The Gold King Mining Company, under President W. Z. Kinney, promoted a railroad for the purpose of hauling concentrates from mills along Cement Creek to the smelters at Silverton. According to the Manual the railroad was chartered April 6, 1899 and completed in July. James Dyson located the route and the Rocky Mountain Construction Co., incorporated in Maine, constructed the 7.5 miles of line and the one-half mile of sidings from Silverton to Gladstone. Forty-five-pound rail was used. Track left the main line of the D. & R. G. at the north end of Silverton and there a roundhouse was built. San Juan County records show that the property was conveyed from the construction company to the railroad company July 21, 1899. Two figures, $247,838 and $252,979, have been given as the cost of the job. The difference may have covered equipment.

The S. G. & N. bought Engine 32 from the Rio Grande Southern through the D. & R. G. purchasing agent, C. M. Hobbs, for $3252. Mr. Hobbs instructed Mr. Lee, general superintendent of the R. G. S., to letter it properly, deliver it to W. Z. Kinney at Silverton on August 1, 1899 and collect the money. Two very nice made-to-order coaches, that had seats for passengers in one end and baggage compartments in the other, were obtained. Two trains ran daily consisting, generally, of an engine, two loads and a passenger coach. The first year of operation showed a surplus of $35,366.21.

The company, evidently, did not have enough power and in October 1900 it was asking the R. G. S. for another locomotive like the one it already had, but none was available. Meanwhile, a company in Palestine, Texas had bought R. C. S. 33 (exactly like 32) but on finding it unsatisfactory, had shipped it back. The R. G. S. placed it in the Burnham Shops at Denver where, in 1902, it underwent extensive repairs. Then it was sold to the S. G. & N.

The two locomotives mentioned above were sisters to the Silverton Railroad’s No. 101 (1), formerly R. G. S. 34. All three were of the same make and the same class and had the same owners at the same time and in the same order—the D. & R. G., the R. G. W. and the R. G. S. All of these engines ended up with the S. N. (So did S. R. No. 100.) All had five owners. The 33 had six owners if one would count the company in Texas but, as far as is known, no money changed hands.

A new locomotive, No. 34, a Baldwin of the 100 class, was purchased in 1904. The Manual of 1905 lists three engines, two coaches, and twenty freight cars; the one of 1909 says two locomotives, two coaches, ten box cars and twenty-one gondolas. Engine 32 was the one out of service at this time. Eventually its boiler went to a sawmill at Cascade. No. 33 lasted a few years longer.

Except for Mr. Kinney of Silverton, the board of ten directors elected in 1904 were all from Maine, Massachusetts or New Brunswick and the trustee under the mortgage was the Newtonville Trust Co. of Newtonville, Mass. In 1905 the funded debt was $100,000 and the outstanding stock, $121,000. In the year ending June 30, 1909, the railroad had carried 16,667 tons of freight and 3,916 passengers.

It was not uncommon for service to be discontinued for short or long periods in any winter on account of snow blockades but the suspension in the fall of 1911 was due to the extensive washouts on the D. & R. G. in the Animas Canon. S. G. & N. men and equipment were sent to assist in the reconstruction.

Excursions were often run to Gladstone for picnics or to gather columbines either to send out of town for some special doings or for any kind of local celebration.

According to the Official Guides of 1913, 1914 and 1915 mixed trains ran thrice weekly—Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In 1913 trains left Silverton at 1:00 P.M. and arrived at Gladstone at 1:45 P.M.; left Gladstone at 2:15 P.M. and arrived at Silverton at 3:00 P.M. This was a considerable decline from the original two trains per day.

About the first of January 1910, Mears, Slattery and Pitcher leased the Gold King mine. On January 15 of the same year the Silverton Northern Railroad leased the S. G. & N. and five years later, on June 10, 1915, bought it at auction. San Juan County records show that the deed was made July 23. Mears then owned all three railroads. Only one S. G. & N. engine, the 34, was in service. The partners gave up the lease on the mine in 1917 and Mears, then 77 years old, left for California, never to return.

Mrs. Percy Airy has a little story to tell of this period. In 1911 her husband was working at the Gold King mill at Gladstone and they were living in a little cabin with almost no furniture and conveniences. One morning while she was washing, Percy came rushing in, saying he was bringing his uncle Jack Slattery, Otto Mears, James Pitcher and Louis Quarnstrom in for dinner. Flustered and dismayed were no words for it! At such a camp no fresh stuff was available but she managed a dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, a canned vegetable, biscuits with butter and jam, fresh canned mountain raspberries, cake and coffee. She had only two stool chairs and one of them was occupied by the washtub which Mears urged her not to move. She put one man on the other stool chair, two on the bed and two in rockers. Being very young, only nineteen, she was so embarrassed she wouldn’t sit down at the table. Everybody praised her dinner and she felt better. When Mears left he presented her with a very rich piece of gold ore, about the size of a large orange, and told here if she’d always keep that she’d never be poor. Later she engaged a jeweler to make a watch charm from it for her husband. A small cracked charm and two small pieces of ore were all that was returned to her. The fellow claimed he had had to break the big chunk all to pieces to get the charm and had thrown the scraps away. Of course every small grain of that ore was valuable.

Business kept dwindling until only an occasional train was run. The following table indicates that the track was still lying in 1923.