Re: D&RGW Durango-Silverton train desination

That was one special I didn't see, but from a prototype view, setting the boxcars out at Elk Park negates the true realism of trying to recreate a true Silverton Mixed. But it was fun as long as there was a sympathetic ownership of the railroad who would tolerate such things. The standard fare for the past number of years on recreated mixed trains has the same drop bottom, flat car, one or two, possibly three box cars, never a high side gondola, and a caboose. The two box cars that contain the wrecking equipment and tackle are kept up and several others besides the lcl cars. This string of box cars still went up empty, to Elk Park, and still returned empty, I'm not sure about the reference to the Sunnyside running full blast as the mine shipped nothing in or out by rail in 1982--it may have been more about turning the train on the Silverton wye with all those box cars plus it made for a longer hike for the passengers after the train arrived.