Re: Interesting track on the D&S

This section of track is just north of Tacoma where the canyon narrows and the track hugs the side of the river. There was about a half mile or so of heavily damaged track here.

We had heard in Silverton of the "devastation" of the track in the canyon, and heard rumors that the D&RG was not going to repair the track. This was when Gus Aydelott was president of the railroad, so we took it on ourselves to see first hand. We hiked down from Molas Lake to above Elk Park and walked the line to Rockwod. The section I photographed was the worst and we were relieved to see work taking place as shown in the photos. Somewhere I have the final figures for all that work and it was surprisingly small, something like $125,000. But it was the excuse that the railroad used to place the branch up for sale. Aydelott made a special trip to Durango to make that announcement in a meeting held at the Strater Hotel. He warned that the "next" time there would be no repairs but an abandonment--and that eventually lead to Charlie Bradshaw coming forward to buy the line some 10 years later.

On that trip were my wife, Johnnie Siegfried, his wife Ruth, Allen Nossaman, and John Ross.