It's been of historical interest to me too. Tried to backpack up the west side to the top once--fifty miles north and then east from Independence Pass--but the trek fizzled for two of the four of us. Never have been up the east side, although it'd certainly be worth a trip. I didn't know any of the trestles, or even much in the way of remnants are still standing. I do know the big trestle is down, as I've drone tripped it from Google Maps a couple of times now. Always interesting to pick out any old grades from overhead, I think.
Dunno if you are aware of it or not, but racer Sam Posey wrote a book about his own RR modeling, and his inspiration is the Colorado Midland.
MRR magazine covered his own layout back in '95, and some more of his work can be found here:
I personally remember Posey best as a sports car racer and TV analyst who worked alongside Jim McKay on a couple ABC race broadcasts. He authored at least one article I remember for Road & Track about racing around Lime Rock. Sam also teamed with Paul Newman at Bob Sharp Racing (Datsun 240Z and on up) and was the experienced guy on the team when Newman first broke into the sport, IIRC too.
But a "Grand Prix Legend*" he was not.
[* per the Biblio bio]
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BTW, and as a personal aside, I completely get the Rio Grande thing, as it's my primary inspiration and bedrock source too. Enough so that my own moniker on another forum is "Grande Gold."
