The Coon Creek & Rio Grande is a fictional line, that because of its location in the mineral rich area of Coon Creek, grew up around gold and silver mining in the 1870’s and 80’s. Then as the rich veins of ore began to play out, around 1889, t he major city on the line, Carson, continued to provide revenue as a milling and smelting center for other mines in the hinterland. At its conception the CC&RG began as a privately owned, narrow gauge, mining railroad; owned by the Coon Creek Mining & Logging Company.

Its founding brass hat was Lou Yuelich ( a modern day On3 modeller and NMRA MMR!) who sold the line’s rolling stock and locos to the current owner of the CC & RG. Most of the locomotives of the Coon Creek Logging & Mining Company were geared locos and a well preserved ex DRGW C-16 2-8-0 Consolidation. When the current owners took over the line in 1890, they embarked on an effort to provide a bridge route between distant mines which were still served by the CC & RG narrow gauge and the DRGW narrow gauge and Colorado & Southern standard gauge operations.

In this direction, by the outbreak of World War I, the entire line from Rio Grande (the interchange point and engine terminal) and Carson was dual gauged. The line’s principal stockholder and local silver king, Julius Benjamin Pittman, was credited with ban rolling the entire effort, and also for constructing the Crestview house which his heirs would eventually convert to a resort in the late 1920’s. Now the old Coon Creek line only serves the Crestview , the Crestview Brewery, and a truck transfer company that in 1930 began serving areas formerly served by the railroad (also owned by the Pittmans).

As with many roads in the early 1940’s, the CC & RG saw a dramatic upswing in traffic on its remaining trackage during World War II. Unfortunately, it also lost the last of its mine traffic and the branches were torn up for scrap for the war effort. Several of its most venerable locos also suffered the same fate as the rails. Now in 1951, the Korean conflict is still keeping the Mil l in Carson going although there are rumors of layoffs and closing of some facilities next year. Nonetheless, tourists and young newlyweds are keeping the Crestview Resort going, and the train is the most nostalgic and direct route, despite the new parking lot at the resort. The brewery boasts a very popular Bock beer that is sold as far away as Denver, and so the CC & RG takes several reefers up and down to the brewery every week. It is said that the sparkling mountain water of Coon Creek is the secret of the brew.

In addition to the brewery, resort, and the smelters around Carson, the CC & RG also serves, a box factory and iron works in Carson, a produce company at Junction, and a furniture company and coal dealer in Rio Grande. All of these businesses had a brief boom during years of World War II, but are now not providing the car loadings they once did.

The addition of gas stations and the auto and truck traffic they support are the real harbingers of the end of the CC & RG. Carson has 3 garages and even little Coon Creek supports Aversa’s which also provides service for CC & RG locos since the engine house burned before the war.