Re: Salida Porter -- 20" or 24" gauge?

I have a story about the locomotive and the park in Salida.

In the early 1960s, when I was about 12 or 13, we made a family vacation trip from Southern California to see relatives in Nebraska. Along the way we also visited an older cousin that was a teacher in a community north of Denver. On return we traveled through Yellowstone and Las Vegas

My mother laid out the trip, and made motel reservations, etc. We traveled through Colorado with overnight stops in Durango, Salida and (I think) Greely. After breakfast in Salida we gassed up the car at a gas station across from the park. I crossed the highway to photograph the locomotive and then returned.

Another car pulled up next to us and we were greeted by the church secretary of the church we attended in Pasadena. She and her husband we traveling westbound and saw me run across the road! Small world.

Brian Norden

P.S. After Salida we went north to Leadville and then east through the Eisenhower Tunnel to the Denver area and I was given an hour or two at the Colorado Railroad Museum while the rest of the family did something else. The 346 was steamed up and switching cars around -- neat!!!
P.P.S. No extra day in Durango to ride the train. But, mom took me to the station to see the train leave while dad and my brother slept-in. Then went north to Montrose and east through Gunnison.