Re: Durango & C&TSRR & Chama Snow 12-24-08

bill ramaley Wrote:
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> Both Chama and Durango have lots of snow this
> year. The snow is piling up all over. But,
> remember the D&SNGRR trains are running in the
> snow. On Tues (12/22) a MOW special was running
> ahead of the regular Cascade Train. The MOW
> derailed at 32nd and so was 1/2 hour delayed while
> digging ice out of the street crossing. Still the
> Cascade train went OK. Today (Christmas), the snow
> is coming down hard and we expect a foot or so to
> be added to the pile. We are not running today,
> but I expect we're planning to go to Cascade in
> mid-day and take Santa Claus back to the North
> Pole in the evening.
> The locomotive pushing snow is a beautiful
> sight, but we've already had more than I need this
> year.
> I have not been to Silverton in several weeks,
> but surely they have a vast whiteness all over the
> land.
> Last winter we had a snowslide near Tacoma.
> Because of avalanches and slides, both past and
> potential, the passengers are warned that they
> should stay close to the train as Cascade because
> at reboarding time the engineer is only going to
> blow 4 soft blasts on the whistle. I don't know
> of a case where the locomotive whistle actually
> set off a slide, but I guess it could happen.
> Incidentally, if you drive the highways you may
> notice some signs refer to avalanches and some to
> snowslides. Here's my version of the distinction
> between terms:
> slough -- a very small run of snow, narrow and
> quickly stopping. Maybe 6 feet wide and a hundred
> feet long, max. Probably not enough to bury
> someone (although such a burial has happened)
> snowslide -- max of 50 yards and distance of a
> half mile. Usually dangerous.
> avalanche -- bigger than a snowslide. Can
> easily destroy buildings and deadly.
> I have heard that the early Silverton miners,
> from the Tyrol and other mountainous parts of
> Italy and Austria, also distinguished between
> snowslides and avalanches. The latter being
> extreme events.
> No doubt other people have other distinctions
> between the terms.


Bill the way it looks right now I wouldn't get tired of it yet if I was you. IMHO the pretty and the moisture is good enough to overcome the bad.