Rio Grande had one more passenger train a day going each way through the Moffatt Tunnel in 1957 than in yesterday’s 1952 timetable. The overnight service from Denver to Craig had proved unpopular, so in 1954 Rio Grande introduced a new day train called the Yampa Valley Mail. The train was popular with railfans because it was usually pulled by an Alco PA locomotive. But it wasn’t popular with passengers as it took twice as long as driving, so it usually consisted of just a baggage-mail car and a coach.

Click image to download an 9.8-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.

The Yampa Valley Mail appeared on both the main schedules (table 1) and as a local service (table 3 on page 10). However, no other local trains were on page 10, meaning the Denver-Alamosa train had been cancelled. Rio Grande still operated the tourist-oriented train between Durango and Silverton that would be featured in a full-page ad in the May 1959 timetable. The train wasn’t mentioned in today’s timetable because it was mainly a summer train and this is a winter timetable.

Also missing is the train or railcar service to Leadville. Instead, the timetable advises that Royal Gorge passengers could take taxis the four miles from Malta to Leadville.

Rio Grande could easily have cut this timetable to 16 or even 12 pages. The inside and outside back covers are full-page ads that are not particularly important. The inside front cover, which was a colorful ad for Rio Grande’s streamlined trains in the 1952 timetable, is dedicated to a “welcome aboard” letter from Rio Grande’s passenger traffic manager in this one. Pages 16 and 17 are fluff about Rio Grande’s history and freight service. Rio Grande stuck with 20 pages for a couple of more years but by 1961 had pared down to a fold-out brochure that was the equivalent of 6 pages.