After WWII, narrow gauge lines in general and the Silverton line in particular were in great danger of being abandoned. According to the D&SNGRR web site, it was at this time that some of the railroad's staff began to promote tourism in the hope of keeping the lines alive. One of the first fruits of this effort was the construction of the glass-topped, open-sided observation car Silver Vista in 1947. The car would be destroyed in an Alamosa shop fire in 1953, but by that time Hollywood had taken notice of this picturesque throwback to the days of yesteryear; several movies would be filmed along the Silverton line during the 1950s and early 1960s and with this free publicity tourism would begin to take off in earnest.