Re: Silverton Northern Enginehouse Photos

These struck me as new pictures as well. There are similar views in the Rainbow Route, and other photos show the same general scene with the tender sitting there. But I've never seen a good view of the structure to the right of the engine house before. It looks like it is built out of railroad ties or bridge timbers. The shed to the left is still struggling to stand, but the roof is caved in and the south wall is collapsed. We do have vague intentions of rebuilding that particular shed.

Another picture of this same scene, perhaps taken by the same person, is in Duane Smith's "The Legenday Line," on page 64 (Published by the D&S Railroad, 1999 and 2005). This picture is from the Silverton archive. This is not that good of a book, and certainly not one of Duane's better efforts, but it does have some photos I haven't seen before.

I don't have a copy of the Rainbow Route handy to verify if these are the same photos. Since the Rainbow Route may never again be printed, I'd suggest getting a copy now if you don't have one. The negatives for this book were donated last month by Dell McCoy to the San Juan County Historical Society, and the entire book resides in 3 large custom wood
boxes that include color separations, and stripped up page flats, along with the folding dummies and some related artwork. Dell placed a publishing restriction on the donation. Dell estimated that he has printed about 25,000 copies of the Rainbow Route since the original publication back in 1975. In case you may be wondering, Dell has already scrapped the film for all his other books and I think the Rainbow Route is the only one to survive except for maybe the most recent books done digitally.

Fritz



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2010 03:31PM by Fritz Klinke.