Rouse Branch Facts
From: Rouse Jct, CO
To: Rouse, CO
Miles: 8.4
Built: 1888
Abdn: 1904-49

The Rouse Branch was a standard gauge extention from the old D&RG Pueblo-Trinidad Main at Rouse Junction approximately 8.4 miles south and southwest to Rouse. This was a heavy coal mining region around the turn of the century, and this branch was built to haul out the product.

As a note, there were two towns named Rouse, CO. Old Rouse is immediately to the west of the C&S main near Mayne Jct., and New Rouse is at the far end of the track, about seven miles south fo Walsenburg. Where the C&S and D&RG ran parallel between Mayne Junction and Pryor, the D&RG is the abandoned roadbed on the west side. The C&S is still very active, and is now today's BNSF line between Pueblo and Trinidad.

Abandonment was in stages as coal mining shifted. The line from Santa Clara Jct over to Old Rouse came out in 1904. Rouse Junction to Mayne Junction was abandoned when the old Pueblo-Trinidad Main came out in 1936. At that point, D&RGW trains used the C&S south of Walsenburg to Mayne Junction. A few years later, in 1941, a connection was built from the remaining section of the Rouse Branch at Pryor over to a point on the C&S called Monson, and the D&RGW between Mayne and Pryor was abandoned. The last section, from Monson to (new) Rouse finally came out in 1949.

If anyone has any details about any of these branches, I'd greatly appreciate being able to clean up this history.

Rouse Branch Timetable