The oldest predecessor of the railroad was the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, which was chartered in 1870. The line over
La Veta Pass to
Alamosa and
Antonito was originally envisioned as part of an ambitious and never-realized narrow gauge line linking
Denver with
Mexico City. The narrow gauge tracks crossed the pass in 1877 and reached Alamosa on July 6, 1878. The railroad was pushed on to Antonito by 1880 and ultimately to
Santa Fe and
Silverton. The D&RG built west from Alamosa, completing the line to
South Fork and its terminus at
Creede in 1881. By the late 1880s, the inherent isolation of narrow gauge railroads from the national network began to put them at a competitive disadvantage. The D&RG converted the La Veta Pass and the Creede lines to standard gauge around 1900. The line to Antonito was also converted to standard gauge, but a third rail, laid to three-foot gauge, remained to Alamosa until the end of regular narrow gauge operation in 1968. Coincident with the conversion to standard gauge, the D&RG realigned the route over La Veta Pass to lower the summit, straighten curves, and reduce grades. In 1908, the D&RG was consolidated with the Rio Grande Western to form the Denver and Rio Grande Western. In 1988, the DRGW merged with the
Southern Pacific Railroad; the
Union Pacific Railroad purchased and merged the SP in 1996. In June 2003, the UP sold the Walsenburg - Alamosa line and its other lines in the San Luis Valley to shortline railroad conglomerate
RailAmerica. The Derrick - Creede line, which had been out of service, was sold to the Denver and Rio Grande Historical Foundation as a tourist line. RailAmerica sold the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad (SLRG) to
Iowa Pacific Holdings (IPH) in December 2005.
Iowa Pacific Bankruptcy Iowa Pacific Holdings and its subsidiaries suffered severe financial troubles and were generating large debts. In 2017, both the SLRG and one other IPH subsidiary, the Oregon-based
Mount Hood Railroad (MHRR), loaned $5 million from Big Shoulders Capital, an Illinois-based investment firm, but the two railroads defaulted on the loan, consequently owing the firm $4.6 million in debt. Between 2020 and 2021, the trustee maintained the SLRG's freight operations and spent $1.3 million rehabilitating parts of the line and another $250,000 cleaning up the railyard in Alamosa. Throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, the railroad was operated by the trustee, with various pieces of rolling stock put up for sale.
Soloviev Group ownership On September 12, 2022, Denver-based railroad holding company
OmniTRAX announced it would purchase the SLRG at a cost of $5.7 million. This raised concern among some local citizens who cited OmniTRAX's recent history of abandoning lines it couldn't make profitable, and from trails advocates who worried OmniTRAX would not let them expand trail networks among the railroad's right-of-way. Two new bids for the railroad followed in November 2022, one from one of the SLRG's largest creditor and the other from Stefan Soloviev. The bankruptcy judge approved the sale, which will become effective upon
Surface Transportation Board approval. Under Soloviev ownership, many changes are being planned, with new locomotives being brought in, track rehabilitation, and future railroad expansion. A total of 6 ex-BNSF
SD70MACs have been acquired from BUGX, and 1
GP40-2 from the
Royal Gorge Route Railroad, as of August 2023. On August 23, 2024, a filing with the
Surface Transportation Board (Docket No. FD 36795) revealed that Colorado Pacific San Luis would be purchasing the
San Luis Central Railroad, a 13-mile agricultural short line that connects to the CXRG tracks at
Monte Vista. == Operations ==