Sorry to break the fascinating tangent thread, but back to reality. The crew from Silverton came back about 6:30 with the Big Al and a flat. Pete Maisel reports this is the biggest slide he has seen in the canyon, but that they made good progress today. Evan Buchannan was running Big Al and thinks they may be able to clear the line enough to get the 2 trains back to Durango tomorrow evening, but it is too soon to predict accurately. Pete says the river did dam up and water from the river was covering the tracks. The D-8H that went down this morning was Pete's, not the one that belongs to the county. Pete also owns the Bent Elbow restaurant in Silverton. A picture of them tieing up at the station this evening is here:
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Fritz