It would be exciting indeed if that Royal Gorge Route re-opened. It has to be one of most scenic stretches of railroad in the country. I've driven much of it, and have memories of watching DRGW freights on it. There's a deep gouge on the northwest end, and a road on the edge far above that affords a view down to the bottom, where the trains run. Up near the top of the grade there's a tunnel, and on the southeast end is the Royal Gorge, with a thousand foot deep narrow canyon with the rail line hugging the river. Spectacular stuff of all types.
The far southeast end is in use by the Rock & Rail line, which services a large quarry. There was also a tourist passenger train that runs up through the Royal Gouge and back, beautifully painted in Rio Grande orange colors. Shortly before they shut down the line, the UP ran an excusion on the route with the Challenger - what a great trip that would have been. There's a commercially available tape of the trip, from Pentrex, I think. The UP used the line for a while after acquiring the Rio Grande, but then went exclusively to the Moffit Tunnel route to get back and forth between Salt Lake and Denver, and points east and south from there. While the Royal Gouge route offered a 45 degree shortcut to rail lines heading south, I always assumed the choice to abandon it was mostly about fuel cost. Although shorter in mileage, with the grades involved more fuel was burned, and thus more expense incurred, and the money saved by using the Moffit Tunnel route - though it was longer and more time consuming - made it more economically viable for the UP. That's just speculation, of course.
