Rio Grande Southern Railroad

Rio Grande Southern Railroad

RGS Caboose #0402, 1940
Locale	Colorado
Dates of operation	1892–1951
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)
Headquarters	Durango

The Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS) was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad which ran from Durango to Ridgway in the western part of the US state of Colorado.

The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) had built branch lines to the mining towns of Silverton and Ouray, but the San Juan Mountains between Ouray and Silverton were too formidable to allow the building of a railroad directly connecting the two towns. The Silverton Railroad, built north from Silverton, had reached within 8 miles (12.9 km) of Ouray, but the remaining stretch through the Uncompahgre Gorge was considered too difficult. A cog railway was briefly considered but was never built.

The RGS was founded in 1889 by Otto Mears, and construction began in 1890 from Ridgway (north of Ouray) and Durango (south of Silverton) to go around the most rugged part of the San Juan Mountains and also reach the mining towns of Rico and Telluride. The line was completed only a little time before the Silver Panic of 1893 which resulted in most of the mines closing overnight and the railroad losing most of its traffic. The railroad struggled to survive through the Great Depression, and was finally closed in 1951. The RGS filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission for abandonment on 24 April 1952.