D&S Protection-Related to A&M mishap

On September 12th, 2014 My wife and I rode the Knight Sky roundtrip from Durango to Silverton. Our car was the next to the last one on the train.
During the trip up Hermosa Hill I chatted a little with the brakeman/conductor....I believe his name was Dillon. Anyway when we stopped at Tank Creek he got off and went back to the back of the train with his protection stuff. Later I asked him, "Don't you have radios?".
He replied that they did use radios, but that they liked to flag the back anyway just to be doubly safe.
Now later in the day there was a delay at Needleton Tank on the return trip. The grate shaker apparently was stuck open and we were laying some of the fire on the ties between the rails. My wife noticed the smell of creasote burning before we even stopped. So the crew worked on this for several minutes. Back behind the train was Dillon at his post protecting the rear of our train. Now remember the second train is only about 45 minutes behind ours, so knowing he was there was reassuring.
I believe they do this on the C&TS, but not sure, as I did not witness what went on back there during the trip I rode.
Also in the morning we had stuck brakes on one of the coaches on the D&S and it delayed us by 20 minutes. D&S made an announcement on the depot speaker that every effort was made to make the trip safe!!! It's nice to have brakes when you are going downgrade for sure!!! Anyway these procedures did not go unnoticed by this rider!
Greg Scholl



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 01:45PM by Greg Scholl.