The Complete History Of The Rio Grande Southern Narrow Gauge Railroad: Colorado's BEST Railroad! #1

[@DRGWRailfan]

Hey guys, please subscribe to my new offroad channel, where I'll continue to upload Colorado railroad and ghost town documentaries, along with hikes & 4x4 adventures all across the Western USA! I will be professionally making these videos, so please check it out! www.youtube.com/@theoffroadrailfan

[@AmericasParks]

Wow! You sure did put a lot of time and heart into this video! Great work!

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thank you so much!! Really appreciate it!

[@nancyl9270]

Amazing video!! I watched through the whole thing, and you did such a great job narrating, editing, and presenting the history of the line! This is such a major step up from your previous documentaries, a true masterpiece! My favorite part was towards the end when you pay tribute to the line, you really evoke a feeling of nostalgia and love for this special railroad!!

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thank you so much, really glad you enjoyed this preservation effort for this amazing railroad!

[@robertosbrother991]

Phenomenal documentary my friend! Can't wait for part 2 to come out in a couple of months!

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Well done video of the complete history. We enjoyed watching.

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thank you so much! I enjoyed making it!

[@DRGWRailfan]

Timestamp: 0:00 Intro 1:22 The RGS's beginnings 1:29 Overview of Otto Mears, the founder of the RGS 2:06 Surveying the first route along the RGS 2:36 Funding & planning for the line & it's towns 3:36 RGS Construction Company is incorporated 3:47 Surveys are finished and grading begins 4:22 Ridgway's townsite is laid out, and more milestones reached 4:57 More trains arrive 5:24 R.M. Ridgway becomes the superintendent of the RGS + more cars are bought 5:54 First non-construction train runs along the line, + Ridgway depot completed 6:26 failure finds the RGS, while more milestones are reached. 6:59 More lines are opened along the RGS 7:26 Work is suspended 7:39 W.D. Lee and the importance of 1891 8:09 Railway Post Office routes along the RGS, & rotary snowplows are ordered 8:41 Work continues, with two important mining towns being reached. 9:36 RGS line between Telluride and Pandora is finished 9:49 New trestles are built, and more trains arrive 10:36 RGS enters Rico, a huge achievement. A celebration is held over the completion of the RGS, even though parts are still unfinished. 11:55 Side note about D&RGW steam engine #168 12:27 The RGS is officially completed 12:58 Entering into 1892 13:31 Disasters happen along the line 14:45 Mining booms along the line due to the RGS making transportation cheaper 15:13 W.D. Lee is promoted, and the construction company relinquished control of the RGS 15:29 The RGS acquires more trains 15:57 Mining continues to flourish in the San Juans due to cheap transportation 16:41 Mears devises new passengers passes for the RGS 16:55 Railway Post Office Routes are run along the RGS and R.M. Ridgway leaves the line 17:32 Track is replaced between Vance Junc. & Rico 18:07 Mears tries to expand the railroad into ARIZONA 18:43 The Enterprise Mine branch + another branch are completed 19:22 William Henry Jackson photographs the Southern 20:05 Mears considers expanding the line into Utah 20:33 The Sherman Silver Purchase Act faces repeal, and the RGS's profitability declines rapidly 21:43 A funny story about Dolores miners using the RGS to escape prison 22:06 Mears looses control of the RGS 22:33 The Sherman Silver Purchase Act is repealed 23:11 A slight turnaround in 1894 23:53 The RGS discovers non-mining traffic 24:08 The line is renovated, and William H. Jackson returns 24:45 D&RGW R.R. buys the Chili Line in New Mexico with RGS mortgage bonds 25:06 The D&RGW takes over control of the RGS 25:26 W.D. Lee leaves the RGS, and a rotary is sold to a Canadian Railway 25:59 Winter disasters 27:19 New depot at Vance Junction 27:55 An RGS foreman is killed at Ames 28:21 Train robberies along the RGS 29:49 Washouts occur 30:48 RGS Rotary Snowplow travels the narrow gauge circle, and snow slides occur 31:11 The end of the decade 31:34 Paying tribute to the RGS 32:48 A photoslide showing the RGS over the years, with beautiful music. This is the best part of the video in my opinion 33:49 Video outro/final thoughts about the RGS's legacy 35:06 End Credits 36:03 Updates on parts 2, 3, and 4 of this documentary, along with other stuff about future documentaries Thanks for watching, I really appreciate the opportunity to make these for you guys.

[@tyl3366]

Awesome vid man

[@johne.worsham8608]

Great Story.

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thanks!

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Another very cool video.

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thank you!

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

@@DRGWRailfan You are very welcome.

[@elliotkung1838]

fire video

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thanks man!

[@Navarrete993]

Great video but I couldn't Handel the narrators voice

[@DRGWRailfan]

No offense but that's very rude. What was wrong with my voice? How in any way does that demean the video? I spent over 140+ hours making this my best video to date. People's voices sound different and I don't see how that ruins anything.

[@naguoning]

@@DRGWRailfan I am with Juan. Great information and photos. Narration voice is difficult to handle.

[@johncolbert]

@@DRGWRailfan It sounds like you are YELLING with excitement. I kept waiting for you to start yelling "I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS I CAN"T CONTAIN MYSELF!!!!"

[@russhall1097]

Hard working and brave men and women built this railroad! Amazing, really.

[@DRGWRailfan]

For sure!

[@EnclaveComsOfficer]

Love ur vid btw most of ur information is kinda confusing but mostly is useful

[@tucsonbiker]

Quite possibly the greatest video of the The Rio Grande Southern Narrow Gauge Railroad ever done.

[@DRGWRailfan]

All 3 other parts in the series are officially out now, make sure to check them out, especially part 4, which is the finale and covers the RGS during the Great Depression, WW2, scrapping, and it's remains today, and even the Southern's connections to the atomic bomb and Oppenheimer! Also subscribe for more future railroad & ghost town documentaries! PART 2- kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmLGqamia9mGn8k PART 3- kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWGreoqHZdV2aas PART 4 (The finale!!)- kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpe0nnmhi7Z8aac

[@johnweber6147]

Wonderful video. It would have been nice if you could have kept the captions up for more than 2 seconds. But it was great to see all the historical footage.

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thank you, hope you check out the other parts which are better!

[@normansilver905]

I lived in Dolores. It was an active RGS station too.

[@DRGWRailfan]

That's awesome! Indeed it was!

[@donaldrgriffin8525]

Where can I buy DVD of 1 & 2

[@DRGWRailfan]

Sorry, I don't make DVDs!

[@Nashvillesteam42]

I have one of the original RGS railroad spikes from Colorado in 1888 and rare and hard to find there is no more of them every on that worked on the RGS took them all I have one

[@DRGWRailfan]

@@Nashvillesteam42 that's incredible! A true relic of history right there

[@highplainsgrifter600]

The picture with the locomotive suspended on rails over a washout is labeled "unknown". That is the Starvation Creek Bridge. It was about 20' high and 96' long.

[@DRGWRailfan]

Thank you for telling!

[@EnclaveComsOfficer]

I know noone ask but FIRST

[@DRGWRailfan]

Nice!!!

[@EnclaveComsOfficer]

@@DRGWRailfan :) Ty

[@LOGANKYGER]

Grade

[@coalsmoke7409]

you pronounced Ames incorrectly. It is a Long A and a silent e. Hesperus was wrong too!

[@genwolfe1]

Drink less coffee!

[@nancysmith9452]

You don't leave the words on the screen long enough to read ! Slow it Down!!!

[@DRGWRailfan]

It takes me two seconds to read it, you can decrease the video playback speed if it makes it easier to read. I put over 140 hours of work into this with no help whatsoever and I think it's a good video.

[@yep2636]

Have Morgan Freeman to the voice.

[@marklewis298]

Wonderful content and photos, but the photos and especially the photo Captions, appear on screen for too short a time. If those 2 technical areas would be refined, this would go from a good to a first rate historical RGS video.

[@DRGWRailfan]

I put the captions on screen for as long as it takes me to read them, which is about 2 seconds. I will extend the captions in the future tho! Thank you!

[@travcojim]

I agree, it's a great video, but the captions on some of the photos go by way too fast, maybe another 10 seconds would be great, but other than that, the video has no flaws.

[@DRGWRailfan]

@@travcojim Thank you!

[@uxmannen]

@@DRGWRailfan Just remember that you have already seen the photograph during the making of the video but us viewers have not. We wish to see both the picture and read the description. I had to pause several times to find the time. It's a good thing you will change that in the future!

[@humsinghum3214]

@@DRGWRailfan Dear Railfan, I really appreciate the fine job that you did researching, writing, and editing this video. I also appreciate the level of enthusiasm that you express in your delivery of the material. I do, however have one suggestion that I hope you will view as a well-meaning constructive comment. I think the register of your natural voice is very effective and that your delivery would sound even better if you lowered the pitch to a more natural speaking register and relaxed the pacing of the delivery slightly. Currently, the voice that you have used in the delivery is reminiscent of a commercial advertisement and, although it conveys a certain excitement and enthusiasm (like a going out of business sale), it can become wearing on the listener over the course of a long duration presentation such as this. Please understand that this listener feels you did a tremendous job in putting this video together, but that one would enjoy it even more if the content was delivered in a slightly more matter-of-fact tone. The strength of the content itself is more than adequate to maintain a listener’s interest and attention without employing the excited tone used throughout. Thank you again for the wonderful job you did in authoring this fine video. It is a great service to all persons interested in railroad history.

[@davidwhiting1761]

Bro, there's no need to try and put nearly this much enthusiasm into this narration. It's just the RGS, the sad little railroad that only made profit during its first year and a half of operations in the late 1800s then slowly and painfully decayed after the initial mining rush abruptly stopped until abandonment and closure in the 1950s.

[@LOGANKYGER]

Im gonna kiss u