Nice ride on the Silverton

Last week I made a quick trip to the D&S and C&TS. The timing was driven by some free airline tickets and a desire to see how the D&S was operating with Rockwood as a base. On Thursday I rode the second train. I had a very nice trip riding in the Knight Sky (a Silver Vista clone) and the D&S has adapted quickly to their recent problems. The trip was to the usual high standards of the D&S, and the bus connection was well handled. The D&S is good at providing some unexpected nice touches, like the souvenir canvas bag that I took back to my wife, and the nice muffins and cookies on the train. The D&S crews are very friendly. One interesting bit of trivia I picked up is a week or two ago one of the trains had an all female crew, except for the engine. D&S has been hiring women as brakemen and firemen, and I guess at least one has been promoted to conductor, but apparently no women engineers yet. Rockwood was a very busy place, although as Jerry Day has commented previously, switching has largely become a regular routine. Between the two trains, motorcars, and track work there is a lot to watch. The day I rode I mostly sat back and enjoyed the ambience and the scenery. Friday morning I spent a couple of hours at Rockwood taking pix before heading to Chama for a very brief visit.





In the above view you can see the burned mountainside in the background. In this area the fire burned right down to the highway and it must have been a scary time for the folks who live east of the highway. But even on the westside of the highway you can see green patches where fire fighters successfully defended structures.



A new inspection pit was finished while I was there. I asked why they didn't use the old pit that had been built for the motorcar and the answer was even though it is fairly sturdy they did not want to put the entire weight of an engine on it, and this pit is much shorter.



The wye is getting a lot more use than it probably ever has so it is also getting a lot of attention from the track crew.



All in all D&S seems be dealing with things pretty well and I think the customers are still getting their money's worth. Hopefully things can get back to normal sooner rather than later, but when you look at all the flood damage along the highway it is not hard to imagine what needs to be done to put the railroad back together up the hill. The actual washout area is not readily accessible to I did not try.

JBWX