60 years of adventures with engine 476

Hiking in the upper Animas Canyon canyon area with James Parfrey this week, we repeatedly encountered engine 476 leading the first train of the day. The engine looked and sounded "good as new", and seemed to handle her train with ease. This reminded me that it has been 60 years since I first encountered 476 and that I had a fantastic first trip on the Rio Grande narrow gauge behind this engine. Actually, it almost didn't happen. In the summer of 1959 my family made a vacation trip from Alamogordo, New Mexico, to Rocky Mountain National Park where the chief objective was to take hiking trips in that grand alpine area. Steam trains were not on the family agenda, although they were on mine. On the return trip to New Mexico we encountered our first steam at Granby, where a loop track offered a miniature live-steam train ride.



Here I was finally able to convince my parents that we should make a detour to see a REAL steam train on the Rio Grande Silverton branch. On the way to Silverton there were more interesting detractions, such as engine 278 on display at Montrose. Not realizing that a very slow trip to Silverton lay ahead, we spent far too much time enjoying engine 278 before heading for the San Juan mountains.



It seems to me that the Red Mountain pass road was not fully paved in 1959 (although I could be wrong), in any case the drive took far longer than we had anticipated, and it appeared that we couldn't possibly get to Silverton in time to catch the train. Disappointment mounted as train time passed and Silverton was still not in sight, but hope returned as a steam and smoke plume appeared when we finally turned into Silverton. A steam engine was moving freight cars in the yard, and when we got to the station engine 476 was adding three gondolas to the string of passenger cars.
While the crew was getting the train ready for departure, my brother JR, then nearly 4 years old, got his first visit to a steam locomotive cab, and he vividly remembers the shock of the fireman opening the fire door and looking into the blazing coal fire (an experience he would frequently repeat in his two years of firing in South Africa many years later). I managed to buy a ticket before the train left and spent the next several hours on the platform of the first coach looking over the three drop bottom gons at 476 twisting and turning thru the canyon and rock ledges. Simply amazing, as I had no idea what to expect on this stunning ride into narrow gauge country. I did not have a camera with me, and by the time my parents met me at Durango the light was getting too dim for photos, although I am attaching one of several unsuccessful attempts at low-light photography, since it is my first photo of 476 and the Rio Grande narrow gauge.



The next morning we were free to wander around the yard and engine facilities as 476 was getting ready to take the next train to Silverton



At train time my brothers Wolf(gang) and Juergen (JR) posed by 476 with her mixed consist





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2019 08:06AM by Olaf Rasmussen.