History repeating itself

Remember the Animas River Railway? July 1987. The D&S acquired this custom built railcar to offer "local" service to hikers, fishermen, rafters, kayakers, and anybody else who wanted to ride the train to various points between Rockwood and Elk Park. It relieved the steam trains of the need to make the local stops. Operation was dubbed the Animas River Railway so the the D&S could still claim to be 100 percent steam powered. I vaguely remember a very pleasant ride through the canyon in the trailer. Have no recollection of what a ticket cost. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case might be) the motor car turned out to be very unreliable and the service was discontinued after a year or two. The motor car still is at Durango and reportedly occasionally is used as a switcher. The trailer was converted into an open car for use on the regular steam trains. The White Pass purchased a similar car which I believe had similar unreliability problems.

JBWX