Today Jack and I hiked the Purgatory trail from the Durango ski area to Cascade to catch 493 coming up the Animas canyon. Things didn't go exactly as planned. I had figured on 2 hours for the 4.5 mile hike but Jack found too many interesting things to sniff out, so the hike took almost 3 hours. No problem - the scenery on the hike is spectacular, but it seemed a bit too late to make it to the Concrete Wall, so I set up at a viewpoint near the east switch of the Cascade wye. In the Animas canyon the fall colors are still outstanding - at their peak - but hard to get into the scene along with the train in the wye area. So we waited -and waited- but no train. Almost an hour after the expected arrival time, I finally concluded that the train was likely cancelled, and we headed for the Animas River trail bridge to start our return hike. Just as we were getting to the bridge, here came exhaust beats from a hard working steamer. We ran back to main track and just caught 493 with a long train.

This was the view I had been aiming for - 493 bursting out of the shadows - but for nearly an hour no train came



Sprinting back to trackside, I barely managed to catch 493 coming up the grade



Here 493 is backing into the wye for the return run to Rockwood



493 is on the east leg of the wye. The train turning operation went very quickly as no passengers were let off, and the crew has managed this routine many times this summer. Kyle Colley who was working as brake man told me the delay was caused by waiting for a group of passengers at Rockwood.





I for one was glad that we hadn't gotten further up the trail when 493 came unexpectedly. One of the benefits of the long wait was that most of trail was in the shade by the time we started the return climb, and we enjoyed much cooler conditions on this sunny day as a result.