OVERVIEW & OPERATIONS 

 Upon entering the layout room, a tall timber trestle spanning Hermosa Creek immediately catches your eye.

The trestle has a single bent center span across the ravine and damn just below Martha’s pond.

 

Across the room to the left is the busy town of Rockwood, Colorado and the origin point of the Durango, Rico and Northern Railroad.  It boasts of a large engine servicing area where careful maintenance is done in preparation for the long descent over the North Fork Loop and then up to Scotch Creek Junction.

 

 

 

 

To the very far right is the Western Terminal of Scotch Creek Junction where this Railroad connects with the Rio Grande Southern and it's rail access to the towns of Rico or Delores and beyond. 

 

 

 

As the rails leave the town of Rockwood they will pass just under the Eastern slope of the Hermosa Cliffs, before entering the Purgatory Ridge tunnel. Once thru the tunnel the track enters the Hermosa Park Valley via the tall timber trestle as it steadily descends into towards and above the mill town of North Fork.

 

 
    

Towards the Western end of the valley the main crosses another timber trestle and then a steel girder bridge as it makes its way on to Timberline Jct..   Just below the steel girder bridge is the  North Fork branch line which feeds two sidings to the mill complex within the valley floor. 

 

 

One siding crosses back over Hermosa Creek to the Mill’s Power House on the North side of Martha’s pond, and the other spur on the South Side of the pond serves the Mill Complex, its loading docks and service track. 

 

As the main line leaves Hermosa Park it heads towards the Northwest, and the logging camps at Timberline. High above the valley floor is another track that services several mines and the aerial tram which feeds the mill complex in the Park.  Along the way the mail line passes several sidings and spurs that head off into the lumber filled woods.  

 

 

These woods are another source of revenue for the railroad and the logs are shipped over the crest of the ridge to Scotch Creek Junction and the connecting trackage to the McPhee Mill at Delores.  At Timberline Jct. the branch line from North Fork joins the main line of the D.R. & N. on its way to Scotch Creek Junction.

 

 

   

At Scotch Creek Junction the railroad terminates and interchanges with a branch line track of the Rio Grande Southern.  This track crosses over a steel truss bridge on one end of the turning wye and heads on down to the RGS main line. Only basic servicing facilities are at this end of the line, so If a locomotive or car is in need of repairs it is set out on the RGS siding for repairs or it is deadheaded back to Rockwood or Rico.  The town of Scotch Creek also has just the basic services for the train crews and the loggers or miners coming down from the hills, but is growing right along with the Railroads. 

   

For more work-in-progress photos please take a look at our PHOTO CENTER pages for the building of the D.R.& N. Railroad...