was completed on 12 December 1891, where the two construction teams met south of Rico. Then the RGS was booming, profitable for the company and investors, and producing higher than the average pay for RGS Employees. This only lasted for a year and a half however, as the Silver Panic of 1893 had resulted in most of the mines the railroad serviced closing overnight, and the railroad lost most of its traffic. This would badly affect the Finances of the RGS, and the railroad was never able to fully recover from this and created many characteristics the RGS is known for today. In August 1893, the RGS requested a voluntary Receivership, which was received by Edward Turner Jeffery of the D&RG. Otto Mears had lost control of his railroad, and the D&RG was now in charge. By 1895 the Receivership had ended, but Ed Jeffery was appointed president, still ensuring the D&RG's control of the line. Later on, the RGS was able to pursue other kinds of traffic, such as Lumber/Logging, Livestock shipments, as well as recovering and different types of mineral traffic. Struggle of The Southern As the railroad attempted to recover from the panic of 1893 slowly, other issues had to be dealt with regarding mother nature. The railroad's route followed the Dolores River, which tended to flood many times during the railroad's lifetime. Most of the terrain it went through experienced tons of snow in winter and occasional rock and mudslides in summer. The RGS was able to order two new rotary snowplows specifically for the railroad luckily before the panic of 1893 and later on built three(?) plow flangers. Still, depending on how bad the snow got, it often caused closures, and the cost to operate trains with their plow equipment was too much for the railroad during specific times as they required two to four locomotives to push them. Many Bridges and Trestles would be washed out when rivers flooded over, adding more unnecessary costs to railroad maintenance and closures. Tin-Feathered Saviors of The Southern The RGS had the displeasure of experiencing yet another economic downfall, the Great Depression. This was a massive hit on the RGS and affected it to the point where they couldn't afford to operate one single steam locomotive (Paying for Fuel, Paying the Engineer and Fireman to operate the locomotive, etc.). However, they still had the responsibility to ship US