Re: LIttle Mudhen

I, too, have talked to railroaders from Lathrop's era and not long after who dispute some of his "tales." There is no question that incidents were fictionalized, names changed, credit falsely taken. Unfornately, few other railroaders of that era wrote down their reminisences or had anyone else chronicle them--so, what we have are a few books like Lathrop's to give a first-hand account of that era. There are a number of narrow-gaugers from the '30's-60's that are now gone--I wish I (or someone) had the time to interview them and chronicle that history before they passed away.

What makes operations like the C&TS and D&S so important is that they provide a living link to that era (and people) long gone. You don't get that from some "stuffed and mounted" locomotive somewhere, or from riding some 2 mile tourist "trinket" excursion in the middle of suburbia. The D&S (at least in the upper Animas canyon) and the C&TS are the "real deal," with equipment AND countryside that has not changed a whole lot in 75 years. It is quite unfortunate that the lower reaches of the D&S (from Durango to Rockwood) have turned into "mountain suburbia." That really diminishes the historical flavor of that trip. At least it redeems itself in the upper canyon. Hopefully, the kind of crappy development that has occurred along the C&TS around Los Pinos will be limited to there--the rest of the trip is still through pretty much unspoiled country that harkens back to the railroad's early days. And, the yard in Chama--how much better can it get than that?