Thanks for the correction, Patrick. I knew that the blowdown was to clear sediment but spaced on the proper name. That nightime photo from the SP is awesome. The photo below is of one of the K-28s blowing down steam at the high bridge over the Rio de las Animas just upstream of the highline, taken from a few cars back. This is from a 2019 backpacking trip into the Weminuche Wilderness. The railroad still makes a couple of flag stops for hikers, flyfishers, and boaters.
While the D&S hauls only tourists, it, like the many other tourist lines in the world, are the only way many folks can see and experience steam. These lines are also generally pretty open and welcoming for folks to come and take photos. Through college and my 20’s, various adventures including geology field camp and outdoor pursuits brought me through Durango regularly. I usually dropped by the depot and roundhouse in the early evening to watch the process of putting the engines in the stable for the night. The staff were always accommodating. A couple of photos below from the Durango terminal.
K-28 476 pulls into Durango at the end of its daily run.
K-36 481 takes a spin on the turntable before heading into the roundhouse for the evening.
It wasn’t meant as a correction, Casey.
The muffler photo on the Pacific is a screenshot blown up from the 1949 movie White Heat. Hard to think of a film that has better actual steam era film than this one. The blowdown goes wrong in a terrible scene at the end. What’s funny is that the engine has the blowdown muffler, but the blowdown in the disaster scene shoots sideways so maybe the engine could do it either way
https://www.tcm.com/video/296072/white-heat-1949-changing-engineers/
That photo is one by the very famous photographer Richard Steinheimer, “called the Ansel Adams of Railroad photography.” No one did steam night shots better than he did.
Here’s one of my favorites of his;
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Casey, Rudy was a great cheff/ Iwas just the dish-washer, and happy to be useful. The four of us invited a middle-aged lady,(Martha Wilson, I think) to be our guest. She was our group’s “daisy-picker.” and I may find a slide of her doing that with the train as background. Meanwhile:
When I rode the D&S in 2012, the train made a stop at Tall Trees resort to drop off a few items. I assume they were getting some revenue for the service.
My train was hauled by 481.
