The GNW was conceived shortly after the Union Pacific built and purchased lines connecting Oregon and the northwest sometime after the first transcontinental railroad was completed. The vision was to connect the ports and timber resources in the northwest with the growing state of Texas, including their ports, with a line connecting the SP in Tucumcari New Mexico with the UP, SP and Rio Grande near at Green River Utah. While this concept was valid, it did not result in the bridge line as intended – connecting traffic was sparse at best. However numerous mineral and oil reserves were discovered along the line, creating enough traffic to keep the line viable. Additionally, the GNW bought up the old narrow gauge right of way from the Colorado & Southern (itself later merged into the Burlington Route and the AT&SF), including the old R.O.W of the Denver, South Park and Pacific, with the connection into Denver as well. This added in a number of coal and mineral interests along the line. To effectively use this line, the GNW rebuilt the track to standard gauge. The railroad operates with bridge traffic, primarily from the SP, along with a considerable amount of local traffic. In the early 70’s, Amtrak found this line provides a useful connection between its operations in the northwest and south central US, and consequently added trains 31 and 42: the San Juan, borrowing the term from the D&RGW varnish that once ran along this part of the country.
The model RR is set somewhere between Colorado and New Mexico along the main. About 100’ of main track connect hidden track to a 35’ long, 9-track staging yard, providing 27 slots for train storage. These feed the layout with the traffic to keep the rest of the operations running. The major classification yard, Armstrong (named with a head nod to the Dean of Track Planning), is placed along this main and is where cars are exchanged for on layout operation. The branch line is approximately 100’ long, and comes off the main to wind around the room, dropping into Warm Springs, a fairly industrialized town, and includes the operating areas of Sand Creek and Mesa City. Furthermore, there is another branch off the line to the mining operation of Cristo Rey, where the precious mineral Unobtainium is mined. It also is the destination of Black Water Falls (conveniently located under the kid’s bathroom toilet), which includes a daily tourist train operated by the Colorado and Southern Scenic Railroad. The operating scheme is the exchange of cars between industry and mainline trains by means of locals and manifest freights. Other on-line industries includes the Sinclair Baker Refinery, Halcon Cement and the sleepy town of Abajo Caliente which hosts a hydrocal factory. If that is not enough, there is a (very) short mining railroad line, the Ojitas RR, connecting the phosphate producing Ojitas Mine to the GNW. As for passenger operations, there is regular commute service between Armstrong and Warm Springs, as well as the aforementioned daily Amtrak train, the San Juan.
The era is late 70’s/early 80’s when first and second generation EMD diesels ruled the rails, with GE units mixed in here and there. A few surviving Alcos keep things interesting, along with a couple steamers owned and operated by the Colorado & Southern Scenic Railroad.
Due to limited cashflow, the GNW necessarily uses second hand power for most of its trains. SP provides the power for most of the through trains.
The GNW even has repowered a gas turbine with a state of the art (1970’s era) gas turbine to investigate motive power options during the energy crisis.
