(This article by the late Forrest Whitman was originally published in July 2016 in Colorado Central Magazine.) Most readers of this story have probably driven right next to the roadbed of a spectacular railroad loop without noticing it. Even today, the Rio Grande’s Texas Creek extension gives us spectacular views of a line built around the mountainside and up to the sky. Getting a view and photo of its high reaches above the Arkansas Valley led us on a trip there. The line from Texas Creek station to Westcliffe was part of an ambitious extension of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad completed in 1900. Most of the original line is not only traceable but easily photographed. For this writer, the line also evoked some…