility, the San Luis Southern Railway, chartered to build from Blanca to Taos, NM. In 1910 the SLS completed 29 miles of track due south to Jaroso, CO. , The Costilla Estates project, however, turned out to have been based on overly-optimistic precipitation estimates. Harvests and land sales failed to meet expectations and the SLS never progressed beyond Jaroso, its track ending 300 feet short of the New Mexico boundary. In January 1928 the SLS assets were sold at foreclosure to become the San Luis Valley Southern Railway. Though the SLVS benefited from improving agricultural harvests, its carloadings suffered from increasing highway competition. To open up additional traffic opportunities the new owners revived the original plan to extend track to the south, advertising the SLVS as "The Taos Route", and even buying land for a depot at Questa, NM. All these ambitions were thwarted by the Great 1930's Depression. Track, rolling stock and equipment deteriorated and financial losses increased. , Finally in 1953 the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized abandonment. However, two local businessmen, W.W. "Bill" McClintock and George Oringdulph, intent on shipping potatoes grown near Mesita, CO, stepped in with a new company, the Southern San Luis Valley Railroad, which acquired the entire property. To replace the SSLV's two aging steam locomotives, in 1954 they started construction of the D500. By 1956, when it was completed, carloadings from the south had fallen drastically, the track was in poor shape and derailments were frequent. By 1958 road trucks were carrying the potatoes, the last steam engine had been retired and 29 miles of track to Jaroso torn up, leaving the D500 to move carloads of ice-cooled fresh produce and volcanic scoria locally to the Denver and Rio Grande Western connection at Blanca. Although the fresh produce was seasonal it was of high quality and much in demand, and together with the year-round scoria shipments, the SSLV was able to carry on for another 20 years. By the late 1970's produce shipments had ceased but scoria continued until the early 1990's. , The Southern San Luis Valley RR no longer exists but miraculously 1.53 miles of its track, known as "The Blanca Spur", are still there, owned by the Colorado Pacific Rio Grande Railroad, the ultimate successor, in the San Luis Valley, to the Denver and Rio Grande Western.