Aug 27: The Durango & Silverton RR - 1

Durango, CO, is a large and picturesque town of around 19,000 people at 6,500 ft asl, where I'll spend two nights. I'm booked in the Parlor Car on the 9:30 steam-hauled departure on the Denver & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad from Durango, running 45 miles to Silverton (a designated National Historic District) and back. Happily, the Parlor (American spelling) Car is the hind-end vehicle on the 15-car train, so we 20 passengers have our own rear-end platform from which to observe and photograph the train ahead and the passing vista. I won’t attempt to cover in detail everything about this tourist railroad, as their website is available and well worth a look.

Durango, CO, was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (later to become the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad) in 1880, as part of that railroad’s extensive narrow-gauge network pushed into the Colorado mountains, and built to carry out the diverse product of the (then) numerous mines that drove the state's historical mining booms. These mines produced gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, and molybdenum, but also coal, uranium, tungsten, and, to a lesser extent, beryllium, vanadium, iron, and lithium; mineral resources that have been central to Colorado's development. Whereas the rest of the D&RG rail system was built to the national Standard-Gauge (4 ft 8½ in between rails), a track gauge of just 3 ft was chosen for these remote-area rail routes, to facilitate more affordable construction of the sharp curvature and steep gradients required. The spunky little steam locomotives were built specifically for the mountainous narrow-gauge environment and are actually quite wide in measurement; for the engine crew the cab environment is not cramped. To provide for the skinny 3-foot track gauge and still have a locomotive with boiler and pistons large enough for the task, the running gear (wheel-sets) is mounted inside the locomotive frame rather than outside as is more usual with steam locomotives. The valve gear and motion (pistons and drive rods) that drive the axles, though, is outside the frame and highly visible.

This narrow-gauge railroad arrived in Durango in 1881, and construction of the line to Silverton began immediately. By mid-1882, the track to Silverton was completed, and the train began hauling both freight and passengers. Although the line was constructed primarily to haul mineral ore from Southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, passengers soon realised it was the view that was truly precious. After the industry had declined, and the Rio Grande RR had abandoned the route, it was eventually purchased by a private entrepreneur. The historic train has therefore been in continuous operation since 1882, carrying passengers behind steam and (sometimes, now) diesel locomotives and other rollingstock indigenous to the line. In my view, it is absolutely a world-class Tourist & Heritage rail product (and I’ve been on a few).

My abiding interest in these narrow-gauge railways is as much about the infrastructure engineering—the locomotive archaeology and how the challenges of the local geography have been overcome—as it is about the picturesque little trains themselves.

The D&SNGRR runs 45.4 miles each way between Durango and Silverton along the Animas River—one of the last free-flowing rivers in the entire western United States—during their summer season May-October, climbing 3,000 ft on a maximum 2.5% (1-in-40) grade on the northbound run. Shorter winter trips, when the entire route cannot be traversed due to snowdrift constraints and the avalanche and rockslide danger, are also provided. The route along the Animas, which rises high in the San Juan Mountains and ends in a confluence with the San Juan River in New Mexico, boasts striking canyon scenery. Throughout the season, the river will rise from around 400 cubic feet per second in April, to over 6,000 cfs at peak snowmelt runoff in June and will mellow out again in September. The train crosses the river five times on its journey to Silverton, offering spectacular views from both sides of the train. It passes fertile farmlands, follows an old stagecoach road, passes a remote hydro power plant (still-operating, they say, with its original turbines and generators), old mining camps, climbs around spectacular elevated cliff-top shelves, and is in the shadow of peaks reaching over 14,000 feet, often with year-round snow! Every summertime train is followed (at a safe distance) by a fire patrol crew on a track speeder who will extinguish any lineside fire started by the locomotive. This fire danger is mitigated by the railroad’s current program of converting their steam locomotive fleet from coal to oil (they use recycled motor-vehicle, restaurant, and industrial oil). I don’t know what the difference in ejected particulate matter is, but--as with coal-burning locomotive operation--the emissions from the stack remain reliant on the fireman’s competence.

Wildlife (all of it elusive) that can apparently be seen includes deer, elk, black bear, bighorn sheep, mountain lions and moose as well as eagles, hawks, osprey, geese, squirrels, marmots and fox. We see one bear (ambling across a grassy field about a half mile away), a deer or two and some large birds that no-one was able to identify.

After departing Durango, the ride follows the river all the way, mostly through aspen and Douglas fir in the lower elevations, with Ponderosa pine also common. Higher elevations feature more specialised mountain flora like a spruce type, subalpine fir, and something a car host called Limber pine (the name coming from the species’ exceptionally flexible twigs, which can even be tied into a knot without breaking - a characteristic that helps it survive in harsh, windswept environments). There is a fairly brief but spectacular portion of trackage around a couple of canyon bluffs about 400 ft above the river.

The train runs into the centre of Silverton village , a tourist and skiing mecca, and there is time for return-trip passengers to visit one of many cafes and restaurants for lunch, before the train (which has been turned in its entirety via a wye track, so that all return-trip passengers get the canyon views regardless of which side of the train they’ve been seated on) departs for Durango. There is a full snack and booze service on board by personable car hosts who ensure the passengers are aware of where they are at all times, the history of the line, and a bit of the technical side of Colorado narrow-gauge railroading. There is also a ‘restroom’ (as they call them over here) on the car.

I didn’t get all the photos I’d like to have, as it’s sometimes difficult to be ready for a passing view and to beat other foamers to that rear platform. The car windows, though, can be opened halfway, so if you're ready, point-and-shoot photos can still be snapped. One also tends to get into animated conversation with other pax, and photograph opportunities are thus sometimes missed.

I recommend the trip.Les mer