Steam & Excursion > Some Railroad Locations Are Instantly Recognizable Like This One!

We all have certain scenes from the days of steam railroading that are so familiar to us that the moment we see it we know the railroad and the time frame.  Here is just such a location.

The afternoon sun is shining on Rio Grande Southern #455 and her excursion train as they make a stop at Ophir, Colorado in the last years of the RGS operations.  No matter from what angle a photo is take at Ophir, we instantly recognize the location and know exactly what railroad ran through here.  Ophir was just such a place.

We all should be glad such places like Ophir once existed.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/17 03:13 by LoggerHogger.

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Memorable image of bygone Colorado mining town.  Likely a Rocky Mountain RR Club excursion about 1951.  Maybe a Richard Kindig image?

Is everything gone now?  I know the RR is, but is there still any kind of a town left?

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> Is everything gone now?  I know the RR is, but is
> there still any kind of a town left?

Last time I was there the road construction had taken out many of the buildings and the depot site.  I think the house on the hill on the right may still be there.

Martin

The trestles in that area are just amazing especially the ones on the south side of town which were attached to the side of the mountain and then there was the high, long one on the north side.  It didn't hurt that the Trout Lake area was just south of the town.

This was the 1947 excursion organised by Nolan Black from southern California.  455 was fresh out of the shop after being rebuilt after her terrible runaway wreck in November 1943.  The trip started in Durango, went to Ridgway, where it overnighted, then returned to Durango the next day.  455 provided the motive power between Rico and Ridgway, 4-6-0 #20 was used between Durango and Rico. 

Virtually everything in this photograph is gone.  The modern highway buries the the site of Ophir under about 30' of highway fill.  There is only one building remaining from the small community of Ophir.  It is off to the right in this photo, and was far enough away from the highway construction, that it got spared.

Not familiar with the territory, but when I view Ophir on Google Maps all I see are a few buildings in a small street grid, and the only "modern" highway is a seasonal dirt road.  Am I missing something?

Link to Google Maps

rbenko Wrote:
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> Not familiar with the territory, but when I view
> Ophir on Google Maps all I see are a few buildings
> in a small street grid, and the only "modern"
> highway is a seasonal dirt road.  Am I missing
> something?
>
> Link to Google Maps

That would be "modern" Ophir, which in reality is the original townsite.  Take the dirt road to the west (left).  Where it connects up with State Highway 145 is where the railroad town of Ophir was located.  When the RR was built, the location was "Ophir Loop", but eventually everyone moved down by the RR and the old site was more or less abandoned.  In recent times, people have started building homes again at the Old Ophir site.