Learning About the Rio Grande at the Whistle Stop Hobby Store

One day at Whistle Stop Hobbies, I discovered an Athearn blue box Rio Grande SD40T-2.  I opened the box and saw the speed lettered, "Rio Grande" painted on the hood. 
Ever so often, a Rio Grande locomotive would wander through Davis.  Recently, I had seen a tunnel motor.  This model looked just like it.
It wasn't every time that I went that I got a powered engine.  Today, however, I just had to have this engine.
I brought the box up to the counter and asked Lee, "Can we run this engine on the test track.  I think I'll get it."
"Rio Grande," he said.  "Are you going to run this on your Southern Pacific trains are running through from Utah?"
"Yes," I said.  "I just saw one the other day."
"Rio Grande and Western Pacific used to run the California Zephyr together with Chicago Burlington & Quincy," Lee said as we walked over to the test track.  As the locomotive whirred into action, Lee said, "Rio Grande is known as 'The Mainline Thru The Rockies.' It connects Denver and Salt Lake.  It truly is one of the most scenic railroads I have ever seen.  You should go see it someday."
As I put my Athearn SD40T-2 in its box, I knew I wanted to see such a scenic railroad.  "Someday I will have to visit the route of the Rio Grande," I said to myself. "Someday."