A friend of mine, Dick Glass of Aztec, N.M., and I traced part of the grade from Durango to Farmington. The grade is easy to hike in and around Aztec. There are some places to hike near Bondad where the old branch water tank still remains. The grade in Farmington is plainly visible for those who know what to see and where to go. A word of caution, though, be sure to ask any landowner first before trespassing on any private land. We asked first.

There are only a few small section buildings (standard D&RGW) and a couple businesses with loading docks still standing in the Farmington yard.

The Farmington yard right-of-way is just off Maple Street, two blocks south of Main Street.

The old depot and water tank, no longer standing, were located on Behrend Street. The tracks at one time crossed Broadway at North Butler Street. There is a long line of telephone poles marking the way. From Farmington the tracks headed north to Flora Vista and on to Aztec.

At Aztec, the old train depot is still standing along with some storage and wayside buildings on Rio Grande Avenue. Remains of ties can also be seen. The grade then heads north along U.S. Highway 550 between Aztec and Cedar Hill. There are several places here to walk along where a person will not get into much trouble by trespassing because the bed is located by the highway right-of-way. A hiker can even walk on old cinders and ties. Several wooden water culverts can be seen just north of Aztec. However, current road construction (widening of U.S. 550) within the past couple of weeks, has destroyed several places where the tracks once were.

Located at Cedar Hill are the remains of bridge standards, located near the old steel truss highway bridge where it crossed the Animas.

A good place to view the grade is near Bondad. The railroad bed can be seen along the east side of the Animas. There is an old branchline water tank there and a combination Warren truss, plate, and trestle bridge. Where the tracks crossed the Animas Just up from there is another small trestle. The track crossed the highway right near the road that heads to Ignacio. The track headed along the west side of Sunnyside, Posta, Lodo, and Grubbs. The tracks split right outside Durango at Carbon Junction.

During its early years, the branch trains hauled passengers with stops at Farmington Hood, Flora Vista, Aztec, Center Point, Cedar Hill, Bondad, Sunnyside, Posta, and Durango. In later years, passenger services was dropped with exception of some specials. But freight service (hauling lots of oilfield equipment, drilling pipe, drilling mud, lumber and wood products, and feed) survived until Aug. 30, 1969, the last trip to Farmington.

Locomotive 484 made the trip to Farmington regularly. That locomotive is now being restored and is expected to be in operation for Railfest 2000 on the Durango-Silverton Railroad in September.

Andy Payne, a retired Rio Grande and Southern Pacific engineer, told me he was the engineer on most of the trains that ran to Farmington from 1964 to the end. He said toward the end of operations, the track was in bad shape and was rough, making for a wild ride even though they didn’t run faster than 20 mph.

Trips from Durango to Farmington were often very long because of the switching of box cars and gondolas. It would often take 16 hours to make a turn (from Durango to Farmington and back). It was not uncommon for all the coal in the tender of locomotive 478 to be burned up when the train got back to Durango. Most of the coal was used in the Farmington switching and on the way back. On the way down, not much coal or water was even needed but just enough pressure to run the air compressor for the brakes.

Payne said different conductors would drag out the trip a little longer. Alva Lyons would get right down to business, get the Farmington switching done, and then get out of town in a hurry. He said his least favorite conductor was Myron "Hotbox" Henry who would drag out the trip so he could get maximum pay. He also was the conductor who spotted the most "hotboxes" or bearings which are overheating so they could get extra pay for the delay.