Rode Steam Train from Durango to Silverton

[Tmate]

Just returned from a week in Colorado and New Mexico. Here are some pictures from my 3 hour train ride.

 

[silence dogood]

My wife rode on a steam train back in 1971 between Berlin and West Germany. Then there were two Germanys. At the borders the East Germans would switch engines. After the two Germanys reunited, the steam engines became a thing of the past. One thing about communism is that time stops.

 

[projectnut]

My wife and I did the same Durango to Silverton trip many, many years ago. I don't know how the boiler is fired these days, but back then it was coal fired. They started firing up the engines about 6:00 am. It took a couple hours for the boiler to come up to temp so the engine sat stationary in the yard belching smoke the entire time. On calm days the entire downtown was covered in a low hanging layer of smoke for an hour or more after the train left..

 

[682bear]

We rode the Durango train in '07 or '08... the week after Christmas... in a snowstorm...

During the winter, the train only runs halfway. There is a wye about halfway where they turn it around... the passengers can get off and walk around for a while while they take on water.

When we stepped off the train, we landed in about 15 inches of snow... we didn't have the right shoes for that.

The next day we drove over Wolf Creek Pass... we were delayed for 2 hours while they were clearing avalanches... I drove from Durango to Trinidad that day... on snow and ice the entire way.

That was easily the most memorable vacation we've taken... I would absolutely do it again...

-Bear

 

[Tmate]

Some more photos from train trip:

 

[paradox_pete]

I don't know how the boiler is fired these days, but back then it was coal fired.

As a Durango local I happen to know a little about this. After a cinder from the train was found responsible for starting a forest fire a couple years ago they have been converting the locomotives to oil fired. I think they have 3 converted, including the #480 shown in the above photos, #493 and I think #473. As one of the above photos shows they also have leased the former Southern Pacific #18 (from a California museum I think). They have also purchased some narrow gauge diesel locomotives from the White Pass and Yukon railroad in Alaska.

They started firing up the engines about 6:00 am.

Actually the locomotives in daily use are kept hot overnight. It takes too long to get them up to operating temp otherwise. The 6am start is just to build up the fire and get them up to operating pressure in the morning.

For some machining related content I'll note that they make just about everything they need in house and have a pretty impressive machine shop.

-Pete

 

[Peyton Price 17]

rode the same train this summer as well. they burn oil in it so you don't get the smell or noise that you would as coal. some good views on it, if you aren't into trains then you will like that it burns oil instead. Pete has the same thing as me for the oil. I wanted to go to the machine shop but never did make it to it.