The Galloping Goose: how a struggling railroad kept Telluride connected

Telluride sits at the end of a steep box canyon, which made getting ore and supplies in and out a real problem. The answer for many years was the Rio Grande Southern, a narrow-gauge railroad that looped through the San Juan Mountains and tied Telluride to towns like Ridgway, Rico, and Durango.

By the Great Depression, the railroad was carrying far less freight and losing money. Instead of running costly steam trains over the high passes, the line built strange-looking gas-powered cars to do the job for less. People nicknamed them “Galloping Geese.” These motors carried mail, freight, and later tourists, and they kept the railroad alive until it shut down in 1952.

The name still lives here. The Town of Telluride calls its in-town bus loop the Galloping Goose, a nod to those rail cars.

For a newcomer, this is the backstory of why the valley feels both remote and historic. The rails are gone, but the route shaped the towns you drive between today. For the confirmed railroad history and the story of the surviving Geese, see History Colorado’s Rio Grande Southern and Galloping Goose pages, and the county’s public transit page for the modern bus named after them.