A freezing morning for the Silverton Appreciation Train

Until a few years ago, the DSNG ran a Silverton Appreciation train the day after the last regular run in late October. The train left Silverton at 8 am and gave riders from Silverton 2 1/2 hours to explore Durango. Tickets were in the order of 25 dollars for the roundtrip, and Ridgway was in the "locals" area, so I rode once, and chased once. The great thing was that this train offered totally different light conditions compared to trains starting from Durango, and this only happened once a year. To get to Silverton for the early morning departure, the train left Durango about 3 am as a deadhead move, and got to Silverton before the first sun reached the town. Boarding was at the depot rather than in town.

Here are some video snapshots of the final Silverton Appreciation deadhead train exiting the Animas Canyon on that freezing morning