I was finally able to ride the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge RR. Although I have ridden on steam powered trains at Disneyland and Disney World, I had never ridden one from Point A to Point B. My ride on this famus railroad was the down train from Silverton to Durango, my tour bus dropped us off in Silverton and picked us up 3 1/2 hours later in Durango. We rode one of the covered Gondolas and although it was cool (there had been snow on the trip over the Million Dollar highway from Ouray to Silverton, in the high country) all of the people on my bus tour stayed in this car for the majority of the trip. Two cars towards the front was the commissary car, so hot chocolate was available to warm us up. Having ridden this train now, I would recommend the up train from Durango to Silverton as the engine has to work harder in this direction. The only time I heard the locomotive work was climbing up to the Highline, before Rockwood. My loco was a K-36, number 486. I belive all of the locomotives in use on the D&S line are Mikado 2-8-2s. We were able to visit the museum in 1/2 of the roundhouse at Durango. There was a large HO and HOn3 layout in the museum along with a Mike from the D&RGW and a consolidation from the RGS. The day before we had driven by Idaho Springs, Georgetown and Silver Plume and the Georgetown Loop Railway and I saw a narrow gauge Shay ldling waiting to go over the loop. We also passed the Argo Mill, which seems to still be in use, or at least it has been restored to look like it is in use.
I enjoyed this part of my Bus Tour very much. If you haven’t done this before, I highly recommend a trip to this part of Colorado to do so. You will find the San Jaun Mountains to be some of the most beautiful mountains in the USA.
It sounds like an enjoyable trip was had. Yeah, weird as it seems, the eastbound (southbound by compass direction) ruling grade on the Silverton is something like 1.7% up through the High Line.
I really enjoy taking the train from Silverton to Durango, stay overnight there, then return on the next morning’s train to Silverton. My wife and I have done this before. It works great if you’ve been camping around Silverton, as you have time to break camp and get to Silverton to take any of the afternoon returns. We just left the truck parked at the station in Silverton after alerting the stationmaster it was ours. This way, you get a nice hot shower to cleanup and a night on the town, then can get back to the wilderness the next day. Try not to stay in the woods too long before you do this, for the benefit of your fellow travelers…[swg]
Another recommendation for both the D&S and C&TS is to spring the extra $$ for a parlor car upgrade. You get a nice platform to take pics from, great personal service, drinks and snacks, and often both the hardcore fans and world travelers who don’t know much about RRs but could afford the upgrade. I’ve had wonderful experiences each time I’ve done this.
My tour guide has an interest in the Narrow Gauge trains in Colorado and New Mexico. I told him about the Narrow Gage Circle and that the small town of Ouray was served by narrow gauge railroad. At the time I started telling him this, I thought the train ran between Silverton and Ouray. Further investigation and a trip up to Ouray revealed this to be incorrect. The connection between Silverton and Ouray was the Million Dollar Highway and Otto Mears project that ran through what I thought looked like some of the most mined country I have ever seen and a very unfriendly railroad route. The Rio Grande Southern linked up with the D&RGW Branch to Silverton, coming from Delores Colorado running through Rico, the Ophur Loop, Sawpit, Placerville and connected up with the D&RGW at Ridgeway.
The day we left Durango, the bus made a stop in Chama New Mexico, to eat lunch at the High Country Saloon, much to my chagrin, wed did not go into town to see the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR, another section of the Narrow Gauge Circle. I guess you just need leave things to see and do, the next trip!
I just noticed that the title I came up with for this thread was “Durango & Silverton”! Is there a way to EDIT the title? It’s amazing at how easily I can screw things up!
Yes, a very unfriendly RR route. But imagine how spectacular it could have been!
Otto Mears, who built many of the early toll roads (Highway 550 was one of his routes originally) and followed that by building RRs on their ROWs including the RGS, actually contemplated building an electrified, cog railway to go from the north end of his Silverton RR in Ironton to Ouray, where it would’ve connected with the Rio Grande.
If Otto had only been 20 years younger and the US gov’t had kept buying silver, it very well could’ve happened. As it is, it could make a spectacular cog railway layout that is almost pure fantasy, except for the fact it does have a small bit of historical basis. Think Bemo (HOm) equipment repainted and floor to ceiling scenery[:D]
Glad you enjoyed the trip. The museum in Durango is really great I think.
Nice pics by the way.
The Argo Mill in Idaho Springs is not in operation. However, its is a museum and open for tours.
If you get a chance on your next visit to Silverton, the Mayflour Mill east of Silverton is a great tour. Its pretty much left as it was when it shut down in the 1990s. Then there is the Hundred Dollar mine further up the Animas Valley. You go way back underground in that one. I think these might only be open during the tourist season.
A visit to Chama New Mexico might next be in order?
I’ve ridden the D&S (round trip) twice, and the Cumbres & Toltec twice as well. Both are “must dos” for the RR enthusiast. The D&S has the “prettier” trains and out of this world scenery. The C&T, is more of the feeling of a working RR, and the frills are fewer. You can’t go wrong with either.
BTW, if you want a real thrill, drive the highway thru Ouray. The “million dollar highway” will definitely push the adrenaline to new heights, and will test your nerve and skills (I drove it in a misting rain). Sadly, I didn’t get any pics cause I was too busy, and my co-pilot was too scared…
There’s also another big difference. The D&S station and shops in Durango are located smack-dab in the middle of a busy urban area – as urban as the Four Corners gets anyway. Thus, the facilities are fenced and secured and those on the grounds beyond the station are normally under escort (can’t remember if the museum is free-range or not).
Chama’s facilities are located in a very rural community. Unlike the realtively compact Durango terminal, they sprawl for more than a mile through town. While some security improvements have been made in recent years, they are low key and much of the area remains unfenced. I beleive you’re still permitted to wander the grounds on your own, simply staying out of buildings and not climbing on equipment.
While it’s hard to beat the ride on the Silverton or the great facilities in towns at both ends, Chama is hard to beat for the “kid loose in the RR candy store” feeling with your cameras as you walk and discover all sorts of stuff. The ride is right up there with the D&S, but the after hours fun of wandering around the yards is wondorous at Chama.
I have taken the ride from Durango to Silverton and back 40 years ago, when the line was still owned and operated by the D&RGW. This ride was the absolute highlight of my farewell sightseeing trip through most of the western states at the end of my year as an exchange student on Bainbridge Island, WA.
This trip took me down the coast of Washington State and Oregon, following US Highway 101 all the way into Northern California, down to Nevada, through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and back to my “home for a year”. Even after 40 years, I still remember each day of it. What an adventure for a barely 18 year old with a driver´s license still wet from the printing! Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the lights of Reno and Las Vegas and then - Durango to Silverton - breathtaking!
Do you folks know in how beautiful a country you live?
I think most of us have an idea about its breadth and beauty…all those cowboy movies, you know.[;)] But I think there are far too many who haven’t really experienced it. I was fortunate, my dad was in the Air Force back then, we were station several places out West, and Mom and Dad both liked to see places and make sure we knew about them. I saw much of what you did but based out of Arizona and Texas. I’d sure like to get to see more of the Northwest, though my cloesest so far is Boise, Idaho. Gotta get to Portland to see my father-in-law’s old command, the USS Blueback.
Part of the reason why more Americans aren’t as familiar as they could be is that we just don’t take vacations like the Europeans. A lot of time it’s the finanicial pressures. I always took all of mine. There’s even a parody commercial that’s been running on Saturday Night Live about a childrens movement to get their parents to take vacation and take them somewhere, they’re bored. At least I think it’s a parody. It very well could be real.[:-^]
Mike - I don´t want to hi-jack this thread, but now, being unable to travel for health and financial reasons, I live from the memories I have from those travels and tours which I was able to do in my younger years. For many years in the past century, Germans were known to be the #1 travellers, only recently overtaken by the Japanese and now the Chinese. Wherever you´d go, you´d bump into Germans. In the 1940´s all those travels were organized by “Adolf-Tours” and rather involuntary relocations, but the habit remained in more peaceful terms.
Although, back in 1974, travelling to the US was still an expensive venue, I met Germans also on that trail from Durango to Silverton. 4 years later, I went to Oahu, only to find out, that Waikiki Beach was populated by my countrymen and -women. How awful!
The United States is a beautiful country, and we have a lot of different sights. Hawaii (the Big Island) has nine out of the eleven climate zones. The mountains of West Virgina are wonderful. There is the Grand Canyon (I have seen it from a plane, but not from the ground yet). California has excellent scenery. And probably the most pristine state, the last frontier, Alaska (have not been there yet).
I have been to Germany, and it is also a beautiful country. The natural beauty, and the ancient architecture is amazing.
When I rode the C&Trr, we stayed in Chama a couple miles from the loco facilities. As Mike said, they were pretty open and you could wander thru them and actually walk on tracks and touch the ancient cars.
The ride was a real “go back in time” event, and when going up grades you felt the loco(s) with their “I think I can” chuffing.
Riding the D&S was more a touristry thing, with the scenery second to none.
As the original poster of this thread, I have no problem with whatever meandering direction it may take. I spent 2 years in Germany (Deutschland) on the Government plan and look back with the fondest of memories of your wonderful country Sir Madog! How wonderful it was to return there, even if it was only for a few days last summer and am considering a tour next fall to southern Germany (where I was stationed).
I may have visited the Grand Canyon when very young and so, do not remember doing so. However, the wife and I spent two wonderful days there last fall and have to say seeing this wonderful place rates as one of the highest on my bucket list and to anyone who hasn’t seen it, I have to say you must, as for certain, I will be returning! There are things to do and places to see in our own states here in the U.S. that never seem to get done.
Certainly a self-driven trip to Colorado to follow the Narrow Gauge Circle would be a great trip and I would love to spend a couple weeks in Colorado doing just that. The Bus Tour I just took covered many other things that I’ve always wanted to see. We visited Mesa Verde and saw a few of the Ancestral Puebloan dwellings there, visited Los Alamos National laboratory, Santa Fe N.M., Ancestral Puebloan ruins at Aztec New Mexico and the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, among many other things we did.
When I got back into Model Railroading, I found that the Narrow Gauge locomotives used on the D&S and the C&T Scenic where amongst the nicest looking steam locomotives ever produced and so my interest in Narrow G
NP2626 - that trip from Durango to Silverton kindled my interest in narrow gauge model railroading. I remember how impressed I was by those K-36´s being bigger than the standard gauge locos I was used to from my country!
