Hi Ed:
Ya, I have to agree with you -- I use the SLRG b/c I love the pictures of the area that I have seen, and the paint scheme on the locos, to justify all the industry, I have devised a new backstory for the railroad:
The San Luis and Rio Grande valleys have been for many years economically disadvantaged and little more than desert and scrub. Various attempts have been made over the years to maintain a railroad through the valley. Beginning in the early 2000s, climactic changes, changes in water management upstream, and the discovery of a previously untapped shallow aquifer brought an agricultural boom to the valleys. At around the same time, the USGS began monitoring a previously unknown fault line in west Texas that they determined had the potential to unleash a severe quake. Seeing the potential for disruption of their southern transcontinental lines, BNSF began searching for alternatives for moving their products across the country. Unable to keep up with the boom in agriculture, as well as significant coal, mineral and oil strikes, the SLRG requested help from BNSF and was brought under the umbrella of BNSF as a bridge line. Due to years of mismanagement and lack of funds, the infrastructure of the SLRG required an almost complete rebuild, so BNSF as well as the mineral, coal, oil, gas and agricultural companies began to invest heavily in infrastructure and equipment for the line. The narrow-gauge track in the western division was upgraded to standard gauge and re-profiled to be able to handle the loads that would be coming, track was entirely re-graded and replaced, and modern signaling systems were installed. At the same time, a consortium of community resources gathered to purchase the struggling Rio Grande Scenic railroad and brought it under the umbrella of BNSF as a scenic railroad. The equipment was totally refurbished, and as necessary re-motored to provide a wonderful scenic experience for passengers. The extension of the western division also opened opportunities for excursions into the scenic 4 Corners region as well. Seeing the rapid growth of the Scenic, an individual in New York State purchased and donated a working steam engine to the line, for the price of a lifetime ticket for himself and his family. Once again, steam ruled the rails in the San Luis and Rio Grande Valleys. In 2010, the National Hyperloop network was completed, and various higher speed commuter lines began to penetrate the areas between the hyperloop nodes. On July 4, 2017 to much fanfare the first Rio Grande Valley Jackrabbit train went into operation between Alamosa and the Hyperloop terminal in Pueblo - this gave commuters access to Pueblo in about 35 minutes from Alamosa, the Denver area in 45 and Chicago in just over 2 hours. The Jackrabbit now makes 5 loops per day between Alamosa and Pueblo -- 2 morning and one noon and 2 evening.
After 15 years of almost continuous upgrades and improvements, the project was declared officially finished on January 1, 2015, and the entire system went into operation. And not a moment too soon. In July of 2015, the USGS, following up on its preliminary report, issued a high priority warning to transportation and other assets in the west Texas region recommending that they begin contingency planning for earthquake damage and resultant socio-economic disruption. At the time, the warning suggested a maximum of a 6.2 earthquake, and preparations began. While the warnings were heeded by many, no one was expecting magnitude of the massive 9.1 White Sands quake that was unleashed on June 16 2017, but when it struck, it caused the total collapse of the Cibola tunnel Complex on the BNSF Clovis Subdivision west of Belen as well as destroying a number of large trestles and miles of track around the Albuquerque While this disruption was bad enough, subsequent aftershocks (some of them as high as 8.0 caused the collapse of an illegal chemical dump that was using a series of underground caverns in the area west of Ciudad Juarez. The dump contained among other things, Russian and Chinese chemical weapons and radioactive waste illegally smuggled into the country through a tunnel system by the Mexican drug cartels. The collapse of the underground cavern system they were using released these chemical weapons and contaminants which included persistent nerve toxins and has contaminated a large section of land for the foreseeable future, effectively closing the BNSF Lordsburg and El Paso subdivisions. The initial quake revealed the location of the site, but the aftershock struck before mitigation processes could be undertaken, however the early exposure of the site allowed the authorities to evacuate the EL Paso area keeping casualties to a minimum. Additionally, the quake and aftershocks collapsed a long forgotten underground storage facility north of El Paso. This facility was a leftover from the Manhattan project in World War 2 and contained decaying nuclear isotopes. This facility depended upon spacing to keep the fissionable material apart and prevent a chain reaction, the quakes and subsequent collapse of the facility pooled enough fissile material to cause a runaway chain reaction which contaminated a large section of southern Fort Bliss and closed the UP Carrizozo Subdivision.
As a result of the earthquakes and subsequent contamination, The BNSF southern transcon Route is currently closed between Gallup and Belen NM. (CHECK THE GEOGRAPHY HERE) In response to that closure, the BNSF has diverted as much traffic as it can handle to its central transcon line, and over its trackage rights on the UP Rocky Mountain Division, however because of the closure of the UP sunset route from the same earthquake, the UP was forced to impose traffic quotas its central route. This has forced the BNSF to find additional trackage and as a result traffic has dramatically expanded over the SLRG in the following 6 months. In exchange for its traffic rights on the UP Rocky Mountain Division, BNSF is allowing some UP traffic (particularly that bound for Dallas and Houston) to pass over the SLRG. The BNSF is routing traffic into Walsenburg, and then routing it south to Dallas. Likewise, AMTRAK has diverted its Southwest Chief, and Sunset Limited service over the SLRG bringing additional passenger revenue.
Over the previous 20 years or so, the climatological and irrigation changes which begun the upgrade process have increased the production of the barley, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets and lumber. The increase in productivity has caused several agricultural companies including Coors Brewing, On-Cor, Hi-Grade Meats, Archer Daniels Midland, and Ore-Ida as well as Georgia Pacific Lumber, to invest very heavily in the Valley. In mid-2017, the Homestake mining company made a massive strike of gold, silver and rare earths in the area of Creede. As the processing facilities are not currently available in the Creede region, they are being shipped as ore to Dallas/Fort Worth for processing. Shortly after the strike in Creede, a previously untapped oil dome near the town of Center was drilled and began producing a high rate of both natural gas and light sweet crude. Environmental planning procedures as well as concern over possible ruptures has delayed the construction of a pipeline in the area to transport the products, so for now tank cars are being used to move the product out to the refineries.
I wish like anything I had the room to do that line justice, but in a 10x10 bedroom that I also am sleeping in, I really dont, so I am making do for now
TIM
