For me the bug bit in 1989 on a family vacation that included Durango, long after the D&RGW had given up the narrow gauge ghost. And yet even by then, the D&SNG had been working toward restoring a more authentic feel. In 2013 I rode the C&TS all the way from Antonito to Chama, and then in 2014 rode the D&SNG again. Now there's a publicly-accessible museum in part of the roundhouse that includes among other things Rio Grande Southern C-19 #42, cosmetically restored. Remember, too, that current-day tourists are used to the Disneyland experience where everything is for show, and it's easy for people to forget as they walk around a railyard that this is a real, working railroad with real, dangerous, and massive equipment that can't just stop with a safety switch. So the railroad must be very careful to control access. I did find that if I identified myself as a railfan with knowledge of narrow gauge history in the area I was taken seriously and allowed a little extra access in the yard.
After 1989 I switched to HOn3, but in those days everything was a craftsman kit and I was no craftsman. Even the locomotive was a kit...I turned an MDC inside-frame 2-8-0 kit into something resembling RGS #41. But the cost, reliability, and work involved made it impossible to stick with when I went off to college (go Nittany Lions!) and eventually I left the scale.
Fast forward to today, when I have a Lt Col's paycheck, my probable retirement home with a big basement, and Blackstone is cranking out pre-weathered and RTR narrow gauge goodness. If I were not so invested in N scale it'd be a no-brainer. I'd be doing a more prototypical version of Malcolm Furlow's San Juan Central (with RGS and D&RGW Silverton Barnch scenes). Oh, and I'd loosen up the curves a bit and make that yard a bit more functional:
